Climate Change Student Protest

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (15:32): As we get closer to the next federal election, it is clear that the response from Australian political parties to the climate emergency will be more significant than ever. Across the nation, Australians are increasingly frustrated at the lack of real action to reduce our emissions and to do our fair share in dealing with a worldwide threat to our environment, our economy and our societies. Australians are looking for leadership from the federal Liberal government and the state government, but they are not getting it.

More and more Australians are saying that they do not want new coalmines, they do not want fracking for gas and they certainly do not want drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight, which has appalling local consequences as well as the global climate implications.

In just a few months, most Australians will get to have their say at the ballot box, but what about those who are too young to vote? Last year, I moved a motion in parliament to congratulate school students who left their classrooms and went on strike to protest on the steps of state parliament about government inaction on climate change. As I told Parliament at the time, about 500 students participated in the 30 November strike and rally.

If we fast forward just 4½ months to 15 March this year, we saw that 5,000 students and other South Australians took part in the Adelaide rally alone. That is a tenfold increase. In over 100 places around Australia, students went on strike in far greater numbers than they had just a few months before. Young people are motivated and they are informed. As one of the students noted to a dismissive politician, 'If you don't want us protesting, either do your job properly or stop teaching us science, because the science of human-induced climate change is now beyond doubt.'

Young people know that we are in a climate emergency, and until they are old enough to vote they have to find other ways to get their message across. The young people who spoke at the Adelaide rally were articulate, they were passionate and they were determined that politicians should listen to their concerns. After all, many of these young people will still be alive in the year 2100, long after every current state and federal politician is dead and gone. One primary school student I spoke to will still only be 90 at the turn of the next century. Decisions we make now will determine the world that she grows up in.

When I last spoke about the school climate strike, I noted the dismissive and patronising response from the Prime Minister and other senior government figures. They were chastising the children and telling them to stay in school. This time, their reaction, whilst hardly encouraging, was a great deal more muted. They know that most of these kids have the support of their parents, and their parents do vote.

This coming federal election will focus on climate change like never before. As always, the Greens will be leading, with a comprehensive package of measures that moves Australia to zero net emissions faster than any other party. We Greens understand climate change, we understand the urgency of the situation, and we are prepared to offer leadership and to make the changes necessary for Australia to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Just this week, we launched an election commitment for the rapid rollout of household batteries, which are the natural complement to rooftop solar. Storing solar energy for use at night or during peak demand is one of the best ways of ensuring that South Australian families have access to energy that is affordable and reliable.

However, despite a tripling of battery installations in the last year, the industry is still developing and prices are not yet low enough for everyone to be able to benefit. That is why the Greens want to see $2.2 billion invested over the next four years in helping households, especially low-income households, to install home batteries. With appropriate incentives, the Greens believe we can get the payback period for these batteries down to a three-year period.

In many ways, this national scheme is the parallel to the scheme championed by the Greens in South Australia a decade ago in relation to solar panels. By providing appropriate support to households, we kicked off a solar energy revolution that ultimately saw nearly a third of houses in the state with solar panels. That feed-in scheme helped employ thousands of South Australians and it kickstarted an industry that is now able to stand on its own two feet.

Whilst we cannot possibly imagine what the world will be like in the year 2100, we know that it will depend in large measure on the decisions that we make today. Governments can make bad investments or they can make good ones. They can take climate change seriously or leave it to the next generation to try to sort out. We know, however, that by then it will be too late. So my commitment to the young people of South Australia is that the Greens are listening to you. We do take climate change seriously and we are taking action.