NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has made it pretty clear she’s not gunning for the youth vote, calling Labor leader Michael Daley’s support of Friday’s student climate strike “appalling.”
Daley used his National Press Club address on Wednesday to support the strike, saying the event would help young people realise their own personal power.
“I might be criticised for backing them but, you know what, we’re at a crossroads now and we need them,” he said. “We need their messages to be heard up the tree, so the grown-ups can listen to their disappointment and their criticism of our lack of leadership.”
Berejiklian is… less into that.
The premier told the SMH on Friday morning that she considered it inappropriate to encourage children to miss school for any reason.
“Children are there to go to school and I absolutely support their rights to have views about the world and I absolutely support them expressing themselves but not during school,” she said.
Friday’s School Strike For Climate Change is a global march, so far involving 116 countries and almost 2000 individual registered events.
Amnesty International Australia’s Tim O’Conner released a statement on Thursday saying students have a right to protest as part of the country’s democratic process.
“The fact is that young people, the future leaders of Australia, are frustrated their voices aren’t being heard by our government, who have failed to meaningfully address climate change,” he said.
“We should support them in peacefully engaging in the democratic process to have their voices heard on the issue of climate change.”
The last week has seen Australia’s decorated conservative base hit their heads together over the idea, demanding kids be doxxed for attending the protest, or just outright comparing the youth movement to the educational indoctrination employed by mass murdering dictator Joseph Stalin.
Totally normal stuff!!
