Council Elections 2016: BSFG Surveys candidate’s attitudes to urgent action on climate change.

4/10/2016

BSFG President John Lloyd has surveyed candidates for the Benalla Rural City 2016 Council Election to find out about each candidate’s attitude to taking action on climate change.
The survey questions were;
Q1. Do you support an urgent transition away from polluting fossil fuels towards clean energy?
Q2. In order to address dangerous climate change, how will you use your position on council to ensure council moves quickly towards zero pollution?
Q3. Do you personally care about cutting pollution, supporting clean energy and addressing dangerous climate change?
The survey was emailed to all candidates who provided email addresses and posted to the others.
Responses to the survey will be made available to our members and people on our mailing list. A letter to the editor of the October 5 Benalla Ensign will also inform readers that full responses can be found on the BSFG website.
Some candidates have responded by commenting below in this News item . Edited comments have been included in the following response file.
Click here to view and download the responses so far. This file will be updated when further responses are received.

5 Comments

Margaret Richards

5/10/2016 11:02:56 am

Q1. YES!
Q2. I have fully supported the investigation of an alternative energy project for Benalla. And will insure that Council seek a funding by way of an application in early 2017.
Q3. I was instrumental in supporting the ORGANICS waste introduction in 2015. This has been a great saving to the cost a of landfill.

Margaret Richards

5/10/2016 11:03:53 pm

Street lighting has been largely replaced by low energy lights.
The Gallery has solar panels, rain water tanks and the air conditioning upgraded to be more efficient.
Other municipal buildings have been able to be fitted with solar panels due to cost savings at the Gallery.
Air conditioning at the Council Offices does not operate if a window is opened, thus saving on running costs.

Margaret Richards

5/10/2016 11:03:59 pm

Margaret Richards

5/10/2016 11:04:12 pm

Phil Hauptmann

6/10/2016 11:15:22 am

Hi John
Sorry for the late reply. My family and I live in an area that has little mobile coverage and we don't have a Telstra cable going past our house leaving us with no option other than Telstra for our coverage. Due to the high data demand in the last month we have run out of usage and have only just been able to rectify the problem.
Yes I believe in a transition away from fossil fuel and a low environmental footprint . So much so I built a house out of 90% recycled material. It has a 5kw solar system, a worm treatment plant, solar hot water service with lpg gas back up, heating is a wood stove fired hydronic system which also has solar back up and doubles as hot water back up. We have two cars that run on lpg.
I have fenced off my section of the Hollands Creek so my stock can't get to the water.
Benalla could start to do a lot more to reduce our carbon footprint. Solar systems on council buildings driving more economical cars. Maybe even a carbon offset.
There would be a lot more ways and would look forward to your input if elected
We have a council that has had a lot of time to implement change, repair infrastructure and get Benalla back on track. But has failed to do so, now we have to listen to all the promises, which on last Wednesday night sounded like a Bill Shorten Malcolm Turbull election campaign.
We need a council that listens to the intelligence of the community and not one that regards itself so arrogant that their way is the only way.
Feel free to ring me anytime you like to discus these important issues
Cheers Phil
0407232822

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