Harkin is a candidate for the seat that takes in progressive areas such as St Kilda,which has a high number of LGBTQ residents. Labor holds Macnamara with a 6.25 per cent margin,but the Liberals came close to winning in 2016.
Responding to a question from Sharma,17,Harkin told her potential constituents that talking about a climate emergency was doing a disservice to young people.
“In my view,it borders on abuse,” she said. “The earth is not going to implode next week,next month,next year ... We all want a clean environment – we all want that. But to teach children that there is an emergency is nothing short of almost abuse ... We have eight-year-old children who are stressed about the environment. We’ve taught them to be stressed.”
Harkin,who has been involved in the IT sector and worked for Senator Jane Hume,suggested that many young Australians could not sleep well and worried about raising children of their own because of their fearabout rising temperatures and flow-on effects to living standards.
Sharma interjected that,“I’m one of those 16-25 year olds who sometimes can’t sleep at night because I see what’s happening”.
“India is in spring right now – it’s April and the temperature there is 48,49 degrees. There are headlines saying people in Delhi and Karachi,where my family are,they can’t breathe right now. Nobody is teaching me that this is an emergency. I FaceTimed my grandma. She’s in hospital because she fainted from heatstroke last week and I see there’s an emergency. Nobody is teaching me this.”