The central theme of our podcast mini-series of Getting to Better Together, is that it is only through collaboration that we will be able to deal successfully with the really pressing issues of the day. How can we trigger local community responses to matters, like climate change, that have global dimensions with local impacts? This represents a particular challenge to local governments. How are Shire Councils currently managing the necessary balance between the traditional local preoccupations (the infamous 4Rs - roads, rubbish, rats and rates) and the seemingly ever-emerging global challenges that pose real threats to local communities, like raging bushfires, floods, extreme weather events, and coastal erosions?

In today’s episode, our host Richard Bawden discusses how the local Noosa Council is dealing with these global/local or ‘glocal’ challenges with the Mayor, Clare Stewart. Clare holds degrees in business as well as in law, including a Master of Laws and was a barrister before her marriage. She is a public speaker, a former nationally accredited mediator, and the author of an extraordinarily poignant autobiography, Standing on my Own Two Feet.