ICYMI: Anjali is a leading climate activist, who is perhaps best known for leading a class action in the Federal Court of Australia, where she sought an injunction against the Australian Government and the Minister for the Environment for failing to consider the impacts of climate change, particularly on young people, when approving a coal mining permit.
The Federal Court found that the Minister did have a duty of care to avoid causing injury to young people while exercising her powers to approve a new coal project. The catch? The government appealed this decision, with the Full Court of the Federal Court reversing the initial decision – which means that the court found that the Minister does not have a duty of care to avoid causing harm when making decisions like approving a coal mining permit.
In 2025, Anjali is in no way backing down on her mission to establish a duty of care – and domestic legislation here in Australia that mandates the protection of the health and wellbeing of young people in the face of climate change (particularly with 2024 being officially the hottest year on record).
Together with her peers Jess Travers-Wolf, Hannah Vardy, and Daisy Jeffrey, Anjali is calling on the government to take action by launching a new open letter – addressed to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Minister for the Environment Tanya Plibersek, Minister for Climate Change Chris Bowen, and Minister for Youth Anne Aly.
“The responsibility to legislate this duty lies squarely with the Federal Parliament,” the letter states. “The case of Sharma v Minister for the Environment, in which eight Australian children argued that the government owes Australian children a duty to take reasonable care to protect them from climate change harm, found that this was a matter unsuitable for judicial determination. This task is now yours.”
Anjali told Missing Perspectives that the team landed on an open letter, saying that “the reason that we decided to run with an open letter is that we wanted to show open support for duty of care – and that it’s not a niche. We didn’t want it to fade into the ether. It’s something a lot of people widely accept, even people not directly involved with climate change, like Emma McKeon and Grace Tame.” Leading Australian public figures, including Lucy Turnbull, Tim Flannery, and Craig Foster AM have also signed the letter.
When Missing Perspectives caught up with Anjali this week, she said that while they’ve had incredible reception from the Australian public and the media, there’s been radio silence from the government (“from both sides,” Anjali says. “But we hope to hear something soon”).
Heading into an election year here in Australia, Anjali shares that she’s “hoping that the perspectives and the needs of current and future generations are given a spot in policy debates to a far greater extent than they have been. People under age of 18 can’t vote and that makes it easy for parties to discount the interests of this group. We’ve seen parliament plagued by the issue of ‘short term-ism.'”
So, as someone deeply invested in a cause that can be challenging, how does Anjali stay motivated on the tougher days when progress can feels slow?
“What I’m going to say sounds so cliche. I truly operate with the most amazing team around me, and we’re such close friends who run the duty of care campaign. We don’t just have business meetings, we have dinner parties and go on runs together,” she says.
“They’ve had my back throughout all of it. Particularly the hard stuff that comes as a person of colour in public spotlight. They’re always willing to pick up when i need help. It’s those girls that I celebrate with.”