Oakshott in climate call

ERIN PEARSON
NOW is the time to act on climate change to save threatened coastal areas, federal Independent MP Rob Oakeshott will tell a conference in Torquay next week.
Mr Oakeshott will join 200 other MPs, councillors and researchers at a Coastal Councils Conference starting Monday at The Sands.
Mr Oakeshott said climate change issues were plaguing costal communities across Australia.
Coastal erosion had already forced demolition of three homes in northern New South Wales town of Old Bar, with a further 1000 “at risk” from rising sea levels, he said.
“There is a great deal of urgency to develop cooperative, coordinated solutions to a serious problem for our coastal communities and local infrastructure,” he said.
“I know that councils on the Mid-North Coast have also been looking to the Commonwealth for leadership on this issue. Intergovernmental work, alongside that legal support, is critically important right now.”
Corangamite MP Darren Cheeseman called climate change and costal funding the biggest issues facing the Surf Coast and Bellarine Peninsula.
“There’s no recurrent government funding at any level and that’s an issue state and federal governments need to think about.”