David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, I want to give a special shout-out to a group of students in Queensland who are doing a three-week 'study-in' outside the Queensland parliament. They are doing this because they are calling on the government to get behind my Climate Change Amendment (Duty of Care and Intergenerational Climate Equity) Bill 2023. Today, we showed you can get private senators' bills through this place with good outcomes for people. My duty of care bill seeks to legislate a requirement for government to take into account future generations to protect their future—something parents and loved ones do every day. It's something I think government should also have a statutory obligation to consider. Seventeen-year-old Ben says: 'I'm studying hard for my exams in order to prepare for my future, but I have a life on a warming planet ahead of me, and no amount of time with my head buried in books can prepare me for what the real and powerful consequences of a climate crisis will be. We are doing our duty, studying hard for our futures. It's time for the government to do their duty and protect young people from the impacts of climate change by supporting the duty of care bill.'

Next Tuesday, we will have a group of young people here at Parliament House, meeting with more than 30 parliamentarians and asking them—asking you in this place—to care about their future and to legislate a duty of care so that, when the environment minister and other decision-makers are making decisions, they have to consider the impact that that will have on young people and future generations. We can legislate—and I would argue that we as a parliament must legislate—to look after young Australians.