It's time.

I'm not a political person. Never have been, never will be.

And I wish that the issue of Climate Change had nothing to do with politics.

No Julia, no Tony, no Andrew Bolt, no drivetime idiots.

No more questions asking 'do you believe in Climate Change?'

This is no longer a quick vox pop or the occasional dinner party chat over anti pasto. We don't have the luxury of believing or not believing any more. It is happening.

So eight thousand of us decided to turn up to Treasury Place to ask that Tony shut up and that politics is forgotten as we all work out what to do. Together; no games. Not if or why but when. Now.

"We need to go, it's important," LC said. After twenty two years in meteorology, he's seen more than enough evidence. He's commented on climate change denier sites and shock jock blogs so often that they no longer post his arguments refuting their claims. Too embarrasing to have their facts and opinions proved wrong over and over again. His voice shut out, his reasoning, research and calm facts ignored.

The days of mines, oil drillers and power stations calling the shots are over. Their time has gone. Tax the big polluters and use that money to fund better sources of energy for everyone. Embrace this as the time for genuinely creative and forward-thinking job creation.

Yes, it'll involve change, cost and genuine challenges to our current way of thinking. Get over it and try to soften the blow by considering it 'Enforced Evolution.' But don't shut your eyes and your mind to the truth.

'Onyer Dad

I attended church with my parents as a child and teenager, but no longer do so. Even a couple of months shy of turning the 'meaning of life' (age 42), I'm not into organised religion but am certainly into trying to be a decent person, as are most of us.

I believe that there's some kind of entity 'up there' or 'around us' but no, I have no proof or any need to find some and I can't pretend that I'm convinced that it's a Christian god. Perhaps it's just so that my small mind doesn't have to try and contemplate the enormity of the universe or the utterly baffling mysteries of life here on earth.

Whatever the case - and I guess none of us will find out until we turn up our toes - I like what my Dad has written to his local government representative. It could just as easily have come from a paid-up member of the Sex Party, The People's Front of Judea or the Judean People's Front or the census-driven Jedi.

27th July 2010
Church Council
Adare Uniting Church

We wish to state our support for the acceptance of refugees [boat people] seeking settlement in Australia. We support the statement of the President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev. Alistair Macrae, who in part said: "There is nothing to fear in reaching out a helping hand to those in need. In fact, when Australia has acted with decency in the past, we have been repaid many times over."

Rev. Macrae says that the Opposition has abandoned not only Christian values, but basic human decency, and that "callous and punitive policies such as this, (the deeply disturbing plan to turn back asylum seeker boats) are not the mark of a fair, decent and progressive country." We consider that an "offshore solution" is an inappropriate way to treat distressed and vulnerable people.

We the undersigned, who are members of the "Explorers' Group" from the Adare Uniting Church, call on both Government and Opposition to act with compassion within the United Nations Guidelines, and to actively discourage the emotive scare tactics concerning asylum seekers which now seem to predominate.

(Attachment signed by a heap of folk my parents know, aged between forty and ninety-something).