Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week, the Labor government and the coalition teamed up to rush through the sea dumping bill purely for the benefit of Santos, Woodside and INPEX, in the face of all the evidence of global boiling, rising catastrophes and destruction. The Labor government has a clear message to the young people of Australia: 'Your future doesn't matter.' They are actively opening up coal and gas, which we know will accelerate global boiling. There are very good reasons why students around this country are standing up to yell and shout that their futures matter and that the ability for them to live and thrive on a safe planet matters. What did Labor do? The Prime Minister and the education minister laughed in their faces. Kids are worried about the future. They know that Labor's plan for more coal and gas will make global boiling worse.

While the Prime Minister and the frontbench laughed, the education minister mocked the idea that students should exercise their democratic right to protest and said he wanted them at school. We've grown used to Labor's cowardice in the face of the climate crisis, but telling kids that they should just shut up while the government continue to open up new coal and gas shows how hopelessly captured and out of touch the government are. If the government is going to ignore calls from young people to act on climate then young people should ignore the education minister and take to the streets on Friday. School Strike 4 Climate is this Friday. No new coal and gas!