Eight protesters have been arrested for spray painting climate change slogans outside Parliament House and Scott Morrison’s Canberra residence.
Extinction Rebellion activists glued their hands to the federal parliament forecourt and set a pram on fire on Tuesday morning.
They spray-painted slogans including “climate duty of care” on walls outside of both buildings.
Five people, three men and two women, were arrested at Parliament House. Another three men were arrested at The Lodge.
The group labelled their protest an appropriate response to a government “that fails to protect its citizens and abandons future generations to the hell of climate breakdown”.
“We take responsibility for our actions and are willing to face the consequences, unlike our politicians who won’t even acknowledge they have a duty of care to the children of this country,” Extinction Rebellion said.
The prime minister labelled the protests un-Australian.
“The Australian way is not what we have seen with the vandalism in our capital today,” he told reporters.
“I don’t associate in any way, shape or form that foolishness with the good-hearted nature of Australians who care deeply about this issue, as I do.
“They have no part with that foolishness today, any more than we have seen in other selfish protests around this country.”
The United Nations’ latest climate report released on Monday night showed the world was expected to warm 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in the early 2030s.
Current commitments are not adequate to keep warming to 1.5C or below 2C.
Australian land areas have already warmed by 1.4C and worsening climate change will only make floods, fires, droughts, cyclones and coral bleaching more intense and frequent.
The worst-case scenario modelled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected global warming of up to 5.7C by the end of the century.
Mr Morrison did not make any new emissions reduction commitments on Tuesday and reiterated the need to deal with the issue through technology not taxes.
“I won’t be signing a blank cheque on behalf of Australians to targets without plans,” he said. Â
AAP
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