anzac biscuit: Walk Against Warming - Melbourne November 11

Louise Morris, 'Walk Against Warming'

"I'd like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people who are the traditional custodians of this land. I'd also like to pay respect to the elders, past and present of the Wurundjeri nation, and extend that respect to other Aboriginals present today. "

"I must say it is fantastic to see so many of you here today, to show our leaders how much support there is to see real action on climate change."

"In about twenty minutes we're going to walk straight down Swanston Street to the Alexandra Gardens, where there are information stalls set up as well as the great band
'Counterfeit Gypsies' to entertain us all."

Bill & his three sons, all from Ashburton

Why are you here today at the 'Walk Against Warming'?

"We're trying to raise the awareness of climate change and the effects it's having on the planet, and we're trying to get the governments to do something about it."

What's the action group you are with?

"We're with a group called Families Facing Climate Change, which was started by my wife Anna and a group of mothers from the Ashburton area. It's basically getting suburban families to become aware about climate change."

Have Families Facing Climate Change built any affiliations with any other action groups?

"We've been asked a few times by different groups but really the main thrust about what we're trying to do is work with anybody who is interested in trying to get some results, so we don't want to align ourselves with any party one way or the other. We're just trying to get something done about it."

Are you trying to generate your group with any other families in any other suburbs?

'Yeah, family based, community based. My wife has run a number of question and answer sessions for local members, so they can come and answer any questions with the election coming up. And that sort of model has been taken to other areas - bayside areas and eastern suburb areas and that's been successful."

Have you had any coverage in the press?

" There has been coverage in The Age and in the local papers so it's done well."

Do you have a website?

"We do have a website, we were lucky to get climatechange.org.au and that was a bit of a surprise."

Peter, aged 78 from West Heidelberg

Why are you joining the 'Walk Against Warming'?

"I've got eight grandchildren and I'm very worried about the world we're going to leave for the grandchildren, your grandchildren and my grandchildren."

What would you like the Australian Government to do about climate change after the election?

"I'd like climate change to be taken seriously and not wait for other people to do something. I think the attitude is that we have to show the example, take the lead rather than wait for someone else to take the lead and we follow them, at this stage we're not leading, if anything we are following and if we're following anybody we're following the Americans - and they're doing nothing."

So you want Kyoto ratified?

"Ratifying Kyoto is a step in the right direction and indicates a willingness to participate, rather than just wait for somebody else do something, we must lead in this if we claim to be an advanced society. We know we are one of the highest per capita contributors to pollution and global warming. We've got to lead, we're morally obliged to set a lead."

Are you aware of the meeting in Bali about the next Kyoto Protocol?

"I'm afraid it's going to be like CHOGM and many of these other global meetings, everybody is going to nod and sort of say yes and we'll take that under advisement and we'll consider that and we'll put that on our agenda for our next meeting and nobody will really do much.

Are you happy for Australia to commit to binding targets for the second phase of Kyoto with developing countries only committing to binding targets for the third phase?

"If we want the developing nations to do something, surely we have to set them the lead rather than wait for them to lead us. Do we really expect India and China to show us the way to go? Or should we show them the way to go?"

Would you be happy with Peter Garrett being Australia's representative in Bali?

"Yeah sure, why not, he's got a long standing commitment to protecting the environment, that's a known fact."

What other climate change initiatives would you like the Government to take on?

"The control of pollution in every way, the subsidising of solar hot water systems, the subsidising of rain water storage tanks. If you go to the north west coast of Western Australia every house has got a solar hot water thing on the roof of it. The whole of Australia should do that. We're a nation with one of the greatest number of hours of sunshine and we're pitiful in this area."

Are you aligned with any group or political party?

"I'm not a member of any political party nor aligned with any group. I'm a seventy eight year old semi retired aged pensioner who is concerned for the future, the future of my eight grand children."

Why aren't your grandchildren here with you today?

"They possibly are, they possibly are but we don't live together, they're spread around the suburbs of Melbourne. I'm sure some of them are here, I'm just looking for them now."

Alistair, The Greens candidate for Chisholm

Why have you come along today?

"Climate change is the thing that actually motivated me to stand for The Greens in the first place and this is the big event, so the bigger the crowd here the more impetuous it gives the whole climate change campaign."

How long have you been a member of The Greens?

"I've only been a member for about two years."

How are you finding the experience of being a candidate?

"Great , really good! A lot of people are starting to think about the issues now, whether it's enough we'll found out in a couple of weeks. Climate change is a much bigger issue than it was."

As a candidate for The Greens do you have much contact with Bob Brown and the other leaders of The Greens?

"We've had Christine Milne come out and she did a fundraising dinner for us, so I had the opportunity to have a good chat with her. She's done a huge amount as an energy spokesperson and a climate change spokesperson, she put out the Energising Australia Report which is like a blueprint for The Greens. So there is very open communication."

Have you had any unique experiences in Chisholm when you've been out selling your party at Shopping Centres?

"One thing I've really discovered is that you can't judge people's attitudes by how they look. I'm often in the situation where you'll see someone coming towards you at a Shopping Centre and you'll think this person won't be interested in The Greens but he'll come up and shake your hand and say fantastic."

If Labor won Government and Peter Garrett was Environment Minister - how do you think he'd go?

"Well that's probably the big unknown given his recent comments but we can live in hope that he might not have been jesting the other day. I think the interesting comment in the paper the other day was that if Labor does get in and if Labor put Peter Garrett in Environment, he'll spend all his time being conflicted."

Do you think Peter Garrett would represent Australia's interests well in Bali this December?

"I don't think it's Peter Garrett that is the issue, it's Labor that's the issue, Kevin Rudd is pretty far to the right, a sort of John Howard-Lite, so I don't think Peter Garrett is going to make that big of a difference."

Tim Costello the Executive Director of World Vision

"Lest we forget, as we honour those who have fallen on the eleventh of the eleventh. We gather to honour a fragile, fallen, even frail planet. We know the planet is not well. We know the planet is not well because of us. We know we can do something about this. This is no longer just an environmental issue, it's become a political issue and politics at least is a renewable resource."

"Two years ago with a federal election coming, no one would have thought that an environmental issue may determine the next government. It's become a moral and a justice issue. One of the reasons that World Vision has become so committed to this is that 98% of people who die from global warming triggered disasters and diseases are in the developing world."

Bill Beatson, Gippsland Farmer

"I've got to say today that I'm a bit gobsmacked to be here, and I'm even more gobsmacked by the number of people who are standing before me today."

"In 1966 my father bought a diary farm in South Gippsland and I've been there ever since. I run cattle and my wife runs Alpakas. When I was lad and we started farming I really didn't think too much about environment, in fact environmentalists were not on my radar at all."

"I started to get uneasy about climate change I guess about twenty years ago. The more I read the more people were talking climate change and global warming earlier than that, the more I read I became concerned, and the more I saw the situation changing in South Gippsland the more I felt the need to be part of the people that cared about our future."

" Gippsland used to be known as the place where it rains nine months of the year and drips off the trees for the other three. It was green in summer and brown in winter, brown in winter because of the mud and it's not like that anymore. When we started farming you were lucky to not be pulling your gumboots out of the mud in winter."