For more than two decades scientists have been warning governments at all levels about the serious risks posed by climate change. For the last few years the issue has been prominently covered by the media and there has been a consistently strong public demand for action. Despite this, successive governments have struggled to develop and implement responses with climate sceptics and powerful industries able to delay action. Two factors are major contributors to the situation. First, climate change is by nature a 'wicked' problem and so is not readily amenable to conventional policy or planning solutions. Second, the governing institutions of Australia emerged in a very different context and were simply not designed to deal with such issues. Each of these factors will be dealt with in turn below. The paper then uses a case study of climate adaptation policies and plans that apply to the Gold Coast to illustrate the current situation. The final section looks at the difficult decisions that need to be taken and proposes a set of three strategies that might encourage more timely responses.