Tuesday 16 November 2021 Cr Liesbeth Long

Published on 16 November 2021

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would have come across much talk about climate change lately, both in the Addy, but also in the news with the recent COP26 summit.

With many views within our community on this topic, I’m not about to start a vigorous debate on climate change acceptance. However, I do want to speak about my personal reasons for climate change advocacy, which was one of my campaign platforms before I was elected.

My husband and I are farmers out at Timor West. We’re fifth generation and took over the family farm 18 years ago. In that short period of time, I’ve seen changes happen to the environment.

One example is lucerne, which is a pasture feed for our sheep. It has a long tap root that can stretch 15 meters down, seeking moisture. When we first took over the farm there was lucerne everywhere, it was lush and thick and you couldn’t see through it. Now it has become sparse.

Then there’s the Bet Bet creek that runs through parts of our farm. A major waterway that flows into the Loddon, it always had water in it and we even spotted the odd platypus. Now it is a dusty, dry creek bed for most of the year and only gets an occasional ‘flush’ after heavy rain.

Another example is some of our dams. Used for watering stock, they had some water in them all the time. Now they’re dry dustbowls for years on end.

These changes have happened in a very short period of time and I’ve seen them with my own eyes. They scare me.

Ultimately, climate change will affect every aspect of our farming operation and although we’re probably at the tail end of our farming career, I don’t want to just wipe my hands of it and leave a huge mess for the next generation.

So yeah, this has driven me to ‘do something’ and being an elected councillor has allowed me to step this up at a local government level.