This Federal Minister Just Admitted The Government Doesn’t Care About Young Australians

It’s been pretty clear for a while that the current government isn’t keen on looking after the interests of young Australians. Whether it’s their failure to seriously tackle housing affordability, constant cuts to education funding, or punitive attacks on young people receiving welfare, our generation has become a bit of a punching bag for federal politicians.

But now a government minister has decided to take things even further by basically declaring war on everyone who will be alive in 2050.

Instead of trying to save the planet in 2050 the QLD labor should just concentrate on saving jobs today!

— Matthew Canavan (@mattjcan) July 11, 2017

Canavan is a Nationals senator representing Queensland and the federal minister for resources and northern Australia, which basically means he’s the minister in charge of trying to get the Adani coal mine built. His tweet was in response to the Queensland Labor government’s new target of zero net carbon emissions by 2050.

The federal government has been doing everything it can to get the Adani mine up and running, including pushing through changes to Indigenous land rights legislation to pave the way for the mine’s construction.

Canavan’s tweet is a pretty extraordinary admission that the current federal government absolutely does not give a shit about climate change, or even just ensuring there’s enough of a planet left for future generations to live on. Instead he wants to prioritise “jobs today”, because who even cares if we end up cooking ourselves to death as long as huge multinational coal companies can make a quick buck?

But here’s the thing: there aren’t even that many jobs in the Adani coal mine! Malcolm Turnbull keeps saying the mine will create “tens of thousands” of jobs but Adani’s own expert witness told a court that it would only lead to about 1,200 new jobs.

On the other hand, reports suggest that up to 10,000 jobs could be lost in Queensland due to environmental damage affecting the Great Barrier Reef. So Canavan wants to create some jobs now, in order to lose a whole bunch more jobs in the future, and consign the planet to environmental catastrophe. Makes sense.

People are not impressed.

Shut the fuck up

— dan (@dannolan) July 11, 2017

I’d volunteer for unemployment now in exchange for liveable planet in 2050 when my kids are 39. Any decent, sane person would.

— Caitlin Fitzsimmons (@niltiac) July 11, 2017

Dear Matthew #Adani will kill as many coal jobs as it creates, not to mention lost tourism jobs #nojobsonadeadplanet https://t.co/bnFl197uVW

— John Englart EAM (@takvera) July 11, 2017

Do you have kids? A heart…or the ability to play a board game? Like thinking more then one step ahead?
How did you become a minister?

— Anthony Dockrill (@AnthonyDockrill) July 11, 2017

So there’s no jobs in the imminent future for Qld’ers? How many jobs and taxes does the GB reef & beaches/nature in QLD generate? #auspol

— Cecilia Storniolo (@Cecilia_St) July 11, 2017

We’ve known for a while that this government isn’t that interested in taking real action on climate change, but it’s still pretty disturbing to see an actual minister just blatantly front up and admit that they do not care about the future.

Climate change is very real and it’s already happening. Most federal politicians might not be around long enough to experience its impacts, but young Australians will be and this sort of statement is a huge slap to the face.

What’s even more depressing is that even though Canavan is trying to attack the Queensland Labor government for its emissions target, they actually still support the Adani coal mine. So the whole debate is basically a charade. The federal government and Queensland state government are pretty much on the same page when it comes to building a mine that will consign the Great Barrier Reef to death.

No wonder young people think politics is a giant crock of shit.

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Feature image via Facebook