Faced with a handful of climate activists marching on his Bulleen electorate office on November 7, state Liberal opposition leader Matthew Guy decided to lock the door and pull the shutters down.
According to protesters, which included a number of babies and more than a few with grey hair, what Guy feared most was that their action, just weeks out from the November 24 state elections, would expose the Liberalsβ complete lack of a climate policy.
Repower Victoria North East spokesperson Giuseppe Scelsi told the protest: βThe scariest part in all this is not the bleak scenarios depicted in the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report. The scariest part is to see the total lack of concern, consideration and often understanding from most of our elected representatives at both state and federal level, and in particular from the Liberal and National parties.
βThis month we are called to elect our state representatives for the next four years. These four years will be decisive in the fight against climate change, decisive for the fate of the children and grandchildren that will follow us.
βAnd yet, among the more than 100 βpoliciesβ taken to the elections by the Victorian Liberal party, we see no trace of the word βclimateβ,β Scelsi said.
Scelsi later handed a letter drafted by the group and a copy of the latest IPCC report to Guy's office.