Senator STEELE-JOHN (Western Australia) (15:28): I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Cormann) to a question without notice asked by the Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Di Natale) today relating to relating to climate change protests. Well, I've seen some silly nonsense statements in my short time here, but the answer given by Minister Cormann to a great question by the Greens in relation to his support of public servants that will decide to go on strike for climate action tomorrow takes a bit of the cake. He had the cheek to say that schoolkids should stay in school rather than strike for climate action tomorrow. It led me to think: how does he feel leading a government where, when it comes to climate change, half of his cabinet need to go back to school? He's got ministers questioning the fundamental connection between humanity and climate change. These are questions that could be answered by any sixth-grader in any classroom around the country. Equally as farcical in the course of this week has been the Australian Labor Party—the self-styled product of the union movement, whose fundamental, core activity in pursuit of justice for workers has been the utilisation of strike action—informing young people that they should strike on the weekend. My honourable colleague Tim Clifford, the MLC for East Metropolitan in the Western Australian parliament, put that very question to the Premier. He asked the Premier whether there would be any impact for public servants who decided to go on strike on Friday, and the Premier informed him that if they did so they would be striking in their own time, implying that they would be docked a day of annual leave. My colleague Michael Berkman MP, in the Queensland parliament, asked Queensland Premier Palaszczuk whether she supported students going on strike tomorrow, and she informed the chamber that she believed students should strike on the weekend. Never did I believe I would turn up to this place and find a Labor party that doesn't know what a strike is, or a government that contains members in senior portfolios on the front line in dealing with the impacts of climate change who don't understand the same level of basic science as can be found in our primary schools. You might be thinking to yourself: 'For godsakes, it seems like we've got a pretty ignorant bunch running this country.' How I wish it were ignorance. How I wish it were as simple and easy as sitting down—with maybe a brightly coloured book!—and explaining to you people the science of climate change and, therefore, the need to act. But it is nowhere near as simple as that. You cannot be excused by your ignorance, because it is not ignorance. You know exactly what you're doing. You know the connection between human beings and climate change, you know the connection between coal and the climate crisis, you know the connection between gas and the destruction of precious places such as the Great Barrier Reef, and you choose not to act. You choose not to act because you are bought and paid for by the very fossil fuel interests who are the perpetrators of the climate crisis. We see it never more clearly than in a WA Labor government that couldn't even bring themselves to back their own environmental protection agency when it made the radical suggestion that coalmines be made to counter their emissions during their lifetimes—that they simply put in place measures to counteract the emissions they might be responsible for. That was shot down in two seconds by the Labor Premier. It just goes to show that, whatever colour the party is, if it takes money from fossil fuel interests then it can't be trusted on climate change. Question agreed to.