"You're condemning young people like me to a life of climate disasters — of course we have poor mental health issues!" cried protester Alexa Stuart, a 21-year-old from climate action group Rising Tide mid-way through Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's press conference today.

"When will you listen to young people?"

Albanese was announcing a $1 billion dollar increase to mental health access and support, including $500 million for Youth Specialist Care Centres. The funding announcement follows Opposition leader Peter Dutton's own pledge of $400 million towards mental health during his budget reply speech.

"Mr Albanese, you say you care about young people — and yet since getting elected your government has approved 33 new coal and gas projects!" Stuart yelled as she was hauled away by security.

The Australia Institute's Coal Mine Tracker says the federal government has approved 10 new coal mines since it was elected in May 2022 and there are another 22 proposals for new or expanded coal mines awaiting approval.

Two-thirds of young Australians believe climate concerns are having a negative impact on youth mental health, while over three in four young people are concerned about climate change, according to a survey conducted by YouGov sampling 1,000 Australian citizens aged 16-25 in 2023.

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[–] Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Even if this is true, if people are voting based on climate in the first place then this isn't going to make them go "well, might as well vote for the LNP" more likely they'll go independent or Greens as we saw in the last election.

Also we have preferential voting, focusing on the big two parties is immensely myopic and a stupid argument that everyone used to silence legitimate criticism of the Democrats before the last US election. (The Democrats lost because they had a shit platform and didn't care, not because people criticised them)

The main goal of basically every climate activist group right now is to force whoever forms government to do so as a minority. This is both good for climate, and liberal democracy as a whole by helping move beyond a two party system. (Not that I have any love for liberal democracy in any form, but it's still a positive change)