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

I withdraw. It was a reaction. I withdraw. During the past weeks, I've heard from families and communities across this country whose children have been subjected to exactly this kind of influence. As I said, kids are being given gas company drink bottles and sun hats, and curriculum materials that diminish the role of fossil fuels in climate change while helping children learn how to write cover letters for jobs in the fossil fuel industry, and the same attention is not given to the renewables and regenerative energy industries that will actually build our jobs of the future. Teachers are reprimanded and even face the prospect of losing their jobs if they refuse to teach this fossil fuel propaganda. In the Northern Territory, Beetaloo Energy is sponsoring ice skating—of course! The joke writes itself because we know that many of these kids will never again see snow or ice or hit the ice rink. Thanks, Beetaloo Energy. That's very generous of you.

Let's be clear. An inquiry is crumbs. It is the bare minimum, but it matters. It matters to these families. It matters to these teachers. It matters to me. It matters to the Greens because Australian families deserve to know what is happening in their children's schools, in their sporting clubs and in their communities. Labor know that, and they want this to go away. Well, we've got news for them. This is not going away. They can vote against this inquiry. They can bury their heads in the sand. They can protect their relationships with the fossil fuel industry, but we're not letting this go. We won't let it go for the sake of our children or any child. They deserve an education based on evidence, not on propaganda. We won't let it go until fossil fuel corporations are out of our schools, early learning centres and sporting clubs and staying the heck away from our children.

I really want to say a huge thank you to Comms Declare for their report and for bringing this issue to light and surfacing it. Thank you. I know you won't let this go, and we are behind you. I want to thank the Australian Youth Climate Coalition for their work and for representing the generation that is being forced to live through the crisis they did not create. And I want to thank the teachers, the educators, developmental experts, parents and families who have stood up and said, 'This is not right.'

Labor, here's your choice. You can stand with families, children, educators and scientists, or you can stand with your coal and gas donors again—the lobbyists, the polluters and the climate change deniers. I know which side I'm on. We, the Greens, know which side we're on. I've seen Labor members squirming in their seats when they hear this stuff. You've got an opportunity to draw a line in the sand. This is about our kids, our children, and Australian families. Stand with the families and vote for this inquiry. Vote how the people who elected you expect you to vote.