The last serious debate in the Australian Parliament about some aspects of climate change was more than 10 years ago, when in 2009 the original Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was defeated in the Senate. Even so, the primary emphasis then was not on the science but on the economics, politics and personalities.

Why does Australia produce three times more CO2 emissions per capita than Britain and twice as much as New Zealand? Credit:Jonathan Carroll

In the following decade, the climate change issue has become both toxic and infantilised. Neither of the major parties has fully understood the science and Australia's role as a world outlier in carbon dioxide emissions.

There are a series of major questions that have never been asked within the Parliament or by the media. Ministers, and especially the Prime Minister, should be asked: