Council on Copenhagen: Don’t call it a junket

Jessica Benton
ANOTHER Geelong councillor is packing his bags for an overseas trip at the expense of ratepayers.
Councillors have voted unanimously to send John Doull to Copenhagen for a United Nations Climate Conference next month.
The 16-day trip, from December 4 to December 19, will cost ratepayers $6900.
But councillors have urged ratepayers to avoid considering the trip a “junket”.
Cr Jan Farrell said Cr Doull’s itinerary was jam-packed.
“I sometimes laugh at the word junket being attached to these trips,” she said.
“If you look at the itinerary, Cr Doull’s days start at 8am and there are at least three appointments each day.”
Cr Doull, who holds council’s climate change portfolio, said he wanted to ensure local government was recognised in any UN climate agreement at the conference.
He said higher levels of government must recognise that councils around the world were “active players” in fighting climate change.
“Cities and urban areas were not included in the original Kyoto Protocol despite the fact they consume 75 per cent of the world’s energy and produce up to 75 per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions,” Cr Doull said.
Cr Doull will rub shoulders at the conference with world leaders including American President Barack Obama and former US vice-president Al Gore.
Cr Doull hoped to meet other mayors and councillors from around the world with similar climate change issues to Geelong.
“I’ll be trying to find as many similar cities around the world to have discussions with their leaders,” said Cr Doull.
“This is an amazing opportunity and I won’t be going on any junket,” he said.
“I’ll certainly be bringing back as much information as I can.”
Other overseas trips in the past year have sent councillors to countries such as Switzerland, France, Spain and the USA.