Climate Matters: Hills Shire

The first meeting of our new council for 2022 was scheduled for February 8.  But now we find that an extraordinary meeting has been called for tomorrow (Tuesday, January 11) before the new councillors have even undergone their induction briefings. And the reason* for this extraordinary meeting is truly ... extraordinary!  With unseemly haste, the new Liberal mayor and two of the new Liberal councillors have moved to undo one of the very few nods of the previous council towards climate action. In November last year, then Councillors Jackson and Haseldon put a motion to  " commit to the development of an Energy Strategy to review our use of renewable energy and to reduce reliance on fossil fuels such as coal, gas, petrol and diesel ."  That motion was passed.  It didn't amount to much really - no commitment to a renewable energy target, let alone an emissions target.  Really it was just a plan to make a plan ... possibly ... subject to the resulting Energy St...

  Disclaimer: I am no psephologist.  I am very open to being corrected by those more expert than me :-) Summary Elections NSW have 124 council elections to count.  At the moment only first preference votes have been counted - and not all of them at that.  Final results will not be declared until a couple of days before Christmas. However, some results either seem clear or have at least been claimed by the participants on the basis of results so far: Contest Result FP Counted Enrolled MAYOR Peter Gangemi (Liberal) * 61,133 121,336 CENTRAL WARD Jessica Brazier (Liberal) Mark Hodges (Liberal) Tony Hay (Labor) * 10,779 30,885 EAST WARD Jerome Cox (Liberal) Reena Jethi (Liberal) * Ryan Tracey (Labor) * 12,217 29,400 NORTH WARD Virginia Ellis (Liberal) Mitchell Blue (Liberal) undecided : Mila Kasby (Greens) leading 13,659 32,462 WEST WARD Rosemarie Boneham (Liberal) Frank de Masi (Liberal) * Barbara Burton (Labor) 10,986 29,949 * Sitting councillor There are no counts yet ...

  Someone close to me saw the letterbox flyer for one of the political parties standing for election to council in the North Ward.  They saw four smiling, relatively young fresh faces and some fine, flowery short bios.  And they commented "They look like a nice, bright, hard-working group of young people.  Seems like a better option than some of the dinosaurs on the present council." I fell off my chair. But I continued the conversation, even from my position flat on the floor... So, are they "nice"?  I don't personally know any of them and I couldn't say.  Nor can most of you, I expect.  It doesn't matter much - it's what they stand for that matters. Are they bright and hard-working?  Very probably, I imagine.  And so too (I imagine) are many of the candidates - from other parties and the independents.  These are important attributes for anybody seeking public office - but it's not enough - it's what they work for that really counts. ...