A 294-page Senate committee report has exposed coordinated climate misinformation campaigns using sophisticated bot networks, paid influencers, and astroturf community groups funded by anonymous sources. The findings reveal an information warfare campaign that may have reshaped Australia's political landscape.
The Senate Select Committee's report on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy, published last month, documents what it calls "The Integrity Gap" — pervasive disinformation warping public understanding of climate change.
The report reveals bots deployed specifically to spread climate falsehoods, and calls for powers compelling social media platforms to remove fake content and bot accounts. This followed submissions by the University of Queensland's Pro Bono Centre, which warned that bots were pushing "conspiratorial narratives" alongside standard climate skepticism, with platforms struggling to "keep pace with their sophistication and scale."
Most significantly, the report identifies bot accounts and networks of fake social media profiles that launched automated attacks on the Australian Greens in the weeks before the 2025 federal election. The party lost 75 percent of its lower house seats following what appeared to be coordinated assaults.
Mate, here's what the numbers show. The Greens went from a historic high to near-wipeout in one election cycle. While multiple factors contributed, the timing of coordinated bot attacks and what the Greens described as a suspiciously unified anti-Green narrative from mainstream media raises serious questions about information warfare in Australian democracy.
The report documents paid influencers and well-funded astroturf "community groups" propped up by dark money from anonymous sources. These operations create the appearance of grassroots opposition to climate action while obscuring their actual funding and coordination.
