We had over 400 participants involved, which made for a great afternoon.

Without people and groups such as Carol Rasmussen from Neighbourhood House, Kim Saddlier and the Kangaroo Flat Primary School, Kristy Bennett from the City Of Greater Bendigo, Kangaroo Flat Enterprise, Goldfields Library, Fusion and Crusoe College, it wouldn’t have been as successful as it was.

I would also like to thank Hazeldene’s Chicken Farm, Rotary Club of Kangaroo Flat and IGA Kangaroo Flat for their fantastic donations of food for the barbecue and all the volunteers that helped out on the day.

It was also great to have a visit from our federal member, Lisa Chesters, and two of our ward councillors, Cr Matt Emond and Cr Rod Fyffe. I really look forward to next year’s event and involving even more local community groups.

Just when are these Greens politicians going to get serious. They spend all the time telling us what is best for us, like higher priced unreliable power, closing down mines that provide cheap power and employment, and coercing Aboriginals into following Greens policy to the detriment of these remote peoples.

But when it comes to the crunch they are unable to know whether they are even eligible to be elected to parliament, let alone tell others what's best for them. As a pensioner if I receive benefits from the Commonwealth I am not entitled to, I have to pay it back. At the rate the Greens are going, the budget could be in surplus when they pay back all the money they were not entitled to.

Recently, Mr Turnbull said in defence of coal-powered electricity that “those who think the resource doesn’t have a future are delusional”, adding “ideology has no role in the energy policy debate”.

On the related subject of climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released many reports since 1990 that collate data from thousands of world scientific experts and make clear the message: if we do not radically reduce the amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, particularly CO2, our planet will undergo dangerous warming with consequent sea-level rise, and extreme weather events of increasing frequency.

Well, since being ‘delusional’ means “the holding of idiosyncratic beliefs that are contradicted by reality or rational argument”, is it not therefore delusional to promote coal burning and spruik nonsense that ‘clean-coal’ is viable when such policy direction is counter to the advice of world climate experts and not supported by rational argument?

And on Mr Turnbull’s claim that “ideology has no role in the energy policy debate” when ideology is ‘a platform of ideals which form the basis of political leadership’, one wonders, where is Australia’s ideological visionary leadership in the protection of our planet and our future when this government continues to vigorously promote the burning of coal?

The need for strong and sustained action from the political and corporate world is now crucial as we face future environmental and climatic conditions that will no longer support the life systems and ideals we currently enjoy. Surely sound ideology would embrace factual and visionary advice from world climate experts whom emphatically call for a rapid transition away from the burning of fossil fuels, particularly coal?

One can only conclude that those who do not accept sound scientific facts on climate change must be considered delusional and devoid of ideology, contrary to Mr Turnbull’s recent utterances on the direction of Australia’s energy policy.