Party politics have no place in council elections, no one wants an unworkable council split on federal or state party political lines. Council is there to serve the local community, with their main emphasis on rates, roads and rubbish.

The decision by the conservative parties not to run in groups for the upcoming elections is the correct one. The same unfortunately cannot be said for Labor or the Greens.

With the upcoming fire season, it is worth remembering that the major causes of the intensity of last year's devastating fires was gum trees and Greens.

Gum trees because of the amount of oil in their leaves, and the Greens who had infiltrated federal and state governments plus local councils, then used their influence to lock up state and national forests, causing fire trails to become overgrown and prevented the normal controlled burns that removed the excess build up of fuel on the forest floors.

Hopefully voters will keep this in mind when they cast their votes for council.

Last year through this newspaper, and many metropolitan papers, I raised the question: "Who will be paying for roads to be repaired when cars become electric and we no longer pay a fuel excise tax?"

Very soon after, unpopular road user taxes were introduced on electric cars in South Australia and Victoria.

South Australia recently removed their electric vehicle tax which raise the question as to why people who can not afford electric vehicles are now carrying the burden of paying to repair our roads?

Surely in the name of equality, it is time the federal government look at removing fuel excise taxes.

The fuel excise tax is destined to increasingly be focused on taking money from the poor.

A simple redesign of our taxation system could halve our automotive fuel costs overnight and provide a more equitable and sustainable taxation system while we all transition to electric vehicles.

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Although most would agree that it has been an unusually cold November, we know that human-induced global warming is occurring.

Geoff Field ("Climate sceptic rests his case", November 19), however, seems a little confused between weather and climate. Climate is the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area (NASA, 2017).

The recent UN IPCC report incorporated over 14,000 scientific articles that unanimously demonstrate that global heating is occurring at an unprecedented rate as a result of human activity (IPCC, 2021).

Australia's climate overall has warmed 1.4 degrees. It is important to look beyond local patterns and see the bigger picture.

The extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and ecosystem collapse occurring across the world as a result of the changing climate are devastating.

We can all help to addressing climate change by voting wisely and reducing emissions in our own lives.

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