CLIMATE change activists have been labelled lunatics and bullies during Orange City Council's latest debate on the issue, yet agreement was reached to plan to mitigate risks.
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Councillor Stephen Nugent asked on Tuesday night to develop a strategic policy on the council's future response to climate change, including mitigation, adaption and risk management.
The move happened after two residents addressed the council, saying it had not done enough.
"As effectively a board of directors running a company, one of the roles and responsibilities is to identify and manage risk," Cr Nugent said.
"Climate change is happening and it's a significant risk."
He said the council had a responsibility to manage risk on behalf of staff and residents.
I won't be bullied by people who read things and say that's the truth.
- Mayor Reg Kidd
Unlike previously when Cr Nugent pushed to declare a climate emergency, his colleagues were swayed to support the motion.
Councillor Jeff Whitton said it would help identify things the council might be doing wrong.
"It might educate some of us in this room about, one, where we are as a city addressing climate to date and, two, what do we need to fill in the gaps?" he said.
"Strategic policies are about filling in the gaps."
However, they received opposition from councillors Tony Mileto and Kevin Duffy.
Cr Mileto argued the council needed to be realistic on what could be achieved and closing down coalfired power stations would cut global emissions by a fraction of a per cent.
"Council staff do not need to be further burdened responding to requests of this nature at an unnecessary cost to the ratepayers when they're already wrestling with the issue on a daily basis," he said.
Watch the debate here - start at two hours, 10 minutes in, Cr Kidd speaks at two hours, 33 minutes...
Cr Duffy was even more critical, saying "here we go again" and the council's potential impact of climate change was "not going to kill us".
"This is just another generic Greens motion," he said.
"We started with the ozone layer, then we had global cooling, then we had global warming, then we got climate change, then we got climate emergency and now we've got extinction rebellion, the list goes on."
Mayor Reg Kidd supported the motion and believed in climate change, but only after lecturing the public gallery on how lobbyists had treated councillors.
"I do know that research done six years ago showed the longest drought ever in the world was back in the ice age and it went for 37 years," he said.
"Wildfires have decelerated in the last three decades."
He said scientists were not in agreement about climate change and he had a degree in science.
"The pity here is that anybody who has an alternate view or wants to state what their facts are is a [heretic] - you're put down," he said.
"I like working of facts and I like working on good science and I don't like being threatened."
Cr Kidd pointed out the council was investing in LED lights, solar panels, energy audits, an electric car charging station and carbon sinks at the Ploughmans Wetlands.
"Again, we overlook that," he said.
He said one of the Extinction Rebellion's co-founders likened climate change to genocide.
"That's a horrible thing to say and he's a lunatic," he said.
"I won't be bullied by people who read things and say that's the truth."
The vote was split, with councillors Nugent, Kidd, Whitton, Glenn Taylor, Joanne McRae, Jason Hamling and Sam Romano in support and councillors Duffy, Mileto, Scott Munro and Russell Turner against.
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