STUDENTS from across Port Macquarie-Hastings are pleading with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his government to listen to their voice.
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About 100 people gathered on Town Green in Port Macquarie on Friday (May 21) in the first of more than 50 Student Strike4Climate rallies across the nation.
Students from Port Macquarie, Wauchope and the Camden Haven united in one voice calling on the government to invest in a cleaner renewable energy future for Australia.
Organiers from Camden Haven High, Harrison Swift and Jordan Thorne, said it was important for young people to be a part of a unified effort to demand that the Morrison government says no to funding gas and coal projects and demands a commitment to clean renewable energy, securing jobs and prioritising First Nations solutions to protect country.
This mass strike across the country marks the biggest protest for climate action since the emergence of COVID-19.
"We might be high school students, and there's students here even younger than us, we are going to inherit the results of decisions made today," Harrison said.
Jordan said the student strike is a a way to be heard and make a difference.
Cr Lisa Intemann addressed the gathering alongside Harrison and Jorjabelle Munday.
"If we join together, a better world is possible," Cr Intemann said.
"We have so many things to do and we must join together under a common theme."
Cr Intemann said logic, common sense and informed decisions based on truth are crucial.
Finding solutions locally rather than relying on nationwide, centralised business is a start in leading the way on climate action, she said.
Climate Change Australia Hastings branch president Kerri-ann Jones praised the student movement.
"These are the people whose future is impacted by what adults of today are doing to the world," she said.
"Our government is very short-sighted. All the medical and environmental experts and energy experts are saying we should not invest in gas. It is another fossil field just like coal.
"Extracting it and burning it will contribute to the climate emergency we are experiencing.
"Right now, we have all the technology and solutions necessary to transition to an energy systems based on renewables."
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