An Aussie comedian has managed to raise more than $145,000 for a brazen stunt designed to publicly shame the Federal Government.
An Australian comedian has raised a staggering pile of cash in a bid to publicly shame the Morrison government over its inaction on climate change.
Dan Ilic, the host of the A Rational Fear podcast, raised the money via crowd-funding platform Indiegogo.
So far, hisJokeKeeper: Shaming Australia’s climate inactionfundraiser has collected more than $145,000 and – according to the page – Ilic is dedicated to using “subversive comedy to ridicule fossil fuel supporting parties in the upcoming federal election”.
The purpose of the campaign is to erect a billboard mocking Australia’s climate policies at COP26 – the United Nations’ upcoming climate change convention in Glasgow, which will kick off on October 31.
A similar message will also appear on the biggest billboard in New York’s Times Square on Friday morning Australian time.
The 20-metre-high billboard – which is so massive it has been nicknamed “Godzilla” – will include eight different artworks and messages which will be played on a loop for the 10 minutes it has been booked for.
They will include slogans such as: “Cuddle a koala (before we make them extinct) and “Dear World … yeah, look … sorry about our government bullsh*ting about our emissions targets – Australia”.
The billboards are the work of Brisbane artist James Hillier, also known as Nordacious.
Similar billboards will also pop up in some regional electorates in Australia including New England, Torquay, Horsham and Hawthorn.
In a video spruiking the plan, Ilic urged Aussies living in the US who “care about how the Australian government misrepresents you on the world stage” to head down to Times Square and “record it, tweet it, ‘gram it, TikTok it, Facebook it” to help spread the message.
“Despite the majority of Australians wanting our government to do more on climate action, Australia at these talks is enemy number one,” he said in the clip.
“We lie, we cheat, we make stuff up – the Australian government at these talks basically acts un-Australian.”
An event listing on Facebook for the Times Square billboard – which will only appear for 10 minutes – also calls on Aussies in the area to share photos of the campaign.
“I’m really pumped we could do this, it’s all thanks to you, regular Australians who are p*ssed off about the way our government does nothing to take responsibility for climate action,” Mr Ilic wrote on that listing.
The message will appear on the Godzilla Billboard at Broadway between 45th and 46th street on Thursday, October 14 from 6.45pm to 6.55pm US time.
Ilic’s campaign comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison was called out by Prince Charles himself, after it emerged that the Australian leader might not even turn up to the event in Scotland.
The royal was informed of Mr Morrison’s shocking stance by a reporter, and couldn’t hide his disappointment.
“I, is that what he says, does he? Mmm,’’ Prince Charles responded, before explaining why it was so crucial world leaders attend.
“The point being that this is a last chance saloon. If we don’t really take the decisions that are vital now, it’s going to be almost impossible to catch up,’’ he said.
“It will be a disaster. I mean it will be catastrophic. It is already beginning to be catastrophic because nothing in nature can survive the stress that is created by these extremes of weather.”
For all the latest Technology News Click Here
