MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has voted to rename its Climate Emergency Community Reference Group, prompting debate among councillors over whether the move shifts focus from climate emergency action.
At the council meeting on 9 June, councillors endorsed a review of the Climate Emergency Community Reference Group, which was established under the shire’s 2020 Climate Emergency Plan.
The group will now be known as the Climate Resilience Plan Advisory Committee and will focus on developing the council’s upcoming Climate Resilience Plan. The committee will retain its existing members and updated terms of reference have been adopted.
Cr Kate Roper, who moved the motion, said the group was established with a two year review period and council was now considering its future role.
“The group has been on hold since November 2025 as council now works on the Climate Resilience Plan,” said Roper.
She said officers proposed the name change to match the developing plan.
“This will enable members with expertise to focus on informing the development of the council’s Climate Resilience Plan and they will continue to focus on discussion and actions that will assist the Mornington Peninsula address climate change issues,” said Roper.
Roper thanked community members for their involvement, noting the group consisted of nine members selected through a public expression of interest process to represent different sectors of the community.
“They met five times in 14 months discussing a wide range of issues and I thank the members for their time and commitment to giving their input to this very important part of council policy,” said Roper.
Cr Michael Stephens, who attended multiple meetings, commended the quality of discussion within the group.
“I did attend a couple of Climate Emergency Community Reference Group meetings last year and I thought they were great and I was really impressed with the debates and the discussions going on,” said Stephens.
“I hope that even though we’ve had a bit of an interruption in the scheduling, that we’ll get a fair bit of community involvement in this and get it running again as soon as possible.”
He encouraged residents interested in climate action to participate.
“For all people that are concerned about climate action in the community, this is the time to get on board and get involved with the advocacy committee,” said Stephens.
Cr David Gill expressed concern over the decision to move away from “climate emergency” terminology.
“My view is that I’m disappointed with the changing of the emergency status and the emissions efforts of this council,” said Gill.
“It’s now called resilience and it takes away the emphasis on emissions and other parts of our climate that, I think, are an emergency.”
Gill acknowledged the need for a replacement advisory body but said he would not be supporting the motion.
“I’m not prepared to vote for it,” said Gill.
“I think it just needs to be brought to attention that there has been a change and that change has put a different emphasis on what we’re doing.”
He also criticised the length of time the group has been inactive.
“There’s been no meetings, so that shows something about the emphasis that we’ve been putting on this area and that’s disappointing,” said Gill.
Cr Max Patton said he also had concerns about the name change but viewed the decision as an administrative step to align the group with the developing resilience plan.
“I do agree with Cr Gill there around the renaming. I’d prefer that it remained as emergency,” said Patton.
“At the moment though, I just see this as more administrative to make sure the group aligns with the plan that we are developing.”
He suggested the issue be revisited when the draft Climate Resilience Plan is released for public consultation early next year.
“Maybe we have another look at the name as well as an emergency declaration and see how that sits with the community at that time,” said Patton.
He added that climate challenges have only intensified since council’s earlier decisions on the matter.
“As time goes on, when these decisions were made this time last year, the situations only gotten a lot worse across all aspects of climate,” said Patton.
Closing the debate, Roper said she agreed with the comments regarding the change in wording and said it was more “watered down” than what she’d like to see.
“I was part of the council that did declare a climate emergency but that’s not what we’ve got now,” said Roper.
“We’ve got this and I don’t want to negate all the good work that the members of this group have done prior to this.”
The motion was carried with only Gill voting against.
The revised committee will now begin advising council on the development of the Climate Resilience Plan and help shape the shire’s response to climate change in the coming years.
First published in the Mornington News – 16 June 2026
