Footage has emerged of police removing young climate change protestors from Federal Parliament on the new Government’s first day. What a super cool response to young Aussies showing their concern about the general state of the Earth.
Activism organisation Tomorrow Movement posted a video to its Twitter showing young activists singing a protest chant. They were inside the public foyer in Parliament, per The Guardian.
In the footage, police and security guards can be heard shouting “keep moving” and physically removing protestors. Nice! Good! Normal!
This is the full video of how young people were treated by police & security at Parliament today. They traveled from around the country to get their voices heard above the money of fossil fuel billionaires, but instead they were dragged from the building #ClimateJobsForAll pic.twitter.com/4VAhWD1WBC
— Tomorrow Movement (@tomorrowmvmt) July 26, 2022
According to the Tomorrow Movement, around 100 young people travelled Canberra to protest about the climate, jobs and housing crisis.
Tomorrow Movement activist Desiree told PEDESTRIAN.TV that the protest lasted around a minute before police intercepted and removed protesters from the building.
“We had five songs and five speeches planned that we wanted everyone to hear [and] MPs to listen to. But we managed to get through one song and like, two lines [of a speech],” they said.
After the protestors were removed from Parliament House, they continued their protests on the lawns where they were joined by some MPs.
“We had some of The Greens senators and MPs, Peter Whish-Wilson, Janet Rice, Larissa Waters, Jordon Steele-John and also Monique Ryan — the independent — and David Pocock,” Desiree said.
Apparently those pollies came out, listened to the Tomorrow Movement’s speeches and chatted to activists for a bit.
“One of our asks for early in this term of Government is we want a Senate Inquiry into the climate, jobs and housing crisis, an inquiry that would go to local communities to hear what… solutions people in the community want for the climate and economic crisis,” Desiree said.
I attended in solidarity with every young person who traveled across the country to be at the @tomorrowmvmt rally this morning. Labor must put a stop to ALL coal and gas projects, now! https://t.co/tCWamzj07e pic.twitter.com/qOih8nh0Rn
— Senator Jordon Steele-John (@SenatorJordon) July 26, 2022
The Tomorrow Movement criticised the Australian Labor Party on social media for failing to show up to the protest and listen to young people.
“A lot of politicians did come outside to listen to the young people demanding real solutions to the climate, jobs and housing crisis,” it wrote.
“But do you notice who is missing?
“Hint: It begins in ‘A’ and ends with ‘ustralian Labor Party’.”
Hint: it begins in “A” and ends with “ustralian Labor Party”
— Tomorrow Movement (@tomorrowmvmt) July 26, 2022
The removal of protestors by police tells Desiree that the Government is unwilling to engage with young Aussies on the climate.
“It shows that the Government doesn’t want to hear the voices of people who are saying that their climate action is not good enough,” she said.
“Of course, today the discussion in politics has been about targets. But targets don’t matter for people who are on the frontlines of the climate crisis and looking at our futures.
“It’s not good enough when we need more ambitious action.”
Surely young people should be at the forefront of conversations about the climate crisis seeing as, you know, we’re the ones facing a world decimated by it. Just a thought!
