news, local-news, fossil fuels, divest, council, mt alexander, greens, glaisher, election, federal

Greens candidate for the upcoming federal election Rosmary Glaisher has called on the City of Greater Bendigo to follow the lead of the Mount Alexander Shire and divest from fossil fuel industries. The Mount Alexander Shire wants to become a model for other councils after becoming the first in central Victoria to move towards divestment of fossil fuel assets. The move will see the council preference investments in financial institutions that do no invest in or finance the fossil fuel industry. Ms Glaisher said she encouraged the Bendigo council to get on board. “I think it would be an excellent thing for Bendigo council to do and if we had more Greens elected to council we’d have a better chance of it happening so maybe after October…” she said. “The whole world’s rapidly moving away from fossil fuel.” Mount Alexander mayor Christine Henderson said the plan would not adversely affect the shire’s finances and she expected other councils in the region to follow suit. “It’s not a case of putting us at increased risk, but we’ll look for the good guys if you like,” she said. “We expect other councils to come on board and we want to see it grow and we think it will.” But City of Greater Bendigo organisation support director Kerryn Ellis said the council’s current investment policy did not include a provision encouraging moving investments away from coal, oil and gas and would not consider a change until late next year. “We are aware that other councils are including this in their policies, and is something the City of Greater Bendigo will consider when the current investment policy is next due for review in December 2017,” she said. Ms Glaisher said Bendigo risked getting stuck in the past if it did not realign its investments away from fossil fuels. “It’s the way of the future,” she said. “It’s the way things are going and it would be great to avoid getting left behind.”

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/34GUhu3yS7SU9i7jdHAcFhw/89f9f8a5-71b9-4872-a210-8c387e589874.jpg/r0_164_4928_2948_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg