A notice of rescission was put forward by Councillor Larry Whipper to rescind a motion approved by council on September 11. The motion, which was to declare a climate emergency was amended to an information session.

"I think it's worth bringing back, councillors, because part of the motion last time was to support the student strike and that opportunity is gone," said Cr Whipper in favour of the rescission.

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"There's a petition circulating, and it will circulate until the end of this month but already this petition does have excess of 1000 signatures supporting council to make a climate declaration.

"The Australian Medical Association have now said that the rise of eco-anxiety and climate change is having dramatic effects on our mental health. The association has recently declared that climate change is a health emergency and for the Australian Medical Association to recognise that is important.

"The science is there, whether we choose to believe it or not, the science is that we are facing a climate emergency.

"The young people at that rally were very passionate, the majority weren't young students wagging school but those who did, you have to acknowledge their courage."

Councillor Peter Nelson was the first to speak against the rescission.

"It's not that I don't disagree with Cr Whipper... but I believe that there is a right way and a wrong way to go about this climate emergency and I believe that a notice of motion was the wrong way," he said.

"In fact, I believe Cr Whipper should've consulted his fellow councillors, the Mayor, the General Manager, the [Wingecarribee Shire Council] staff, and the environment committee and the local community on this issue."

Next to speak against the rescission was Councillor Ian Scandrett who felt it was important to attend the climate rally on September 20.

"I thought it was very important as a councillor to see what the attendance was and what the messages were," he said.

"I agree with you Cr Nelson. We need to just go back and get this sorted out behind the scenes and identify the priorities... and then we will come back to our community and report on what we think are the priorities."

Councillor Garry Turland spoke in support of the rescission.

"My six-year-old granddaughter went to the [climate rally] in Sydney, her mother, my daughter took them on the train," he said.

"That's the sort of people we are protecting. My grandchildren are well advanced on what climate change is, it is their future.

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"We're the ones that have stuffed it up, and our parents before us. We need to stand up and protect [the environment] as quick as we can.

"It's up to us as councillors, it up to us to deal with council and protect the community on what we think is right. Not the [Wingecarribee Shire Council] staff tell us, it's up to us tell staff what we want.

"The information is out there, there is nothing new about it.

"You would have to have your head in the sand if you don't know what's happened with climate change.

"This is on the table now, we have to do something now.

"We are elected by the people to make decisions and instruct on where we want to go and this motion does that."

Next to speak was Councillor Grahame McLaughlin, who was not present at the September 11 meeting.

"I would like to see this [vote] be unanimous," he said.

"I don't want to vote against this but I think Cr Nelson makes a good point.

"On the other hand, this council has been doing a lot of work over many years on this issue and it might not be seen by the community but what we are [minimising] our impact and our carbon footprint.

"I'm a grandparent like a lot of the councillors here who have children. We are concerned about the future but we have been doing this and to just to say to staff 'oh we've got to do this now' - I have been here for three terms and I know that we have been working towards it."

It was Councillor Ken Halstead who fired up in the debate and spoke in favour of the rescission.

"This is a classic conservative humdrum," he said.

"As I look around the table and 'say well this bloke will go this way' because they've got the old school classic conservative view point on the environment, which is that there is nothing wrong with it.

"Well look around for God's sake, it's not just what's happening now but what has been happening for decades quite frankly.

"We've had plastic bags in the ocean for 20 years that I'm aware of and what have we done about it?

"Our government is just thinking about it now.

"We need to be very serious about the environment. Yes, we can talk about all the things we've done, there's no argument that this council has pulled its weight in a whole lot of areas.

"But it's about the wider picture and local government has to at some stage get up and get on the horse and actually do something worth while in terms of decision making."

"My God here is a case of something that has been put up because it needs to be put up now, not put through a whole lot of committees.

"We are the elected people, democratically elected people that can actually get up, make a statement and move a motion. It doesn't have to go through a committee on all occasions.

"Some politicians actually make decisions based on facts."

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Speaking against the rescission was Councillor Graham Andrews who argued against the word emergency.

"I argued two weeks ago against the word emergency and I'll do so here," he said.

"The motion from that [September 11] meeting was to take it in to an information session where all evidence could be presented from different people.

"Let's here both sides because there are both sides. There is science and there is information to the contrary on this word emergency.

"Take that out and I will travel okay with this.

"This council right now is taking climate change very seriously as detailed in our strategic plan.

"I just object to the word emergency. It's not an emergency and there are many facts that will support what I say."

After listening to each councillor, it was Mayor Duncan Gair who spoke next.

"We're not arguing about climate change," he said.

"We are arguing, believe it or not about a word and that is the world emergency.

"Cr Andrews just raised it, the community strategic [plan] incorporates action on climate change.

"Last year we saved 350 tonnes of carbon dioxide in putting LED lighting through the shire and saved council $56,000. So we are doing things, we are recycling, we are trying to minimise on waste as much as we can.

"I think we are pulling our weight as a council."

In his right of reply, Cr Whipper opted to show video footage of a young protester speaking at the climate change rally saying that they "never get a voice in this chamber".

"When you're children are crying out for bread, are you going to feed them stones?"

The rescission motion was lost, with Councillors Scandrett, Nelson, Andrews and Mayor Gair voting against it. Councillor Grahame McLaughlin with held his vote and was counted as against. Councillors Whipper, Turland and Halstead voted in favour of the rescission. Councillor Gordon Markwart was absent from council due to personal reasons.

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