Climate Action Merribek: people in Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner and Glenroy wanting action on climate change

Brunswick MP calls for #springst politicians to attend #globalClimatestrike

September 18, 2019 at 9:37 am John Englart Leave a comment

Our Brunswick MP, Dr Tim Read has urged all members of state parliament to join school students and the many thousands of other people for the Global Climate Strike on Friday September 20.

We look forward especially to seeing those MPs who have signed the climate emergency declaration in attendance at the rally. This includes Dr Tim Read (Brunswick), Lizzie Blandthorn (Pascoe Vale), Lily D’Ambrosio (Mill Park), Dr Samantha Ratnam and Fiona Patten (Northern Metro Region)

Hansard Transcript 10 September 2019:

GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE
Dr READ (Brunswick) (13:29): On Friday next week thousands of Victorians and millions around the world will join striking school students in the Global Climate Strike.

I urge all members of this Parliament to join them at the rally in Spring Street to listen, to understand their sense of urgency, to learn what we have been doing wrong and what we now need to do. These young adults demonstrating next week know they will live their entire lives in a warming world, their lives punctuated by the consequences of global heating like seeing the Queensland rainforest ablaze in the first week of September.

So before going to the rally down Spring Street, let us all just agree to tell the truth about climate.

It will get worse before it gets better.

Victoria is still burning 1 million tonnes of coal a week, logging native forests, building motorways and hooking up new homes to gas.

We are not preparing for a hotter, drier future.

We are not even talking about carbon draw down.

Good luck at the rally, and afterwards back here in Parliament let us make up for past inaction and do as much as we can to turn this thing around.

In a positive move the Labor government has given state public servants the green light to attend the climate rally using ‘flexible working arrangements’.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet sent out an email saying a number of public servants wanted to attend the 2pm march and could ask for “flexible working arrangements”, according to a report in The Age newspaper.

In the state’s Upper House, Dr Samantha Ratnam from Northern metro Region also spoke on the need to support the global climate strike:

Hansard Transcript 10 September 2019:

GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE
Dr RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (13:47): The courageous young people who are bringing the world together on 20 September for the Global Climate Strike want three things: one, no new coal, oil and gas projects, including the Adani mine; two, 100 per cent renewable energy generation and exports by 2030; three, fund a just transition and job creation for fossil fuel industry workers and communities.

These young people are pleading with us to protect the earth that they will inherit, because the world looks set to be trashed by the current generation in charge, including many of those sitting in this chamber today. Queensland is reeling from catastrophic fires that have begun in spring, burning through rainforest. Hurricanes have ripped through Central America, and the world is starting to join the dots.

These weather extremes were predicted by climate scientists over a decade ago. They warned us that if we did not bring down carbon emissions this is the future we would face.

These young people are right to strike. They want to mobilise like we have never seen before because their futures and their lives are at stake. Imagine facing a world of rising temperatures that will affect all life, where rising sea levels will wipe out whole island countries, where mass extinction events will risk over a million species of plant and animal life, where cities will become unlivable heat islands.

Imagine knowing that the adults in charge did nothing to stop this. Imagine knowing instead that those same adults pandered to the fossil fuel lobby and their corporate mates as they shouted down the young people who dared to care. Step into their shoes for a minute and you will get it. All power to you, climate strikers. You are our hope and our future, and I will see you next Friday.

Entry filed under: Climate Emergency, news, rallies & protests.