Left Wing Leader: “Protest Climate Change After School Hours”

Bill Shorten
Australian Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. By Ross CaldwellOwn work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

How do you keep radical greens on side, by supporting the climate change school strikes, yet maintain the moral high ground on children’s Education standards? Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is market testing what he hopes is a workable compromise.

Protest climate after school hours, Shorten tells kids

By Nick Pearson 12:13pm Mar 14, 2019

Children should protest on weekends or after school rather than participating in tomorrow’s walkout over climate change, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said.

“Kids are allowed to have an opinion,” he told reporters in Melbourne this morning.

In an ideal world, they would protest after school hours and on weekends.

But he said it was “a bit rich for the government to lecture schoolkids”.
“This government’s been on strike about climate policy for the last five-and-a-half years,” he said.

“They’re really not the best role models for the kids on climate policy, are they?”

Read more: https://www.9news.com.au/2019/03/14/12/12/school-strike-for-climate-action-bill-shorten-climate-change-politics-news

I admire the effort, but I don’t think this idea will fly. Children might be happy to sacrifice their school hours to demand climate action, but get real – how many children would sacrifice their X-Box time for the sake of the planet?

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Sambar
March 14, 2019 1:11 pm

Meanwhile, after failing to take snow away from children of the Northern Hemisphere, scientists here in Australia are predicting the end of winter. By 2050 children in Australia will not know what winter is, with summer temps reaching 50 degrees C in many parts of the country. Once again the span out to 2050 means no one will be left to take accountability for when the prediction fails.

Reply to  Sambar
March 14, 2019 1:21 pm

In 2050 kids in Australia will be expected to learn Mandarin to get a job unless the Australians today don’t get their energy act together.
(see Tibet as an example)

R Shearer
Reply to  Sambar
March 14, 2019 1:25 pm

Let them go, they would rather be truant than true.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  R Shearer
March 14, 2019 6:26 pm

How about we charge the parents for the missed funding due to their child’s lack of attendance, and then charge the parents with endangering the welfare of their children by withholding them from public school without providing alternative education?

D Cage
Reply to  Pop Piasa
March 16, 2019 12:49 am

How about we try climate scientists for inciting civil unrest without first going to court to prove climate science is as they claim beyond question, in open court where they cannot hide behind non disclosure of data, failings in standards and “adjustment” of results and comparison using hindsight as the basis for reselection of data used from the data available.

Transport by Zeppelin
March 14, 2019 1:16 pm

I’d like to see how many bother turning up out of school hours, rather than using the strike as a get out of school pass.

Reply to  Transport by Zeppelin
March 14, 2019 2:01 pm

Obviously, they will be herded by some sort of commissars (whether educrats themselves, shady critters “visiting” or bootlickers recruited from among the kids). Or blackmailed into subscribing to it. then have actual attendance checked by the commissars, same deal.
Of course, the most obvious result of either setup will be an entire generation habitually loathing the commissars with passion of a thousand sunny days.

Steve in Greensboro
Reply to  Transport by Zeppelin
March 14, 2019 3:18 pm

Bingo!

The whole point of school kids protesting AGW is to do it DURING SCHOOL HOURS, in order to avoid school work. After school, the kids have much, much better things to do.

(Of course, during school hours they have much better things to do, those things called school work, but protesting is very much like slacking.)

March 14, 2019 1:18 pm

At what price to protest? The sacrificing of education to protest. This is feature of mostly union-teacher led public schools in the US. But I can assure you the kids whose parents are shoveling out $30K to 70K per year to elite Prep schools for their teenagers, those kids are not cutting class to protest.

When we see pictures or videos of climate or anti-Fossil Fuel protestors in front of the White House or storming Congressional offices these days, most of them are paid staffers or specifically hired to protest from the environmental NGO’s to be there. And those staffers? We wonder where all those BA in Gender Studies majors go to get Yobs. And when those protests are over, its back to Mommy and Daddy and making lattes at Starbucks.

And with the college admissions rigging scam now busted by the FBI, the rich elites might have to actually start worrying about their actually having their kids to actually compete to get to a top University.

March 14, 2019 1:26 pm

Thing is this knuckle head will decimate Australia’s wealth with his party’s climate policies and these little SJW’s will as grown ups complain about how our once great nation is their basket case.

Chris Hanley
Reply to  Greg
March 14, 2019 2:08 pm

Sign of the times, I notice Generac are advertising their home generators on free-to-air TV.

