THE BYRON SHIRE
Health & Beauty
Volume 28 #09 Tuesday, August 6, 2013 Phone 02 6684 1777 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week CAB AUDIT North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
Inside this week
C A N W E T H R O W PA R L I A M E N T O F F T H E F I S C A L C L I F F ?
Protesters try Holy Cow Batman! Writers’ Surf’s up at New film by to stop bitou Rudd finally says ‘it’s on’ festival Echo Beach Winterbottom spraying – p5 See Mungo – p10 photos – p14 – p16 – p24
p17 Byron Shire Council Notices Pages 38–39
Conversation, music, art and glorious weather
With its strongest ticket sales ever and weather that couldn’t be better, the 2013 Writers’ Festival proved again what a nationally important literary event it has become. A still buzzing director Jeni Caffin told The Echo on Monday it was the best yet. ‘And that’s not from me – that’s from
the punters! The writers also had a terrific time – my email box is full of great feedback. Many said they want to come back, and some of the international writers have suggested names for next year, and even say they will help to secure them!’ Pictured from left are author Peter Carey, musician
Dave Graney and songstress Gyan. Photo Jeff ‘Written Off But Still Here Since Time Began’ Dawson See the Sharon Shostak’s short documentary on the festival this week at
A year clocked on the protest frontline Iris Ray Nunn & Bianca Gonos
It’s crunch time for a Main Arm man who has been holding fort for a year at a peaceful protest camp next to an open-cut coal mine in the Leard State Forest, just north of Gunnedah in the state’s northwest. Murray Drechsler is well known in the rainbow region for being the Tepee Man, the guide from Mystery Dingo Tours and for his commitment to the rural fire service in Main Arm over the past ten years. He told The Echo his motivation to set up camp a year ago was that, ‘The forest is owned by the people and was put aside for nature reserves, not to be raped and destroyed.’ There are two open-cut coal
mines in the forest already, and he says a third is on the way and could commence any day. And it’s a campaign which gained national focus after fellow protester Jonathan Moylan, 25, was charged earlier this year with breaching section 1041E of the Corporations Act by making false or misleading statements. Moylan is accused of temporarily wiping more than $314 million off the value of Whitehaven Coal with a hoax email, which claimed ANZ had changed its mind to invest in the project over ethical grounds. While Moylan still awaits trail, Drechsler told The Echo his goal is to raise awareness of the destruction of state forests. Drechsler says the state forest is 8,000 hectares which
is home to 395 species of flora and fauna, 34 threatened species and several endangered ecological communities, including sugar gliders, bats, snakes, lizards, koalas and trees up to 400 years old.
Ex-Nationals MP runs Whitehaven Coal ‘We are up against three coal mines,’ says Drechsler. ‘One is Boggabri Coal, which is owned by Japanese owned company Idemitsu. ‘They have shares and interests in gas, petrol, oil and nuclear power stations. The other is Whitehaven, who run Tarrawonga and who are about to start the third coal mine at Maules Creek. Whitehaven are Australian run, with shares from
companies and people abroad. Whitehaven deal only with coal, and their biggest shareholder is the ANZ Bank. ‘Interestingly, Whitehaven was officially opened by Eddie Obeid, and the ex-deputy Nationals premier of NSW, Mark Veil, is now the president of Whitehaven! ‘John C Conde, the vice-president of Whitehaven, is also president of the Remuneration Council who within the government, allocates and controls judges and politicians’ payrolls on a federal level. ‘Another player on the Remuneration Council is a mining executive high up in BHP Billiton mining company. That’s who we are dealing with, which is scary.’ As for the catch cry of ‘jobs’ con-
sistently pushed by mining corporations and governments, Drechsler says that in April 2012 the two mining companies operating in the forest sacked all of the locals involved. ‘Whitehaven fired 70 workers and Boggabri Coal fired 106. Also they have de-unionised the mines, which basically means they are very dangerous and the miners have no backup. There’s no strike threats if there isn’t a union! Generally miners have no voice. Here at camp, we have had miners drop in after they got sacked and they talk about the difficulties of working in the mines. ‘Some of them aren’t healthy. We know of a cluster of men who worked in the same place in a mine in the Hunter Valley and they all continued on page 2