About me:
I'm Charlotte McCabe, your elected Greens councillor for Newcastle Ward 1. I'm also a primary school teacher and environmental educator, and I've lived and worked in Victoria, the Northern Territory, and NSW.
For the last thirty years, I've been actively involved in social and environmental justice campaigns across the country. I've has worked as a community organiser and I'm passionate about building strong, empowered communities for change.
I've been a spokesperson for my community in Newcastle on issues including coal dust, ammonium nitrate storage, coal port diversification, and offshore gas. As an elected Councilor, I've been an outspoken advocate against the Supercars race in Newcastle’s East End, and actively campaigned for nearly ten years against the PEP11 offshore gas proposal. I established the Electrify 2297 project with the Tighes Hill Community Group and was successful in amending the Newcastle City Council’s Development Control Plan to ensure that all new residential developments must be fully electric inside.
Having lived and worked in remote Aboriginal communities in North East Arnhem Land, I maintain a deep commitment to achieving justice for First Nations Communities. I've sat on the board of the Worimi Land Council for five years and I'm currently on Newcastle Council’s Gurakai Aboriginal Advisory Committee.
You can get in touch with me at [email protected].
My achievements on Council:
- Broadmeadow Social Housing Target: Championed social equity by calling for a minimum 30% social and affordable housing target on re-zoned state government land within the Broadmeadow Precinct.
- Tackling Vacant Housing: Moved an alternate motion to use council rate notices to communicate about the housing crisis and actively work on reducing vacant housing in collaboration with the Affordable Housing Working Party.
- Defending Local Planning Powers: Councillor McCabe moved the amendment demanding the state government reverse a state-led rezoning decision for the Eden Estates (144 Boundary Road) proposal, returning planning powers to the Council and protecting local wildlife habitats.
- Accessible City Navigation: Successfully amended the Disability Inclusion Action Plan to ensure the city investigates digital wayfinding platforms (such as the Wheeleasy App) and emergency egress plans to improve mobility for people with disabilities.
- Major Event Transparency: Pushed for greater transparency around major events that disrupt local transport networks by requesting specific ticket holder data—rather than just gross attendance—from Supercars Australia.
- Pathway to Carbon Neutrality: Proposed the establishment of the Newcastle Climate Action Taskforce to develop a comprehensive city-wide pathway to reach carbon neutrality by 2035.
- Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty: Successfully moved a motion for the City of Newcastle to endorse the global Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, firmly committing the city to advocate against new fossil fuel projects and calling on the Federal Government to do the same.
- Net-Zero Buildings & Gas Decarbonisation: Moved to expedite the transition to net-zero emission buildings through amended local planning provisions.
- Fossil Fuel Ad Ban: Proposed a ban ensuring the council would no longer accept advertising or sponsorships from coal, oil, or gas companies.
- Ethical Council Investments: Successfully amended the Investment and Borrowing Policy to investigate strengthening the council's financial investments in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) funds.
- Support for Climate Action Movements: Moved a motion recognizing the citizens' movement and community engagement surrounding the 2024 Rising Tide blockade event.
- Root Causes of Extreme Weather: Attempted to amend community summer safety preparations by explicitly calling for the cessation of new fossil fuel projects to address the root causes of climate change-driven weather events.
- National Climate Security: Advocated at the federal level by calling on the government to release the Climate Security Report prepared by the Office of National Intelligence.
About Ward 1
The City of Newcastle Local Government Area is divided into four wards. Ward 1 covers Carrington, Cooks Hill (part), Islington, Maryville, Mayfield, Mayfield East, Mayfield West, Newcastle, Newcastle East, Newcastle West (part), Stockton, The Hill, Tighes Hill, Warabrook, Wickham
