“My career is pretty much destroyed”

The last few months have shown the extent of the tension between Australian journalists wanting to report accurately and honestly on Israel and Gaza and the media organisations that would rather silence them than attract what they perceive to be controversy.

A similar dynamic has been building for a long time within the climate movement. Activists who see support for Palestine as part of their broader work for climate justice have been banned from speaking publicly on the issue by the non-profits they work for, often to avoid negative media attention or a fear that donors will pull funding. Alex Kelly wrote about this in broad terms for Overland in December.

This has attracted very little public comment, as climate organisations have been largely successful at stopping their employees from speaking out. But in January, Kavita Naidu publicly resigned from her position as Senior Pacific Strategist at the Climate Action Network Australia, claiming she and other employees were pressured by CANA upper management into avoiding discussion of Palestine.

Kavita has a background in international human rights law but decided to move into climate work after seeing the scale of climate disasters in Fiji. Before starting at CANA in May 2023, Kavita worked for the United Nations Human Rights Office and led the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development’s climate justice program in Thailand. I spoke with Kavita earlier this week about her time at CANA, why she left and the problems plaguing Australia’s climate movement.