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THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 25 #24 Tuesday, November 16, 2010 Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 21,000 copies every week
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D O E S B Y R O N R E A L LY N E E D A M O N O R A I L ?
Mullum show back in form
Minister’s office responds to Part 3A concerns Hans Lovejoy
Showgirl winner Amanda Mackinnon and Taj competing in the showjumping event. Story & photo Eve Jeffery
The Mullumbimby show got back into the swing of things on the weekend with perfect weather and an abundance of visitors making the show a great success. Everything you could want at a show was there. The traditional agricultural show events presented included the poultry, cattle and a petting zoo, a gymkhana, art craft, baking and flowers shows, fire truck and farm machinery, stunt bikes, dog tricks, duck
races, snake tails, croc smiles and a plethora of side show and food stalls. The winner of this year’s Show Girl competition was Mullumbimby girl Amanda Mackinnon who, soon after the announcement of her win, abandoned stilettos for jodhpurs and rode her horse Taj in two of the showjumping events. Amanda, who is a horse breaker and trainer by trade, said she had been thinking about entering the Show Girl competition for a few years but simply hadn’t gotten around to it.
‘It was a lot of fun,’ she said. ‘It was also great to be able to help promote Mullum and the show.’ Amanda is a fierce believer in the role of the show. ‘I love the ag shows,’ she said. ‘They are always a great event and they are important for riders. I have been to the Mullumbimby show ever since I have lived here. ‘We even came the year it wasn’t on. We set up the ring for the riders and had an event anyway, but this year it is fantastic to see everybody back and supporting the show.’
State minister for Planning Tony Kelly’s office has denied ministerial interference in planning approvals through the controversial Part 3A of planning legislation. The media spokeman said it was not true that around 95 per cent of Part 3A DAs get approved from the Minister’s office, and pointed to other departments that are involved in the process of approval. ‘In 2009-10, only 50% of new Part 3A approvals and only 7% of modifications of existing approvals were by the Minister – the rest were by either the Department of Planning or Planning Assessment Commission (PAC).’ ‘The number of Part 3A approvals by the Department for newly-lodged projects increased from six in 200809 to 43 in 2009-10. This follows the issuing of delegations by the Minister to the Department to determine a wide number of projects in 2009, reported in last year’s Major Development Monitor. ‘Similarly, the number of determinations by the PAC increased from two to 17. This reflects the first full year of operation in which delegations by the Minister were in
operation to refer determinations to the PAC. ‘The PAC had a particular role determining project applications where a reportable political donation was made. Of its 17 determinations, some 16 were due to the fact that a reportable political donation had been made by either the proponent or an objector. The use of an independent expert commission to make decisions on these projects removes any suggestion of conflicts of interest in these determinations. The minister’s office claims that the 2009-10 refusal rate for original Part 3A projects is 1.6 per cent of projects, and was comparable with the overall refusal rate for councilassessed projects under the Part 4 of the EP&A Act in 2008-09 (3 per cent of projects). In response to questions regarding developer bribe allegations and transparency, the minister’s spokesperson said all DAs are available on its website and refered to a recent bill that he claims was not supported by the Liberals and is a first for the country. The ‘Election Funding and Disclosures Amendment Bill’ was passed by the Legislative Council last week, and aims to cap donations at $5,000.
Remembering Layla
Theft and vandalism takes its toll Byron Shire Council’s parks and gardens staff say they are growing frustrated over repeated attacks on tree plantings in Byron’s town centre. Council’s executive manager of community infrastructure Phil Holloway said juvenile street trees of two to three metres are being bent and twisted until they snap. ‘In some cases advanced trees are being wrenched from the ground and
stolen,’ he said. The most recent of these, he says, have been a mature grass tree on the Browning Street roundabout and a three metre Tuckeroo from the Lawson Street north carpark. ‘We are losing three trees out of every five planted. The acts of vandalism and theft are taking a toll on our budget as well as the morale of parks staff,’ he said.
Council would appreciate the community reporting any tree vandalism and theft to Byron Bay police on 6685 9499. Last week Council adopted a policy on tree/vegetation vandalism, which aims to promote the value of trees and Franchesca places a memorial to Layla, the big sister she never knew. She vegetation and deter vandalism. and scores of others gathered at Heritage Park in Mullumbimby on Sunday to join the Day of the Dead celebrations organised by Zenith Virago and the Natural Death Centre. Photo Jeff ‘Día de los muertos’ Dawson
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