Dear PM, I think you have something to say to the kids ...

Our climate-rallying schoolchildren deserve a lot more than an apology, but ‘sorry’ would be a good start.

It’s been a while since an Australian Prime Minister said sorry. The list of those who deserve one isn’t growing any shorter. But somewhere near the top of it right now is a whole lot of our kids – in particular the young students you took to the streets only a matter of months ago to call for climate action.

Mr Morrison, you owe them an apology. To call your response at the time childish is to do a disservice to children. Just to jog your memory, while those schoolkids stood up for the future of our planet, you and your mob questioned their motives. You questioned the motives of children, Mr Prime Minister.

You implied that thousands upon thousands of Australian kids were wasting their time thinking and acting in the interests of the planet. You suggested that these kids couldn’t think for themselves. You blamed their parents. You talked of “climate anxiety”, as if denial anxiety was somehow a better way to go. You ignored the positive and concocted the negative. In short, you and your cohorts tried to make those kids feel small.

You failed, miserably.  

And yet listen to yourself now. I mean really listen. Try to appreciate what you’re telling these same young Australians you so energetically dismissed. You’re telling them we must adapt to climate change. You. Are. Telling. Them. Heaven help us. What planet are you on? Not the same one those youngsters marched for, it would seem.

Those kids were “adapting” long before you spun the word into your latest slogan, Mr Prime Minister. They are light years ahead of you on the adaptation front. Through peaceful protest they were facing climate change head on. They were taking steps, quite literally, to try to get people like you talking about climate change. Instead, you and your ilk chose to stick to bigger issues – like kids missing class for half a day.  

And now you think you have something to teach them about a changing planet? Without so much as a “sorry kids, I should have listened”?

Get a grip, Mr Prime Minister. These kids were leading the way long before your comm car brought up the rear. Because that’s what leadership is about. It’s about taking the initiative, even if it means copping flak from the viscous and self-interested few. It’s about accepting the science, God forbid, and calling for action at every level.

It’s not about slinking into class late to lecture kids with hollow words on what they already know. It’s about first acknowledging the debt you owe to those who went before you – in this case the young campaigners you mocked. It’s about admitting that at best, the rallies brought out your petulant side. And at worst, they showed you up as a bully.

So how about it, Mr Prime Minister? Now that you’ve apparently stopped ignoring science, maybe you could also stop grossly underestimating children. As it happens, both are crucial to our future. By deriding the kids’ actions, you and your government disrespected all that lies ahead. By failing to say sorry you not only ignore the basics of common decency, you also fail parenting 101.

We all know it’s not easy, but when you behave like a churlish idiot in front of the children you say sorry. Parents are forever telling kids to apologise for their thoughtlessness, their selfishness, their ignorance. The idea is it turns them into decent human beings. It’s obviously not foolproof. But like the planet, it’s the best we’ve got.

It’s worth remembering that kids learn by our actions, or lack thereof. Which is why we are all meant to play by the same rules. When we fail as grown-ups we need to say so. We need to tell the children straight up: we’re sorry. That’s how respect and trust are earned. Funnily enough, political leadership is meant to work the same way.