In a few minutes time, the electoral office of Australia’s Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia, is going to feel the heat of voters angry at a lack of federal action to tackle climate change.
Organisers of the action say dozens of Melbourne residents will undertake “peaceful civil disobedience” against “one of Parliament’s biggest climate blockers”.
That would be Josh Frydenberg, a former investment banker turned Member for Kooyong, and a rising young star in the Liberal Party.
As a minister, Frydenberg’s portfolio has him overseeing the expansion of mining and energy. And as a Liberal, that means he’s a shameless backer of coal and other fossil fuels.
The protest this morning will see Frydenberg’s office occupied and declared a “climate emergency zone”. The aim is to highlight the Turnbull government’s “ongoing support of fossil fuels and unprecedented climate impacts including mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, recent severe storms, extreme heat, intense fires and the rapidly melting polar ice caps”.
Menna McAlpin, a local resident and student who will be attending the protest said in a written statement: “When our politicians fail us, we must step up. I’ve never participated in civil disobedience before but the time has come.
“There’s nothing radical about what we’re planning. What our politicians is doing to the Reef, our communities and our climate is radical and the consequences will spell tragedy for us all.”
The protest starts this morning at 9:30am, at Frydenberg’s electorate office, 695 Burke Road, Camberwell.
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