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Chris Hanley
March 14, 2019 3:21 pm

Yes I started seeing those late last year.

Hivemind
Reply to  Chris Hanley
March 15, 2019 3:37 am

Yes, but they’re for the American market. Australia uses 60 hertz power.

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Hivemind
March 16, 2019 12:22 am

No, they are being sold in Australia. Australia AC power is 240v/ac at 50Hz.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Greg
March 15, 2019 7:18 am

yeah Shortarse will promise the world
the free batterys as one gem
pinkbatts?/Pinkbatteries?
libs/nats might be on the nose but not as badly as lab/greens even now.

Latitude
March 14, 2019 1:39 pm

stay in school?…..or go party?

…I’ll have to think on that one

Citizen Smith
Reply to  Latitude
March 15, 2019 10:08 am

Lat, A darker way to think on it: Warmingists Madrasas or field exercises.

justadumbengineer
March 14, 2019 1:50 pm

my kids know that if they cut school there will be consequences. They will lose priviledges, playstation, iPhone time, something. Oh, and I couldn’t afford to bribe a college nor would I commit a crime to get them in so they all had jobs and went to community college before transferring to a university.

Guess what….they all have successful careers, hard working, ambitious and are good upstanding adults.

March 14, 2019 1:54 pm

«AFTER school hours? Those are fighting words, mister.»
— just about every schoolkid.

Big T
Reply to  TBeholder
March 14, 2019 2:34 pm

Idiots a multiplying like flies.

Barbara
Reply to  Big T
March 14, 2019 3:49 pm

No point insulting innocent flies, T.

Mr.
March 14, 2019 2:00 pm

I wonder whether climate protesting 101 excursions will include demonstrations of shouting at clouds?

Maybe there will soon be a PhD recognized for “Shouting At Clouds”?

(and no doubt soon to follow, a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Services To Cloud Shouting)

Craig
Reply to  Mr.
March 14, 2019 2:13 pm

Well, the clueless and autistic Greta Thunberg is up for a Nobel Prize. The prize value went out the window when they handed Barack Obummer the prize for simply being a black man.

icisil
Reply to  Craig
March 14, 2019 4:12 pm

They gave the Peace Prize to the first and only American president that bombed another country every day of his 8-year term. He also directly destroyed Libya, which now has open slave trading as a result; and conducted proxy wars against Syria and Yemen (the latter is in famine as a result).

Craig
March 14, 2019 2:09 pm

Bill Shorten, a corrupt politician and he couldn’t care less. A dimwit who believes that raising Australia’s current percentage of renewable power from 26% to 50% will magically alter the climate and bring down power bills. Meanwhile, my latest power bill demonstrates another increase since this renewable scam was introduced into the Australia energy market.

This muppet is a socialist wet dream and has no plan to cut government spending to deal with our debt and deficit, wants to raise our taxes (seriously Bill, I’ve got nothing left to give) and is laughably campaigning on “unfair” wage cuts to our lowest paid workers yet was quite happy to dud a company called ‘cleanevent’ and its cleaners of 400 million dollars in a rubbish agreement with his union mates in 1998.

The guy is a fraud and shyster and he will be Australia’s next Prime Minister, god help us.

graham dunton
Reply to  Craig
March 15, 2019 3:21 pm

2019-03-16- Cairns Post Texts

I am beginning to like climate change. I have recently installed solar at my business: total cost $110,000 (4 independent systems). The government paid for 30% then the remaining amount was an instant tax write off. I would like to thank the taxpayers of Australia.
Greg, Cairns CBD

March 14, 2019 2:48 pm

The problem with Australian politics, and possibly elsewhere in the Western World, is that one party favours big business until finally via a Royal Commission expose all the fiddling going on in the Banks and their offshoots.
.
But the other party, Bill Shortens lot, they are controlled by the big boys in the Union movement, who having founded the Australian Labour Party a hundred years ago, still want to control things.

So the usual cycle is for in today’s case, the ALP will crack down on the
Big Banks, who will move all of their iffy finance offshore, Singapore
is popular. Then as before the ALP will give out lots of Goodies such as a so
called liveable wage, without going into why we presently have such a high
Cost of Living, see renewable as the major factor with energy now the dearest in he World.

So in three or maybe six years we kick that lot out, and we are now back with the Liberals to clean up Labours big mess.

Then the cycle repeats itself.

