Mining firms worked to kill off climate action in Australia, says ex-PM

Kevin Rudd says industry still has huge influence in a country beset by climate policy torpor

• Why we need political action to tackle the oil, coal and gas companies - video explainer

The former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd says three of the world's biggest mining multinationals have run sophisticated operations to kill off climate action in Australia and continue to wield day-to-day influence over government through a vast lobbying network and an "umbilical" relationship with the Murdoch media.

Australia's climate policy paralysis has been ongoing for more than decade, from the Rudd Labor government's doomed attempt to bring in an emissions trading scheme in 2008, to the Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's failed attempt to introduce the national energy guarantee last year.