Ed, 

Last Thursday a group of local residents enjoyed chatting with some councillors and Clarence Valley Council staff at Iluka’s Community Drop-in Session. It’s great to see our new council getting out and about for the next couple of weeks to listen to local residents’ concerns. 

I was delighted that a councillor I talked to at the session believes our new council is a workable and visionary council, a council that sees importance in greater transparency as a means of achieving a greater level of trust and respect in the community.

An aspect of the draft Community Strategic Plan that pleases me greatly is that so many Clarence Valley residents now place far greater importance on addressing environmental issues so that in future there will be less frequent and severe climate extremes such as the massive recent flooding in the Northern Rivers and before that the widespread Black Summer bushfires.

This is a very important Federal election with so many voters now demanding that our next Federal government establishes an effective Federal Integrity Commission with teeth, that will hold our Federal politicians to account and a government that will now adequately address climate change. 

And this is the $64,000 question for the voters of Page, who value their children and grandchildren as much as they value themselves. Will the voters of Page vote for the politicians who they believe will best help our communities regain our trust in the integrity of those Federal politicians we vote for and will those we vote for now adequately address climate change so that there will be a sustainable future for all those we love, for the future is what we choose.

Harry Johnson, Iluka