
The following statement was released by School Strike 4 Climate on February 20 in response to statements made by the federal and NSW education ministers and deputy prime minister Michael McCormack, as well as a front page article in the Daily Telegraph, attacking students for exercising their right to strike from school to demand urgent climate action.
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School students striking for climate action won鈥檛 be bullied by conservative media and politicians telling us not to strike from school on .
School striker Doha Khan from South Australia said: 鈥淲e won鈥檛 let anyone bully us into staying silent on the greatest threat to our generation: climate change.
鈥淧eople鈥檚 homes and livelihoods are being destroyed by climate change. The Great Barrier Reef is half dead and yet, we鈥檙e expected to sit idle as our politicians fail to take adequate action. This is crazy.鈥
NSW school striker Ambrose Hayes commented: "As if a group of adults could make thousands of teenagers do something they didn't want to do.
鈥淲e have not been brainwashed by anyone. We are part of a growing, global movement comprising hundreds of thousands of young people who have the praise of millions of people around the world.鈥
Western Australian school striker Aden Kenworthy added: 鈥淭he majority of Australians want action on climate change, yet we are not seeing this action from our politicians.
鈥淎s school students we can鈥檛 vote, which is why we are striking instead. If our politicians were doing their jobs, we wouldn鈥檛 have to do this. We don鈥檛 take this lightly.鈥
NSW school striker Daisy Jeffrey said: 鈥淲e have considered our actions deeply. We have the permission and support of our families and communities to strike on March 15.
鈥淭his is our generation taking a powerful stand for our futures.鈥
Victorian school striker Leo Crnogocervic noted: 鈥淲e would rather politicians and newspapers like the Daily Telegraph don鈥檛 launch coordinated attacks on school students calling for climate action and instead focus on working with us to stop dangerous climate change.鈥
聽Victorian school striker Anthony James concluded: 鈥淢arch 15 is going to be amazing. We will join with hundreds of thousands of school students all around the world to #ClimateStrike for our future.
鈥淲e invite everyone to join us. Climate change is a huge issue and it鈥檚 going to take all of us working together to solve it.鈥