Climate change continues to divide Orange City Council with councillors unable to support young people attending the Global Climate Strike in Robertson Park later this month, but more on the issue later.

The thing that was most noticeable to those who witnessed Tuesday's meeting was the way in which councillors treated their colleague who raised the issue, Stephen Nugent.

Several councillors interjected during the course of the debate, Cr Nugent's political persuasion as a Green was attacked and it was even stated he was boring them.

This was despite being given the floor uninterrupted when they spoke on other issues during the course of the night.

If they felt local government was not the correct forum to be talking about climate change or encouraging young people to strike on a weekday, they were entitled to that opinion and some did indeed express that in a respectful way.

But dealing with the issue in such an abrupt and, at times, callous way sends the message to the young people who do feel strongly about the issue that their opinion does not matter.

There probably were problems with the motion - if the council were merely to offer in-kind support to the rally organisers, who knows? Climate change itself might have been put to one side in favour of giving youngsters a voice and we may have seen a different result.

Perhaps asking the council to encourage people to strike and write to state and federal governments to do more on the issue was stretching it too far for a council that has already demonstrated a reluctance to add its weight to the climate debate, despite in practice being very pro-environment.

It has been pointed out the gap is widening between emerging leaders and those who lead us at present.

Is it right for students to leave school to strike? School is important for sure, but will an hour out of the day really matter in the long run?

Is there any point in having a rally on a Saturday when the intent is to create the maximum impact?

Should young people be striking if they are not yet considered mature and responsible enough to vote?

These are all valid questions, but we are poorly equipped to consider them if we can't do it in a mature and responsible way.

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