Mornington Peninsula Shire has been a leader in preparing for the impacts of climate change for over a decade.  Our embedded approach, which has been recognised with numerous awards, happened without the aid of an ‘official' policy.  The prospect of developing a policy was recently raised, but as our approach was far from ‘broke', why did it need fixing?

However, as it turned out, trying to capture the Shire's approach in a policy proved a valuable catalyst for identifying opportunities for consolidation and enhancement of our approach.  The resulting analysis of the value of having an ‘official policy', where it should sit in relation to existing policies, strategies and plans and what it should contain, as well as responding to the needs and expectations of Councillors proved to be an interesting and thoroughly worthwhile journey.

Ours is the story of an interplay between the ‘substantive' issues of what a climate change policy should do and the process of negotiating the vision of officers with that of decision makers, as well as considering simultaneously the roles and views of other stakeholders.

Key learnings that will be explored in our presentation are:

• Addressing climate change is core business for local government, not a ‘nice to have'
• Deep engagement with decision-makers during policy development is invaluable
• Independent experts can help keep the process on track
• Don't underestimate the interest of staff or the industry; identify and harness good-will
• Even successful approaches to adaptation can be enhanced through re-examination