The publicity-shy Winton gave the remarks at the closing event of the Perth Writers Weekend, part of the city's annual Arts Festival, sponsored by Chevron.
He specifically took aim at Woodside Petroleum's Scarborough Gas Project, sanctioned late last year, to highlight that oil and gas companies were ramping up production despite knowing the threats their operations caused to the climate.
"Nobody is seriously expecting the fossil fuel industry to shut down overnight, but peak oil and gas interests aren't thinking of shutting down at all," he said.
"They're pushing hard to kick on to exploit more reserves, to drill more seabed, to frack more country and to unleash more of the CO2 and the methane already cooking our planet.
"Woodside's new Scarborough venture alone will release over a billion tons of pollution into the air we breathe.
"The gas industry put its fingerprints all over Australia's languid strollout towards a low carbon future. Its chieftains don't just suffer from cognitive distortion, they traffic in it."
Woodside and Chevron have declared they plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, however their plans have been attacked by climate and environmental groups as being insufficient and lacking in detail.
Winton described the level of control oil and gas companies had over Western Australia as "especially captivating", saying it has "become so internalised, it feels normal. In fact, half the time we're so punch drunk, it feels right".
Woodside sponsors several major sports, community and artistic events, including the WA Ballet Company, the WA Symphony Orchestra, The WA Youth Orchestra, The Surf Life Saving children's program, called "Woodside Nippers", and the Fremantle Dockers football team.
Winton was particularly critical of Woodside sponsoring a Perth Festival musical performance entitled "Becoming Ocean" which was inspired by climate change.
"That just shows you how normal it is, how safe the fossil giants still feel here in the wild west," he said.
"For who else in the corporate world, sailing so close to reputational oblivion, could feel that safe? and so confident? You reckon a brewery would put itself forward for a show about foetal alcohol syndrome? How about the tobacco industry sponsoring ventilators for lung patients?"
A Woodside spokesperson told Energy News that the company's sponsorship of WAYO and WASO was "helping develop our local talent, creating pathways for the next generation of gifted musicians".
"Our 30-year relationship with the Western Australian Youth Orchestras (WAYO) reached new heights in 2021 with the addition of a new partnership, connecting WAYO with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra," she said.
Woodside sponsors programs including the "Woodside Nippers".
Winton was also critical of Chevron continuing to be a leading sponsor of the festival, saying "to say I'm disappointed about this, might be to undersell the intensity of my dismay".
He emphasised that he was not criticising Perth artists for taking money from fossil fuel companies, but said the issue needed to be addressed, saying his remarks were in the "spirit of collegial reflection, not condemnation".
"You're falling for this old soft power ploy. It doesn't make us bad people, but it does make us chumps," he said.
"All around us every day financial institutions, super funds, shareholder groups and banks are withdrawing their patronage of the fossil fuel industry, because it's seen increasingly as a bad bet with looming stranded assets and in their view, it no longer passes the ethics test.
"So how is it that we in the arts community should show less creativity and moral imagination than bankers?"
Alongside artistic events, Chevron has committed funding to Western Australia's university sector, with at least one academic claiming its business interests were interfering with research.
A Chevron spokesperson told Energy News that Winton "is a cherished Australian author and we respect his right to express his opinions".
"The arts community has experienced particular challenges throughout the COVID-19 pandemic due to the postponement and cancellation of events," he said.
"At this difficult time, we are pleased to support Perth Festival, which provides an important opportunity for Australian artists to showcase their talents."
Greenpeace Asia Pacific CEO David Ritter told Energy News that artists from Perth and around the world are becoming increasingly vocal in demanding an end to oil and gas sponsorship of artistic events.
"The motivation of massive polluters like Woodside and Chevron in sponsoring arts, sporting and community activities is grotesquely cynical given that the business models of those same companies rely on expanding activities that are contributing to destroying the very basis for human civilisation," he said.
Perth Festival executive director Nathan Bennett reacted to the speech, saying it receives "support from a wide range of partners - including corporate sponsors, government supporters and philanthropists - that represent the scope of the Western Australian business sector".
"This support allows us to provide hundreds of thousands of Western Australians with world-class cultural experiences that otherwise would not happen."
