Hundreds of Aussie musicians front campaign to urge music fans to Vote Climate

Big name stars aren’t waiting for the Prime Minister to call the 2025 election as they launch their own campaign for the votes of music fans.

Missy Higgins remembers being a “pretty anxious kid”, worried about the depletion of the ozone layer caused by the emission of chlorofluorocarbons.

Now the musician fields questions from her nine-year-old son Sam about why there are still petrol-fuelled cars.

The Scar singer is one of hundreds of Australia musicians who have jumped the gun ahead of the 2025 Federal election to encourage fans to Vote Climate.

The No Music On A Dead Planet campaign urges fans to ask local candidates and political parties ahead of the election if they will make the climate crisis a priority at the polls by “supporting 100 per cent renewable energy, saying no to nuclear, and ending government support for fossil fuels.”

The Green Music Australia initiative also aims to push young voters to register with about 10 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds yet to enrol.

Higgins said it was a tough gig trying explain to her son and daughter Luna that “sometimes politicians don’t have the future in mind because they are just trying to get re-elected.”

Missy Higgins launches No Music On A Dead Planet campaign. Picture: Supplied.

“I am talking to them about trying to do everything we can in our home life and trying to do everything we can to convince our leaders that this is important,” she said.

“My son just really couldn’t wrap his head around why climate change isn’t treated like a worldwide emergency and we should be changing everything.

“He’s like ‘Why are we still driving petrol cars then? And why are we doing this and that?’”

More than 200 artists have already signed up to the campaign, including Lime Cordiale, Jimmy Barnes, Amyl and the Sniffers, G Flip, Tame Impala and the members of Midnight Oil.

Australian musicians, promoters, crew and fans have experienced the impact of climate change on their gigs with more than 50 festivals cancelled since 2015 due to extreme weather including fires and floods.

About 26 gigs were cancelled in south-east Queensland and northern NSW due to Cyclone Alfred including shows by Green Day, AFI, Ziggy Alberts and Brad Cox.

Lime Cordiale are also backing the Vote Climate election campaign. Picture: Supplied.

Green Music Australia head Berish Bilander said Billie Eilish fans signed up to learn more about the campaign at their stand at her recent concerts here, and were keen to use their social media might to enlist other artists to the No Music On A Dead Planet movement.

He said musicians had always been at the forefront of cultural change.

“There’s hundreds of Australian artists, and 4000 artists globally, behind this campaign across all demographics and they know their audiences are with them,” he said.

“They are going to sing it out pretty loud in the lead-up to the election, and politicians have got to stop wasting time and do everything they can to get us back on course for climate action.”

Green Music Australia CEO Berish Bilander said climate change is severely impacting live music. Picture: Supplied.

Higgins, like many of her peers, has offset flights, booked hybrid or EVs to get to gigs and banned plastics backstage for several years.

The long-time climate activist said music fans should keep the pressure on candidates about their climate action policies by emailing them, calling their electorate offices or messaging them on social media.

“We should make it known to them that they should put our planet first, put climate issues first, if they want our vote,” she said.

“We need to show our leaders what we care about because ultimately that’s what they want. They want to be the candidate that we will vote for. And that’s a really powerful thing to remember.

“There’s a lot of influence you can have if you keep putting pressure on these politicians by emailing them regularly to keep reminding them that the climate is the most important thing right now, because not only will there be no music on the planet, there’ll be nothing else on the agenda on a dead planet. It’s got to be number one.”

Lime Cordiale’s Oli and Louis Lembach said musicians were well aware of the cost of living pressures affecting their fans but “the climate crisis must be in our minds with every choice we make.”

“There’s a lot of shit going on in this world but at the end of the day we’d still like to be living on it,” they said.

Green Music Australia will share tools and information for fans on the campaign via the No Music On A Dead Planet website.

Originally published as Hundreds of Aussie musicians front campaign to urge music fans to Vote Climate