While Trump was ranting at the UN General Assembly last week, telling countries they were ‘going to hell’, others were leading the way, with Colombia and Vanuatu announcing the First International Conference for the Phase-Out of Fossil Fuels in 2026.

Having overcome numerous challenges in the past, the former mayor of Lismore, Jenny Dowell, is currently facing a major health crisis. She sat down with The Echo to reflect on the changes she's seen across the rainbow region, and consider the future. This is part one of a two part feature.

In 1996 the American intellectual Noam Chomsky wrote, 'The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.' Professor Chomsky has now lost the ability to speak, but his words continue to ring true.

The eyes of Australia turn this week to the electorate of Dunkley in Victoria, historically the site of the Frankston riot and just down the road from where Harold Holt disappeared. Now it's the location of an all important federal by-election.

Labor recently said goodbye to one of its heroes, Bill Hayden, sometimes referred to as the greatest prime minister Australia never had. He was pushed aside as party leader by Bob Hawke in 1983. Soon after, Hawke was elected to replace Malcolm Fraser as PM. As Hayden memorably put it in a moment of bitterness, 'a drover's dog' could have led Labor to victory at that time, but in the end it was a silver bodgie who took the prize.

Everything you wanted to know about coal but were too afraid to ask.

Will Queensland Labor be able to focus on the long-term need to keep fossil fuels like coal in the ground if that risks them losing government?

Federal Labor has effectively abandoned its 50 per cent renewable energy target after its leaders failed hopelessly to identify the obvious arguments to defend the policy.