Councillors need to 'converse' more with the community | Letters to the editor

When the meeting was held in the town hall covering the rate rise there were very few people that turned up considering how many people live in Tamworth.

Then when I went to Barraba there were just as many people even more that turned up and very interested in the rate rise process, and the same at Manilla. Why?

I'm amazed so many people are standing for council when some are standing on federal government tickets. To my way of thinking you should be only representing the people of your community and look after the problems they face.

Here we are now facing the possibility of losing our council chambers, Ray Walsh House, through a blunder of wrong decisions made by this council. Just what were they thinking?

This council is only thinking of Tamworth alone and not thinking of developing the wider community.

As I said when I spoke at the council meeting, this council has lost the plot when it comes to looking after what the community needs, and what council really stands for.

Please be open with your people, don't send out a piece of paper with things already written of what you think they need.

Converse with your community.

People standing for a position on council should be over 35 with a little more experience in the world, preferably they should be 45.

I do hope that whoever gets a position on our new council thinks of the wider community and will be open and converse about the decisions they are making.

Daphney Mandel, Tamworth

European climate service Copernicus has recently reported heat records that are off the charts for June.

In India last month, over a thousand people died in an extreme heatwave of over 52 degrees, meanwhile in Australia, our weather systems have also gone haywire.

A severe winter chill with record low temperatures has just hit Tassie, Adelaide and Melbourne.

It's predicted that unusually heavy rain will follow on the east coast and inland.

These weird extremes are all signs of a climate breakdown, yet Labor continues to promote gas as a primary energy source for decades to come.

Surely it makes more sense to phase out this heavy pollutant for export and domestic use, keeping only a small amount as a reservation fuel.

The government's Future Gas Strategy is clearly not where Australia's future lies.

Anne O'Hara, Wanniassa

Global average temperature is now rising faster than ever before in the history of the Earth.

Scientists have been warning for years that global average temperature must be kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to avoid extremely dangerous climate tipping points.

In July and August 2023 average world temperature reached 1.6 C. above pre-industrial levels.

Australia is the second largest exporter of coal in the world. Burning coal to create energy is the prime cause of rising world temperatures.

Is our Federal Government at all concerned concerning the above facts?

Brian Measday, Kingswood