Australia’s biodiversity is in trouble. The UN global assessment report painted a stark picture: the decline of our natural support systems means that human society is in danger. According to the report, nature is being destroyed at a rate tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10 million years. All of this is largely because of human activity. Yet Australia’s political landscape is scarred by bureaucratic mismanagement and political indifference. The first mammal to become extinct due to climate change was Australian – the bramble cay melomys. The UN report’s authors say that the rate of extinction can be slowed and possibly turned around but it needs urgent, transformative change