MJE VK5ELL

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Michael
March 14, 2019 3:25 pm

Singapore? That’s where Alex Turnbull is based.

fred250
Reply to  Michael
March 15, 2019 1:07 pm

“with the Liberals to clean up Labours big mess. ”

Unfortunately, the Liberal Party didn’t get a chance to clean up Labor’s last stuff-ups

Turnbull usurped the one person who had a chance of doing the clean-up job and its been downhill since then.

Now it doesn’t matter which party gets voted in, the idiotic climate garbage will continue

Patrick MJD
Reply to  fred250
March 16, 2019 12:26 am

Indeed. It is polled to be the biggest issue both federally and at New South Wales (NSW) state levels. The w/e of the 23rd will see Labor take power in NSW and a week or so later at the federal level and with that the end of sensible energy policy in Australia.

Cephus0
March 14, 2019 3:01 pm

If anything could highlight perfectly the total disconnect between ultra-leftist dogma and reality – this is it.

fretslider
March 14, 2019 3:17 pm

how many children would sacrifice their X-Box time

The thing is quite a few of our exalted European leaders do not have any children. Theresa May, Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Merkel, Leo Varadka, Emanuelle Macron, Stefan Lofven, Paolo Gentilon, Mark Rutte, and Jean-Claude Juncker

Other people’s children are put through the social engineering factories (formerly known as schools) and are indoctrinated in correct-think.

snikdad
March 14, 2019 4:06 pm

Boxhead is right about the govt.; they’re fumbling the ball on energy, just 2 months out from an election, giving mixed messages about whether they will facilitate the building of an HELE plant or 2 to replace all the old coal stations that are being closed down.

Lil Fella from OZ
March 14, 2019 4:07 pm

Another fraud. Lies and more lies.

Serge Wright
March 14, 2019 4:10 pm

There is a great irony here.

Children from a wealthy democratic country protesting loudly for an end to cheap available power that provides their current wealth and prosperity. And demanding a change that will create mass poverty and hardship on themselves and their offspring.

Wharfplank
March 14, 2019 4:27 pm

Having the protest at school assures taxpayers who oppose Climate Action are forced to subsidize Climate Action. Time for vouchers.

Chris Hanley
March 14, 2019 4:59 pm

Hoover Institution + Bjorn Lomborg:

Chris Hanley
Reply to  Chris Hanley
March 14, 2019 6:00 pm

Lomborg’s approach is not logically consistent IMHO.
He starts by pointing out that CC™ is a trivial problem, but later it isn’t.

Bulldust
March 14, 2019 5:29 pm

In Western Australia we also have the joy of having a Labor Government in power at the moment (the Liberals, which are the right-leaning party here had a good run prior to that). Mr McGowan, leader of the current Labor Government echoed the “it’s OK to protest, but I would prefer it outside school hours” line as well … Labor is good at reading off scripts:

https://thewest.com.au/news/education/premier-mark-mcgowan-ok-with-students-climate-protest-ng-b881136057z

Interestingly, Gemma Tognini wrote a fairly pointed piece stating that these “protests” were weaponising kids as political pawns:

https://thewest.com.au/opinion/gemma-tognini/gemma-tognini-kids-are-being-used-as-pawns-in-climate-wars-ng-b881132559z

Needless to say, some silly Green put his head above the parapet and tweeted her to STFU, and has now had to apologise for attacking a woman, which is contrary to the party’s guidelines:

https://thewest.com.au/politics/greens/greens-senator-jordon-steele-john-apologises-to-gemma-tognini-for-telling-her-to-stfu-over-student-climate-action-strike-ng-b881136511z

Perhaps he should have spent less time in school working to be an activist and more time reading Shakespeare, so he could have avoided being hoisted by his own petard.

Tez
March 14, 2019 5:38 pm

Before fossil fuels education was for the rich and privileged. Children were put to work.
Why have the children not been taught that?

WR2
March 14, 2019 6:32 pm

Or better yet, study science after hours, perhaps then you won’t be so easily manipulated by leftist agitators.

Mr Bliss
March 14, 2019 7:29 pm

If the insane fight against CO2 is won by the global warming fanatics, the only demand from the children will be “Please – Keep us warm!!”

D. Anderson
March 14, 2019 7:37 pm

Is that picture photoshopped or is his forehead really 5X too big?

Dreadnought
Reply to  D. Anderson
March 14, 2019 11:02 pm

He looks like one of those Oompa Loompas, he’s even a bit orange.

