For more than a decade the climate wars have raged in Australian politics. In Canberra’s corridors of power, the nation’s most senior public servants have been there through it all. Usually they keep their thoughts private, but now several of these former mandarins, who have worked with the highest levels of government, are speaking out. They describe cases of flawed decision making and reveal how parties on all sides of the political spectrum have squandered important opportunities in pursuit of their short-term political interests. Many of them look back upon their time working with government with regret that they could not achieve more.