Surprise guest for Groovin’ on the Green

Story and photo David Lowe

The Premier of NSW, Dominic Perrottet, was a surprise guest at Groovin’ on the Green in Ballina on Saturday, a fun family event organised by Ballina on Richmond Rotary and Cherry Street Sports Club for local floodaffected residents.

With live music, a jumping castle and food stalls, Rotary said the free, ticketed event was booked out, although a lot of people were hiding from the bright sun inside the Cherry Street Club when the premier arrived to speak.

Rotary’s incoming District Governor, Dave Harmon, said it was important to commemorate the flooding with a public event, twelve months on.

He also told The Echo that the crisis wasn’t over for many people (including his own family), with the work of restoring houses, finding accommodation and pursuing insurance justice continuing.

‘It’s challenging times,’ he said. ‘It plays with your mental health. But days like today, where community comes together, does give you a bit of encouragement for the future, that eventually things will come back to normal.

‘I think today’s really positive, in that it’s telling these flood-affected families around here that we care.

‘We haven’t forgotten you. We’re still here to support and help.’

With a state election looming on March 25, it wasn’t too long before the bands had to make room for the politicians.

State Premier, Dominic Perrottet, who arrived with his wife Helen and their latest baby Celeste, was introduced by the Mayor of Ballina, Sharon Cadwallader.

Mayor Cadwallader gratefully noted that the premier had spent 30 days in the Northern Rivers over the past twelve months, before Mr Perrottet spoke.

Perrottet told the gathering, ‘The devastation that I saw as premier on that day when I came into Ballina is something that will never leave me’.

‘The water, the mud, the devastation…

‘But what I saw and witnessed that day was a sense of incredible strength, optimism, resilience and confidence that despite the devastation that they would get through, and I heard stories from people who left their own homes to look

Man faces court over nonviolent action halting logging

after others…

‘I saw the best of Australians in action, the fact that people look out for others, that sense of spirit of service, that selflessness,’ said Mr Perrottet.

‘I knew at the time, it was going to be a long, long journey,’ said Premier Perrottet.

‘My focus was always that it wasn’t just about the clean-up. And I know we haven’t got everything right, to be frank’.

Perrottet: ‘Haven’t got everything right’

‘And I think it can be hard to get everything right when we’ve had such a devastating natural disaster. But my dream has always been that I’ll be here every step of the way. And I know that journey is not over. But there is a long way to go…’

Mayor Cadwallader presented the premier with a box of local gifts, including a prawn tea towel, before Mr Perrottet offered the mic to the Member for Ballina, Tamara Smith (Greens). Nationals candidate, Joshua Booyens, was also at the event.

A crowd of supporters gathered at Lismore Courthouse Monday to support local engineer, Andrew George, as he faced court for his nonviolent action in halting forestry operations in Doubleduke State Forest last month.

The forest is located just 9kms south of Woodburn.

Mr George intends to plead guilty to charges related to his nonviolent protest on February 6, which is part of a wider NSW campaign to halt all public forest logging.

Mr George engaged in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience by occupying a tree-sit in Doubleduke State Forest for five hours.

He was apprehended and charged with breaching four forestry regulations by ‘interfering with timber harvesting equipment; carrying on activity in a forestry area that poses a risk to safety; entering a forestry area without permission if prohibited by a displayed notice; and contravening direction to leave a forestry area given by an authorised officer’.

In a statement before his court appearance George said climate disruption is no longer vague or in the future.

‘It is here in Lismore, and I have seen the impacts and consequences on my friends and this community’.

‘The major flooding events of 2022 led to the displacement of thousands of people, the pollution of ecosystems and the destruction of infrastructure and property, trauma, and death.

Link between healthy ecosystems and climate is clear

‘The link between healthy ecosystems and a safe and stable climate is clear.

‘This means that protecting our forests is intricately connected with protecting the people of Lismore, and the world.’

A spokesperson for the Save Banyabba Koalas group, Sean O’Shannessy, said the charges against Andrew George ‘represent a desperate attempt by NSW government’s Forest Corp to suppress the rising tide of dissent against their ecocidal practices in our public native forests’.