Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Greens senators today.

Today, the Greens asked the government what it will do about fossil fuel companies gaining access to Australian school kids because a new report from Comms Declare identifies more than 260 fossil fuel linked industry programs, partnerships and sponsorships reaching children and young people right across the country. This is a concerted effort by coal and gas corporations to embed themselves in trusted institutions, funded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. They're trying to brainwash kids into buying their spin about the climate and their poisonous industry.

Having been a teacher for more than two decades, I find that appalling. Schools should be places where young people learn to think critically, ask questions and follow the evidence. But massive corporations have been allowed to enter Australian classrooms and use them as a platform for their propaganda. Coal and gas are cooking our planet and wrecking our kids' futures, and any honest account of the science would communicate that. It should outrage every parent to learn that there are lesson plans and educational programs being written not by educators and experts but by vested interests and big corporations.

Despite what Senator Walsh would have you believe, Labor has not fully funded public schools. Every single public school outside of the ACT receives less than its share of school funding, and that's 98 per cent of schools across the country. That's why teachers are stretched and are looking for help. But they shouldn't have to rely on corporations with sinister agendas to fill the gap left by Labor's underfunding.

Across regional Australia, communities know this pattern well. Fossil fuel companies put money into local sporting clubs and events in schools and then expect that sponsorship to buy social licence while they pollute, damage First Nations heritage and send enormous profits offshore. We cannot keep letting them get away with it. The Greens are calling for a ban on fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship and a parliamentary inquiry into fossil fuel industry influence in schools and other child centred settings. Students deserve facts, not fossil fuel spin.