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THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 29 #18 Tuesday, October 14, 2014 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
Inside this week
A B S O L U T E LY N O D E S I R E W H AT S O E V E R T O ‘ F I T I N ’
CAB AUDIT
Tales from the The call for resignation and a frontline of peace activism – p5 by-election– p10
Byron Rugby Good 7s return! planning – p15 trashed – p11
What’s new, pussycat? – p16
Byron Shire Council Notices Page 38
Local governance now pro big development
Monks celebrate Peace Stupa’s birthday
Council faction swings behind developers, ignores residents’ requests and delays koala protection Hans Lovejoy
It’s not often ceremonies are held to bring peace to the universe. If you watch mainstream media it’s hard to avoid corporate-sponsored politicians whipping up war and terror hysteria. Thankfully Byron Shire bucks the trend to mindlessly follow such insanity. Leading a pathway to peace last weekend were the Tibetan Gyuto Monks, who were at the Crystal Castle to celebrate the second birthday of the World Peace Stupa, which is only one of seven worldwide. Thousands attended for blessings and prayers of peace. Photo Tao Jones
It was a day for right-wing conservatives to celebrate as environmental protections were stalled, residents’ requests denied and developments steamed ahead at last Thursday’s Council meeting. While the conservative voting pattern had been established for some time, the unified voice of Crs Ibrahim, Woods, Cubis, Hunter and Wanchap was indisputable at the last meeting. Mayor Richardson, Crs Cameron, Dey and Spooner are the minority progressives of the nine councillors. But it was progressive councillors who won a slim ruling majority at the last 2012 local government elec-
tion. At the time that included Cr Rose Wanchap. Cr Wanchap abandoned the Greens party platform shortly after being elected and then quit the party in May, when she announced her support for the highly contentious West Byron proposal. While she holds the balance of power, from last Thursday’s meeting it is Cr Sol Ibrahim who now leads the pro-big development group. Cr Ibrahim’s team were successful in voting down a rail/pathway trail multi-use compromise and voted instead for Council to write to local MP Don Page advising him that ‘Council fully supports the Northern Rivers Rail Trail project.’ But Cr Ibrahim’s motion was continued on page 3
Police under investigation for intimidation Hans Lovejoy
A local mother has filed a complaint with the NSW Ombudsman, claiming Tweed Byron LAC police officers harassed and intimidated her. The Echo has been presented with a letter from the Ombudsman’s office saying the matter has been referred back to the police for an internal investigation. The letter also said the police are obliged to provide the Ombudsman’s office with the report at the end of the investigation. It comes after similar reports to The Echo regarding the same officer, who has been on duty in the area
for some months. The Echo has been informed that earlier this year, police were called to the woman’s property in Mullumbimby making a general inquiry concerning raised voices. After an initial cordial exchange between the woman and the police officers, the woman claims she and her teenage son were cornered on their porch after she refused to sign a statement.
Behaved like a brute The complaint by the woman claims that one policeman became aggressive and began shouting and at one point thumped his fist on a table
against which she was leaning. The statement says, ‘The policeman caused extreme insult and harm to both myself and my child and also the NSW Police Force’. ‘He has behaved like a brute towards an unarmed, non-aggressive woman in front of a child. On the woman’s own property. No warrant, no court order and no arrest.’ She also claims the other officer stood by watching, ‘with his hand on his Taser.’ The incident happened around the same time that a woman in Logan, QLD, named Sheila Oakley, was tasered in the eyeball and blinded by
a police officer who was also allegedly a taser instructor. According to the ABC, around 100 members of the Aboriginal community marched to the police station in solidarity – they demanded that police not carry tasers and be better trained.
Signing police reports So are the public required to sign police reports? Jackson Rogers from the NSW Council for Civil Liberties told The Echo that ‘generally speaking’ a person cannot ever be compelled by police to sign a document. ‘There may be some limited ex-
ceptions to this rule for very particular circumstances. For example, to collect one’s property after imprisonment (but that is putting a particular gloss on the definition of ‘compulsion’). ‘In this circumstance, it seems the complainant was definitely not required to sign the document, and that the officer in question overstepped the bounds of propriety, if not the law. ‘We would be willing to hear from her further if she does not get satisfaction through her local area command, the complaints assistance unit continued on page 3