Budget As Usual = DEATH.

To ensure any chance of a safe future for our children, we need a climate emergency Budget. Not a Budget-As-Usual, helping to destroy our future.

Fossil fuel emissions and production continue to rise in Australia. In 2018-19 Australian Black Coal production increased by 1.8 % to 454 Million tonnes, whilst natural gas production increased by a staggering 16.2 % to 145 billion cubic meters.  (ref Australian Gov). Increasing fossil fuel production is a death sentence for future generations.

Business as Usual = Death.   Budget as Usual = Death.

Like those who have come before us and faced outrageous injustices, our moral responsibility now, as inhabitants of Australia, is to engage in nonviolent, disruptive civil disobedience.

KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED ON CANBERRA THIS WEEK

'Business as usual has brought us the climate and ecological emergency. Business as usual is bringing unprecedented climate disaster accompanied by death and suffering to people, animals and plant species. We have a moral duty to interrupt business as usual. The 2021 budget continues to prioritise fossil fuels. We want our government to prioritise LIFE. We want politicians to stop thinking about the economic strategies that bring death and destruction and to start thinking about ways in which we can all survive and thrive.’

The disconnect between those in power in this country and the ordinary citizens who they claim to represent, continues to grow. That is why we are calling for a Citizens’ Assembly of ordinary people, selected by sortition, to decide how Australia responds to the climate emergency and gets to zero emissions as fast as humanly possible – we need to enter emergency mode.

Why Citizens’ Assemblies?

It is a fair chance that a Citizens’ assembly, for example, would decide that the Australian taxpayer no longer wants to subsidise fossil fuels to the extent of $10.3 billion they receive in Australia (in 2020-21). A Citizens’ Assembly might decide to change the federal budget and do something else with the $7.84 billion allocated (2020-21) for the fuel tax credit scheme.

Meanwhile, our Government has committed up to $900 million in public money for the gas industry since announcing a ‘gas-fired recovery’ last year. Whilst the majority of Australians across the ‘political divide’ want climate action.

We are on the brink of global catastrophe. Life on Earth is in danger, with scientists agreeing we are in a period of climate and ecological breakdown. Climate experts are talking about not just dangerous climate change but an existential threat that could annihilate most people on earth.

It is beyond a shadow of a doubt that our government is not serving the people of this country, not listening to the science, instead serving only the fossil fuel profiteers.

With COP26 coming up in Glasgow at the end of the year, our government representatives have a choice – continue the path of bullying and thinly veiled greed that represents fossil fuel interests, and not regular Australians, who want a safe climate – or become leaders who face up to the truth and act accordingly.

We have one message for the government:  You have failed us.  And until you meet our demands, you can expect our response to be nonviolent rebellion. Increasingly, ordinary people – parents, grandparents, youth, everyone –  are willing to disrupt business as usual and break the law in order to force the government to act.

Come along this Sunday or check out (repeated fortnightly) to the national Zoom to learn more and get involved with Extinction Rebellion in Australia

RSVP HERE

Or check ausrebellion.earth/events for upcoming events near you.

Extinction Rebellion is a global and politically non-partisan movement. We use non-violent direct action to persuade governments to act justly on the climate and ecological emergency.

Traditional strategies like petitioning, lobbying, voting and one day marches have not worked due to the systemic roadblocks including corporate lobbying and partisan opposition. Our approach one of nonviolent, disruptive civil disobedience – a rebellion to bring about change, since all other means have failed.

We follow in the footsteps of many who have come before us. From India’s Independence Movement to Women’s Suffrage, the Civil Rights Movement to the Arab Spring and the Franklin River Blockade, history has shown us time and time again that nonviolent civil disobedience is a powerful means to bring about change.

We rebel because we have no other choice. Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has urged people to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience wherever possible, citing it as our best chance of achieving meaningful action on climate change.