“Our future on the line”: young protestors reject Labor’s climate plan

Young Australians fighting for climate action gathered outside Kirribilli House on Monday  morning, for a “sleep-in” outside the Prime Minister's Sydney residence, claiming the Albanese government is “sleeping on climate”. 

The snap rally, organised by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), came in response to the federal government releasing its pollution reduction targets last week. The protestors — numbering around thirty five — claim the target range of 62 percent to 70 percent is insufficient. 

“It’s been shocking to see how the Labor government has continually been putting climate action on the back of their priorities”, Nirvana Talukder, a member of the organisation, told the Lorikeet. “We need more urgent climate action and a government that’s not sleeping on climate.”

The protest involved a stunt prop of a mattress, pillows and a sheet. Cardboard cutouts of the heads of Albanese and Watt were judiciously placed under a sheet, next to a pretend lump of coal. The imagery suggested the pair were in bed with fossil fuel giants, and the words printed on the sheet ("Labor is in bed with fossil fuels") left no room for confusion.

Speaking to the crowd, another member of the AYCC, Natasha Abhayawickrama, said  “emission reductions by 2035 of 62 to 70 percent will see well over two degrees of warming.” 

“We will see 50-degree days in Sydney and Melbourne. We will have over a million homes uninsured. This is not the future that young people deserve to inherit.”

Zack Schofield, an organiser at Rising Tide Australia, also spoke at the rally, criticising the targets for emission reductions set by the Federal Government. “The government's job is now to take on the single largest political force on the Australian continent, which is the fossil fuel industry,” he said.

“That's going to require an unprecedented level of courage. This was an opportunity for the government to show that courage, and they have categorically failed.”