Page 4905 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
We are striking from school to tell our politicians to take our futures seriously and treat climate change for what it is—a crisis.
They can show us that they care by taking urgent action to move Australia beyond fossil fuel projects … and get the job done of moving us to 100% renewable energy for all.
Climate change is one of the biggest problems facing the world and it isn’t being addressed quickly enough.
In Australia, education is viewed as immensely important, and a key way to make a difference in the world. But simply going to school isn’t doing anything about climate change. And it doesn’t seem that our politicians are doing anything, or at least not enough, about climate change either.
So, as our contribution to the changes we want to see, we are striking from school. We are temporarily sacrificing our education in order to save our futures from climate wrecking projects like the Adani coal mine.
Words fail me. It is really tragic that our kids feel like that. And it is more than tragic to find that yesterday our Prime Minister condemned the school strike for climate action. What universe is he living in?
I was going to quote a longer piece from some of the organisers, but I will not; I will just quote briefly from the words of Jean Hinchliffe, who is 14 years old. She goes to Fort Street High School, and she says, “Mr Morrison says that he does not support our schools being turned into parliaments.” She continues:
Maybe if the people in our parliament listened to the science and took action like those of us in school are, we wouldn’t have to resort to strike action like this. We’re sick and tired of politicians playing politics with our futures.
As the kids say, politicians—and that is us—must act. In our defence, in the ACT, we have started a process of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, aiming for a net zero by 2045. If the whole world did that, we might manage to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees, but it is more likely to be two or three degrees.
We have a long way to go, but I have to say that the most positive thing is that we have active, smart, compassionate kids who are doing all they can to stop climate change and have a safe climate future for themselves and for us. Thank you to all of them.
Valedictory
Light rail
MR MILLIGAN (Yerrabi) (6.30): I am grateful to have this opportunity to review the past 12 months as the local member for Yerrabi. As the shadow minister for sport and recreation, I am going to ask for your indulgence to review my performance and that of my team using some oarsome sporting puns. Bear with me.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video