Stuart Smith
National MP
Kaikoura
Last Friday saw Parliament’s grounds filled with Global Climate Strike protesters led by Izzy Cook, a year 12 student. The protesters came armed with six “demands”:
- Ban synthetic fertilisers
- Halve the number of cows
- Free public transport
- Safe cycle and walkways
- End all coal, oil and gas exploration
- Just transition.
Fair enough. And putting aside that the students took time off school to attend and didn’t sacrifice their free time for the cause, we still should give them credit for fighting for a cause they believe in.
However, it was the furore that followed, when Izzy was interviewed by Heather du Plessis-Allan (HDPA) on her Newstalk ZB Drive show, that really grabbed the headlines. When HDPA asked Izzy if it was okay to fly to Fiji, Izzy said, given the climate crisis, she didn’t think it was a good idea. Then admitted that she had done just that a couple of months ago with her parents. This prompted a burst of surprised laughter from HDPA and upset Izzy’s mum. Her mum was joined by a Green MP and a bevy of hand-wringing journalists, who rounded on HDPA.
HDPA was doing her job. Yes, she laughed, who wouldn’t? Clearly those behind Izzy thought the media would not ask difficult questions of a year-12 student. And to be fair to HDPA, it wasn’t a difficult question, and she was clearly surprised at the answer.
As a parent, I feel for Izzy, and I feel those who put her in the position of leading the protest, without a clear understanding of what she was getting into, are responsible. That she didn’t register the hypocrisy in her leading a protest which called for actions that would ultimately ruin businesses, lower incomes and inconvenience millions worldwide, while she did the opposite, is disappointing. It does not reflect well on those who were supposed to be supporting her.
There is no doubt that schools are promoting climate change awareness with students and, if Izzy’s experience is anything to go by, it is evident that students are unfortunately not informed about what climate action really means.
For instance, Sri Lanka’s decision to ban outright the use of synthetic fertilisers has led to an extreme economic crisis and the overthrow of their government.
Ending coal, oil and gas exploration hasn’t worked out well for the Europeans either, with those very bans being reversed due to their growing energy crisis. A crisis that will lead to many deaths this Northern Hemisphere winter.
But the ‘just transition’ beats them all, as this covers a grab bag of leftist policies that have nothing to do with climate: they are all about income redistribution.
Hopefully, this experience hasn’t affected Izzy too much; after all, she had the courage to stand up for what she believes.