GAWLER Council will once again support an international climate change strike set to take place in Adelaide later this month.
Elected members at their August meeting voted to support a motion from councillor Ian Tooley calling for the council to support the strike and to recognise the “world is facing a climate crisis”.
Two climate strikes are set to be held in Adelaide’s Victoria Square later this month, with a student strike organised for Friday, September 20 and a “general” strike set for September 27.
Cr Tooley’s motion faced opposition from councillors Paul Koch and David Hughes due to its use of the wording “climate emergency” and “climate crisis”.
An amendment put forward by Cr Koch to remove the phrases was defeated.
Councillor Paul Little supported Cr Tooley’s motion, but warned not everyone may be friendly to council supporting the climate strike.
“Once you use the word strike, you do upset people, I’ll vote for the motion as it is, but I must put in my acknowledgement that the word strike is a divisive word.
“I like our climate emergency management plan, and I think we are in a climate crisis, but a general climate strike in Victoria Square is fine, but I don’t like the word strike.
“I’ve been around this planet a fair while and I’ve seen a lot of changes.
“I’ve found strikes do two things, you get a lot of w****** at it and you get a lot of people offside.
“A strike never achieves anything.”
Councillor Kevin Goldstone also opposed supporting a “strike” movement.
In response, Cr Tooley said he “respects” the other elected members views, but thought strong language and action was needed in the motion.
“At this strike you won’t see a disruption to traffic, you won’t see people gluing themselves to things,” he said.
“What you will see are some very enthusiastic students and people that are supporting it like they did during the last strike.
“This is a global action, by bringing so many people to Victoria Square the hope is to do a really good thing, to put pressure on politicians to say ‘enough is enough’.
Cr Tooley’s motion also called for the council to “strongly support” the climate strike and to upgrade 10 placards to read “Gawler Council supports strong action on climate change”.
The council previously supported a similar climate strike in Adelaide in March.