WeRise · Pillar 7
Planet and Future
A future worth having.
Planet and Future connects climate, energy, water, nature, animal welfare and Australia’s role in the world. It asks how today’s choices can protect the conditions for a good life, here and beyond our shores, for generations to come.
What Planet and Future covers
Planet and Future is about the decisions that outlast us: how we power the country, how we care for water, land and farming, how we protect the living world and the animals we share it with, and how Australia acts as a neighbour and a citizen of the world.
Some damage can be repaired; other losses cannot be undone. An extinct species cannot be brought back by changing a budget. This pillar asks how to recognise lasting consequences early, while there is still room to make better choices.
The questions are practical as well as global. A household needs dependable energy, a farmer needs healthy soil and reliable water, and a coastal community needs a future it can plan for. Good decisions consider these needs together, including the people who face the costs of change.
What we pass on begins with what we choose now.
How Australia has seen the planet and its future
Australia’s environmental history includes decisions to protect places whose value extends beyond an immediate return. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was established in 1975. In Tasmania, the campaign over the Franklin Dam culminated in protection of the river in 1983. These events brought questions about conservation, development and public responsibility into national debate.
Our responsibilities also extend beyond national borders. Australia was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945. International cooperation provides a way to address problems that no country can resolve alone, while requiring careful choices about how Australia uses its influence.
These histories are not a simple march towards better decisions. They reveal competing priorities, public campaigns and institutions learning to deal with consequences that extend beyond one place or one generation. Remembering that complexity makes today’s choices easier to examine honestly.
Planet and Future in everyday life
The questions now concern both direction and fairness. How can energy become cleaner while remaining dependable and affordable? How should water be shared between farms, towns and rivers? How can we protect habitats, improve the treatment of animals and act responsibly towards neighbouring countries?
Consider a town planning its next decades. Its water supply, homes, farms and local businesses cannot be planned in isolation. A change that helps one part may create pressure elsewhere. Asking who benefits, who carries the risk and what happens later is part of sound planning, rather than a reason to avoid change.
The same care belongs in Australia’s international relationships. Diplomacy, cooperation and respect matter alongside decisions made at home. This pillar opens those questions without pretending that one slogan can settle them. The linked policies carry the evidence and reform directions for each field.
Why these policies belong together
Climate, water and land, nature, animals and Australia’s role in the world share a concern with stewardship. Our communities and economy depend on the living systems around them. Decisions about resources also affect other people, including those who have little influence over the decisions themselves.
These policies think in generations rather than election cycles. They ask what we are handing on, not only what we can use now.
Start with Climate and Energy for the transition in how we power our lives, or Water, Land and Farming for the landscapes that sustain us. Nature and Biodiversity and Animal Welfare consider the living world and our responsibilities towards other creatures. Foreign Policy asks how Australia can be a constructive neighbour. Together, they connect local choices with wider consequences.
A future worth having is a responsibility we share.
The policies in this pillar
Five ideas, one inheritance. Pick the one you care about.
Climate and Energy
Better Than We Found It
What would it take to leave the country better than we found it?
Read the Climate and Energy policy →Water, Land and Farming
Stewards of Soil, Sea and Sky
Who speaks for the soil, the sea and the sky?
Read the Water, Land and Farming policy →Nature and Biodiversity
The Living Earth Project
What is a species worth once it is gone?
Read the Nature and Biodiversity policy →Animal Welfare
Our Fellow Travellers
What does the way we treat animals say about us?
Read the Animal Welfare policy →Foreign Policy
A Global Role Worth Playing
What kind of neighbour does Australia want to be?
Read the Foreign Policy policy →
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Last reviewed 9 October 2026 · Published by Atlas Media