School students strike against gas funding on Friday

Tens of thousands of school students and their supporters held the first mass school strike for climate action since COVID-19 on Friday.

Young people in 50 plus cities and towns across Australia joined this effort to demand that the Morrison Government says no to funding gas and coal projects and invests in clean renewable energy, secure jobs and First Nations solutions to protect Country.

This mass strike will mark the biggest protest for climate action since the emergence of COVID-19. Dozens of strikes are to take place in capital cities, regional centres, and country towns across the entire continental expanse. The organisers of this demonstration are the School Strike 4 Climate network – with substantial support from First Nations communities, unions, parents, and everyday Australians.

Natasha Abhayawickrama, 16 said, “The federal government that is supposed to be ensuring our general wellbeing and prosperity appears far more concerned with lining the already-bursting pockets of multinational gas companies.

“Morrison and his government could and should be protecting our climate, land, and water. Their money-making agenda – at the expense of vulnerable Australians’ wellbeing and prosperity – is fuelling the climate crisis… the same crisis that is devastating our environment, destroying our health, and creating very few jobs for our population.

“So today, together with tens of thousands of my fellow let-down Australians, I am striking from school to tell the Morrison government that they must stop throwing Aussie cash at gas.

“If Morrison cares about our collective future, he will make it happen.”