This letter was written in response to The Hon Bob Katter MP's comments in this article, published in the Townsville Bulletin. We immediately responded with this open letter, from which some statements were published about a week later. You can read the printed article here. 

Dear Bob,

Contrary to your recent claims that North Queensland Conservation Council (NQCC) represents the people of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and that we’ve “never set foot off a pavement”, we have more in common than you think.

Media Release: 23 August 2021

The Burdekin River belongs to all of us

North Queensland Conservation Council (NQCC) is on a mission to ensure that the Burdekin River can continue to support North Queenslanders for generations to come.

This is a guest post by NQCC's current secretary, Priscilla Peto. Priscilla took up the challenge of "Plastic Free July" three years ago and shares with us her experiences and lessons since her last blog post two years ago. The views expressed in this post are the author's and not necessarily those of NQCC.

It's been a good three years of trying to reduce plastic in my life, and two years since I wrote about it with NQCC to mark Plastic Free July - an initiative founded in Perth by Rebecca Prince-Ruiz. 

To my delight, I've found the practice has become quite widespread with my friends, family, and colleagues. Especially since the plastic bag ban was implemented in July 2017. It's been great to see individual efforts increase, but we must not forget our job in pressuring our Local, State and Federal Governments to legislate real change.

This is a guest post by NQCC member and volunteer, Priscilla Peto. Priscilla took up the challenge of "Plastic Free July" last year and shares with us her experiences and lessons of the past year. The views expressed in this post are the author's and not necessarily those of NQCC.

Plastic Free July is just around the corner, so I thought I’d share my experience of reducing the plastic in my life. Last year was the first time I engaged in the challenge to make my life plastic free for a month. I started by visiting plasticfreejuly.org to see what it was all about and where I could start changing my habits.

It’s amazing how this one month challenge introduced long-term sustainable habits, most of which I continue today. Plastic Free July has significantly reduced my meat intake,  reduced the amount of products I purchase and makes me think twice before eating take away and the food outlets I pick.