Students strike for climate change protests, defying calls to stay in school
Author: ABC NEWS Date Posted:30 November 2018
Thousands of Australian students have defied calls by the Prime Minister to stay in school and instead marched on the nation's capital cities, and some regional centres, demanding an end to political inertia on climate change.
Protests were held in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Coffs Harbour, Bendigo and other cities, as students banded together to pressure the Morrison Government in the lead-up to a federal election.
"The politicians aren't listening to us when we try to ask nicely for what we want and for what we need," said Castlemaine student Harriet O'Shea Carre.
It follows similar protests in Canberra and Hobart earlier this week, which have spurred on the junior activists.
The groundswell was inspired by 15-year-old Swedish student Greta Thunberg, who pledged to protest outside parliament in Stockholm until the country caught up on its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
News of her one-woman vigil caught the attention of Harriet O'Shea Carre and Milou Albrecht, both 14.
The pair, from the Castlemaine Steiner School, and a group of other climate-concerned teens travelled to the nearby regional city of Bendigo, about 90 minutes from Melbourne, to hold their own protest outside the office of Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie.
That in turn sparked today's protests across the nation.
"We have to sacrifice our education, which is something we really value, so we're showing them that at the moment this is even more important than our education," Harriet O'Shea Carre said.
