Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

It's great to see so many schoolkids up in the gallery today. It reminds us that, in this place, we should be focused on their futures and not our own. It's why I was so pleased on Friday to see thousands of school students around the country give up some of their time to protest against the inaction of this government when it comes to climate change and having a clean energy future. Thousands of them gave up a little bit of their time to ensure that we have better policy for a better future. They received messages of encouragement and support from right around the country.

Of course, not everybody was praising their actions. The Prime Minister had the temerity to criticise them and say that they should be at school instead of being out there doing it. This is the bloke who can't fit more than one person on a speaking list for the entire day and has put out a sitting schedule for 11 days next year. And it wasn't just the Prime Minister; the member for Hughes interrupted a very busy schedule at Sky News to give some advice about their dietary habits. After five years of no policy on energy and climate change, the member for Hughes has the solution. 'Eat less ice cream,' he told them. That's going to be the solution to climate change.

The kids of Australia don't need a lesson on climate change from the biggest boofhead on that side of the parliament.

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