Published On: 10/08/2015

Having read the materials supplied, I’m struggling to understand why such a significant amount of time and resources has been devoted to this, but it lives in the same category I expect as the energy Master Plan.

My favourite recommendation in Mr Ambrose’s report is at point 21 being:

21. Advocate for increased police and security presence in extreme events specially in transport hubs or areas of traffic congestion to manage the impact from distressed, aggravated and or displaced travellers.

When I see a cranky traveller on a hot day, I’ll be sure to dial 000. I don’t need a City of Sydney consultant’s report to tell me that.

I will make one observation at the outset, which I have found very useful and would like you all to consider.

If you can’t exercise control over something, you should not devote too much time to worrying about it.

We make that mistake constantly and send Taxpayers the bill.

The City of Sydney, struggling to make progress in any other area, appears to invent a string of imaginary hobgoblins of which this is the latest.

We are offering the people of this LGA a strategy to adapt to what we think may happen in the next 55 years in respect of climate.

I have a bit of news for you in respect of this, these same people adapt to climate every day of the week, every month of the year, and every changing season.

Human beings are adapters by nature inventing technology at the right time to solve problems. That’s why God gave people brains and didn’t invent Local Government, we had to.

I don’t know what the weather will be like in 2030, 2050 or 2070.

I do know one thing, The City of Sydney will have no control over it, invent nothing to solve it, and so the Council should worry instead about the line of constituents unable to adapt to our every ridiculous processes that stops them from getting on with it.

There are other branches of Government tasked and resourced to deal with this, we are not.

Most of the issues identified such as health issues and bushfire mitigation don’t relate either to this local government, or are so geographically removed as to make them a non issue for us.

The water usage plan deserves its own honourable mention. Framed in 2006, when Tim Flannery’s paranoia was heading towards its dizzying peak and everyone was going Kyoto protocol crazy, Sydney was to run out of water in 2007. Sydney’s dam levels today? 92.8%.

Council agendas of the day show we just had to jump on that “end of the world” bandwagon. The snake oil shop called and you’re their best seller Lord Mayor!

We ran around putting water meters on everything and concocting elaborate save the world plans when our constituents, other than the 500 stooges who turned up years ago to give their 97% approval for this flight of fancy, just wanted a local government to perform its basic functions as their first order of business.

There’s no water shortage, we are not as Mr Flannery maintained, running out of water. I suspect that many of these imaginary hobgoblins in this so-called Master Plan will also fail to materialise.

But let me tell you one thing in closing. The air has never been cleaner, thanks to unleaded petrol and emissions controls on cars and power stations.

The water we drink never cleaner and we have never lived so long or so well.

And somehow we solved Y2K without any aircraft falling form the skies.

I trust human ingenuity to solve the big issues. The Tech Startup Action Plan on tonight’s agenda will do more for Climate Adaptation that this bumbling bureaucracy ever will.

I know Lord Mayor you like doomsday scenarios and they comfort you when you go to sleep but the truth is that the world is a great place and we don’t need another Consultants report to file away and forget about after sending the bill to Taxpayers for it.

But I’m sure between now the next election the Ocean will call the City of Sydney and say they’re running out of shrimp.