Written By Jonathan Lian.

A green change might be on its way to the Melbourne CBD as the Tarneit Secondary College (TSC) team’s bill passes the Legislative Council after a fiery debate on the second day of the YMCA Youth Parliament.

The team’s bill which calls for mandatory rooftop gardens in the CBD was a hot topic for discussion during the proceedings as both teams exchanged fiery comments around the environment and climate change.

“Melbourne is recognised as being the most liveable city in the world,” Raiane Oliveira, a member of the TSC team, said in their speech.

“But we have to make it the most environmentally sustainable as well.” they added.

Agnes Agaia of the TSC team also said that Eco-friendly cities such as Singapore and Dubai have already implemented rooftop gardens that provided benefits to the community such as fresh food produced from the gardens and a better environment awareness education.

However, the refuting Westbourne Girls Grammar (WGG) team fired back about the impractical nature of rooftop gardens citing high costs of maintenance, harsher conditions and poor building infrastructures as highly unsuitable for plant life.
“Functionality is as important as idealism,” said WGG team member Gianluca Varala.

“We suggest other alternatives to minimise the urban heat and pollution in the CBD such as cooling roof materials and solar panels,” added Tasha Gacutran of the same team.

Aside from debating the bill’s functionality, TSC’s Kaaled Kenjo also gave an empowering speech on immediate action to combat climate change which will save endangered species from extinction.

“This is our Earth and it is melting,” He said, while holding up an ice cube.

“We must not allow our environment to suffer so our future kids can still see polar bears roaming this earth.”

The WGG team refuted their comments, saying that if polar bears cannot adapt to climate change, they are doomed as a species and helping them would be fruitless.