Politics

Drop Everything And Watch This Video Of A Former Greens MP Throwing Up While Holding A Dead Fish

Talk about giving back to the environment.

Video of Jeremy Buckingham vomiting while holding a dead Murray-Darling cod fish.

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Right now, there’s a massive crisis enveloping the Murray-Darling river system in NSW. Farmers, locals and Indigenous leaders have been trying to draw attention to the problem for a long time now, and today former Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham did his part to help out by filming himself throwing up on a dead fish.

Buckingham quit the Greens party in December, following allegations that he sexually harassed a staffer and behaved aggressively towards women in the party. At the time, he denied the allegations, and said he was quitting because the Greens were no longer focused on the environment.

Fast forward to today, where we find Buckingham standing on the banks of the Murray Darling, cradling a dead fish to demonstrate his own commitment to the environment. That commitment lasted approximately 45 seconds before Buckingham just couldn’t take it and started to throw up, as the local residents standing beside him watched dispassionately.

Talk about giving back to the environment, hey.

And if you’re wondering what happened off camera, Buckingham has clarified on Twitter. “I felt so sick that I panicked and jumped in the river to escape it,” he said — a stunningly stupid response given that the river is currently full of dead fish.

Enough about Buckingham, though. If this is your first time hearing about the dead fish problem, it’s pretty crucial that you learn about it now. Over the past few weeks, tens of thousands of fish have been killed in the Murray-Darling river system in a tragedy locals say is a result of the NSW Government’s water mismanagement. The problem has been building for years, but warnings from local Indigenous people, farmers and other concerned groups have largely been ignored.

Just a few days ago, a much sadder video of people cradling dead fish went viral, which explains the disaster. In it, local residents from Menindee hold the bodies of 100-year-old cod which were killed in the latest environmental disaster. “This has nothing to do with drought, this is a man-made disaster brought to you by the NSW government, the federal government, and the Murray-Darling authority,” they explain, pointing to government decisions to drain lakes in the area.

It’s worth watching, and sharing. You can find out more information on the crisis and how you can help here.