Student political engagement
Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (13:56): Over the last few weeks thousands of people have been taking to the streets to raise their voices about issues they care about. I was proud to join the 50,000-strong crowd calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and in the same week join thousands of student climate strikers calling for an end to coal and gas as they fight for a planet future generations can survive on. This week teachers and students, many from my electorate, will be taking to the streets once again to call for peace and an end to the bloodshed across Israel and Gaza. I support the brave teachers wearing keffiyehs in classrooms this week as they deliver some of the most important lessons we can ever learn – that we must stand up for what is right and for what matters to us and that when we see unimaginable suffering we must do everything we can to stop it. You can tell students all you like, as much as you want, to stay in the classroom, but you may as well be telling them to look away and turn off their conscience. These students will not be silenced. As long as children just like them are being orphaned and killed in Gaza, as long as they see bombs being dropped on hospitals and refugee camps, as long as they watch world leaders remain idle as atrocities are inflicted upon innocent civilians, these young people and everyone taking to the streets have a right to protest and demand action. Right now they are the only hope that we have.