Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

Thank you. I am in this place, and my Greens colleagues are in this place, to protect children from corporate influence and to fight for this place to represent everyday people, not those corporate giants who purely exist to make profits. This is about making sure that our children are taught evidence and that they are taught by teachers with education and science based principles, not by industries trying to protect their reputations.

Our message to the fossil fuel industry is to get your dirty hands off our kids. Our message to the government, our urging to the government, is to please step up and take some responsibility here. We shouldn't have to be having this debate. We would not allow tobacco producers and the tobacco industry to teach our kids about health education. Why on earth are we letting the fossil fuel industry brainwash our kids? I say to the fossil fuel industry: leave your kids out of our marketing strategies and pay the tax on gas exports that this country is owed on our resources. There has to be a line in the sand. Surely all of us in this place can agree that our children deserve a fair and evidence informed education.

Debate interrupted.