Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister inform the House how the 10,000 Teens campaign will see young Australian women take action on climate change? Why is it critical to take action now and start the move to a clean-energy future?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I very much thank the member for Greenway for her question. Earlier today I was able to go to the Ravenswood School and meet with young women who are engaged in the 10,000 Teens campaign. It is part of a broader campaign to bring together one million women to raise their voice about climate change.

Mr Fletcher interjecting —

I would have thought the member for Bradfield would want the views of his constituents to be heard in the Australian parliament. I talked to his constituents today and I am bringing their views to the Australian parliament. I would have thought he would be interested in the views of his own constituents. At Ravenswood today, I participated in an event that was about bringing together one million Australian women who will raise their voices on climate change, one million women who will take a pledge in their personal lives to cut the amount of carbon pollution that they generate—grandmothers and mothers, aunts and sisters, banding together to have their voices heard about the need to tackle climate change. And the 10,000 Teens campaign is about young women having their voice heard too, so that they can say to their mothers and grandmothers, to their aunts and to their older sisters: 'Thank you for taking action on climate change. We want our voice heard as well.'

Ravenswood is one of around 30 schools in New South Wales involved in the 10,000 Teens campaign. Through that campaign and more broadly around the Australian nation—in Sydney, in the outer suburbs and in regional towns—we are hearing Australians say they believe climate change is real and they want to see effective action on climate change. Effective action through pricing carbon, effective action through making the big polluters pay, is what this government stands for and it is what we will bring to the Australian parliament. What people do not want to hear is a whole lot of negativity, a whole lot of fear mongering, a whole lot of bitterness from a divided political party. What they want to hear is real solutions. I visit a lot of schools and I very much enjoy doing so. Whenever I go to schools, I talk to the kids about the partnership that we the adults in this community have with them. We tell them to study hard and we have to provide them with great schools to study in. We say to them: 'When you leave school, don't drift around. Get a job or go into that new educational opportunity'—and we have to do the right thing to make sure the economy is strong and they can get the benefit of that great new training opportunity. And on climate change they are saying to us: 'Please act to do the things that we need to do to cut carbon pollution in this nation.' I am listening to their voice, the government is listening to their voice, and we will act by pricing carbon.