Old Ranga from Oz
March 14, 2019 10:41 pm

Bill Shorten is a weather-vane, swinging one way and then another, depending on the focus groups feeding him their voting preferences. These kids don’t vote, but their morally-elevated parents from the leafy suburbs do. Nothing like an each-way bet to satisfy the voters. “He’s reasonable,” they’ll say as they watch TV tonight, ” You can trust him. He’s not a loony leftie like the mob from the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions). Nor is he like those wacko Greens.”

It’s a fair bet that tradies’ kids aren’t performing in front of TV cameras, then racing home to watch themselves on screens later tonight Hardworking tradies – small business contractors like electricians and plumbers, whose kids learn by experience about hard work and long hours.

But Shorten is all about power, heading to be our next Prime Minister, and old-style principles have gone out the window.

Dreadnought
March 14, 2019 10:59 pm

This whole ‘kids striking for climate change’ charade is utterly appalling. When will it ever stop..?!

The cynical global warming hoaxers have played a blinder by co-opting the children into this action.

The fact that the wretched Greta Thunberg is up for a Nobel Peace Prize beggars belief.

These skiving kids ought to be grounded and have their privileges withheld, until they pack it in.

}:o(

High Treason
March 14, 2019 11:21 pm

School time itself is for propaganda and brainwashing. Mind you, whoever encourages truancy would have to be guilty somewhere in the crimes act-it is incitement of unlawful activity. With the extent of truant behaviour encouraged, it should be serious jail time form the organizers.

Old Ranga from Oz
March 14, 2019 11:32 pm

All this has been meticulously organised by GetUp activists, who understand the pull of the visual media. Those well-fed, well-dressed morally satisfied kids will now watch themselves performing for the viewers on hundreds (thousands?) of screens.

Nobody reads much these days, they watch moving pictures on screens.

The narcissistic addiction we all experience as youngsters, unsure of who we are, wanting to join in, seeing ourselves as others see us – recorded as well, for ever and ever, Amen.

Johann Wundersamer
March 15, 2019 2:41 am

“how many children would sacrifice their X-Box time for the sake of the planet?”

What environ mentalled kids: X-Boxes ain’t IC powered.

Dennis Gerald Sandberg
March 15, 2019 9:07 am

Something striking children might not know: https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/sea-ice-tools
The graph on the linked page shows a greater Arctic sea ice extent on March 10, 2019 (14.696 km2) than on March 10, 2006 (14.620 km2). These dates are “cherry picked” but accurate. Arctic sea ice is going to be around for a long time.

Bentley Nixs
March 15, 2019 9:57 am

Here in Sarasota the school board has dealt with the problem,either intentionally or by accident,by scheduling a teacher work day so there is no school today meaning no walkout protest.

KetilM
March 16, 2019 1:40 am

The mother of Greta Thunberg, Malena Ernman, admits on Facebook that Greta got the idea for the strike from the Swedish activist Bo Thorén, after she came second in a newspaper essay competition about climate change. This page is in Swedish, but I guess there are translating services available.
https://samnytt.se/malena-ernman-erkanner-professionell-lobbyist-bakom-klimat-gretas-strejk/?fbclid=IwAR0yTAK_vSvY7SnCDl5ecuM7ewct468M8LOD42esag72NngHKQ2icupRjc8

March 16, 2019 3:17 pm

Bill Shorten is a typical politician, remember the old Chines saying,
“Wind blows, grass bends”.

But just as Bob Hawke and Paul Keating were the best pair to change
Australian politics for the better, and both were Labour, Bill may surprise us.

If indeed he and his team want to stay in office longer than the usual two
and a half years of the three year Federal government term, then they will
have to come up with a sensible energy policy.

After all the 50 % say’ politically of the Union movement, its membership
base while much smaller than in the 1980 time of Hawke and Keating,
should still cause them to be concerned about their members having a job,
which if the Green left have it way will not happen, this will result in
Bill and his team, while paying lip service to their left wing, will fix this
nonsense of Australia in effect proposing to commit suicide economically
to “Save the World”.

Australians 1.5 % of the so called CO2 emissions compared to the bi\g
three, USA, India and China, would never make any difference, and Bill must
know this.

Hopefully President Trump’s panel of proper experts will “Prove” to the rest
of the World just what nonsense this whole CO2 come Climate Change matter
really is, and the rest of the “Western World” countries “will then change their ways.

MJE VK5ELL