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THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 27 #51 Tuesday, June 4, 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
Inside this week
ay enviro d
Old & Gold Liftout p27-30 CAB AUDIT
EVERY JOKE HAS A KERNEL OF TRUTH AND HERE’S ANOTHER
Surf’s up at Mungo slices Mary’s Echo Beach through marvellous – p20 pollies – p10 morwongs– p13
Baz A fistful of Luhrmann’s footy fever latest – p33 – p48
Byron Shire Council Notices Page 46
Brunswick Heads declared gasfield free The township of Brunswick Heads declared itself gasfield-free on Saturday, joining Main Arm, Nashua, Newrybar and Federal/Goonengerry in opposing coal seam gas drilling. ‘The day was wonderful,’ co-organiser Wendy Royston told The Echo. ‘It was a fun-filled peaceful day of music, community and strength.’ Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson received scrolls from individual streets while music wafted from the Soundshell over the river and throughout the park. Despite the coal seem industry withdrawing its presence in the northern rivers after public outrage, there are still fears that the industry could reactivate as mining licences have not been withdrawn. The Aboriginal Land Council (ALC) and Dart Energy both hold licences for the northern rivers region. Mullumbimby’s declaration to be gasfield free is planned for Friday June 14 at 9am at the Mullumbimby Farmers Market. Ocean Shores will declare on June 8 at its public school from 2pm. Byron Bay, Myocum/Tyagarah and Bangalow are still being surveyed, and volunteers are needed. For more visit www.csgfreebyronshire.org. Meanwhile the issue is still causing headaches for the NSW Coalition gov-
Brunswick Heads has been surveyed and has almost unanimously said ‘No’ to gas drilling. Photo Eve Jeffery
ernment after it was revealed energy minister Chris Hartcher tried to approve Metgasco’s coal seam gas drilling in the Lismore area before all the conditions had been met.
keen to approve this… I appreciate the department will still want to work on the conditions but if the minister can approve the offer then I imagine the conditions can be worked on.’
Fed speech by MP Elliot NSW minister Hartcher And at the federal level, Labor Richtried to fasttrack NR CSG mond MP Justine Elliot launched a NSW Greens Jeremy Buckingham has released an email exchange obtained under freedom of information laws (Government Information Public Access), that show Mr Hartcher’s aide writing to the state energy department saying, ‘The minister is
blistering attack on Nationals Richmond candidate Matthew Fraser and his party’s CSG policy in parliament last week. Claiming the region’s upcoming election ‘is a referendum on CSG mining on the north coast,’ she also had a swipe at the Coalition’s
plans to scrap the mining tax. ‘Removing carbon pricing is a green light for CSG mining,’ she told The Echo. ‘The National party candidate for Richmond, Matthew Fraser, has stated he fully supports Tony Abbott’s plan to repeal carbon pricing (the carbon Tax). Repealing carbon pricing and removing the Clean Energy Finance Corporation means that renewable industries will be harmed under a Liberal/National government.’ In her parliamentary speech she also mentioned the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill 2013, which will be
debated in the upper house on July 17. It aims to enable groundwater pollution to act as a trigger to stop CSG activities. Federally, the Nationals say they will oppose the bill. But Mr Fraser has defended his position on CSG, telling The Echo, ‘I do not support harmful CSG mining in Richmond, NSW and Australia.’ Mr Fraser refuted the sitting MPs attack by saying, ‘Justine Elliot and her crooked Labor party are completely responsible for CSG in northern rivers. As there is no commercially viable deposit of CSG in the Richmond electorate, Justine Elliot has been exposed with her CSG fraud.’ ‘Instead of misleading the people with taxpayer funded adverts, Justine should focus on stopping the boats which have now set a new record with 42,000 arrivals and a blow out cost of $10 billion.’ He told The Echo the ‘top issues identified by the voters’ are boats, cost of living (carbon tax), employment and roads. ‘Therefore I am campaigning on these.’ Meanwhile Mrs Elliot and fellow Labor MP Janelle Saffin (Page), are still collating signatures to petition the NSW government to make the north coast CSG free. 10,000 are needed to be tabled in parliament, and the petition can be found at http://bit.ly/11auQmy.
CCTV excluded in funding application
Echo ignores Queen’s birthday holiday
A $500,000 federal grant application by Byron Shire Council to improve safety in Byron Bay has excluded an application for CCTV, prompting disappointment from the town’s business chamber of commerce. Mayor Simon Richardson says council’s application for the National Crime Prevention Fund included $350,000 for improved environmental design focussing on upgrading lighting in town centre hotspots. He told The Echo, ‘The remaining $150,000 is in partnership with Byron Youth Services (BYS)
Despite the opportunity of spending more time with their families, Echo drudges will instead be manning phones and computers on Monday June 10 to squeeze out a ‘normal’ Tuesday edition. The Echo’s Mullum office (phone 6684 1777) will be open for business as usual for classified and display ads while the Byron office will be closed. Well may we say ‘God save the Queen,’ because nothing will stop us working on her birthday.
for youth programs including Street Cruise, a young male mentoring program and a Friday night at the Youth Activity Centre (YAC).’ He says council was also successful earlier this year in being awarded $50,000 from the NSW Crime Prevention program for education and late night transport within Byron Bay. Defending the lack of inclusion of CCTV, he said, ‘Our funding application was for preventing crime… It was not about law enforcement as this is a matter for the police. There
is still questionable evidence that CCTV actually prevents crime and this was raised in the judgment on the recent Nowra CCTV case. The judgment found that expert evidence suggested that CCTV does little to prevent crime. ‘Improved lighting minimises crime and benefits everybody. Better environmental design, planting, street furniture and the development of public spaces can reduce crime and benefits all of us, every day and night.’ Cr Richardson added that costs for
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ongoing maintenance and monitoring of CCTV would need to be factored in for it to be operational, and to date that has not been addressed. But Byron United (chamber of commerce) president Paul Waters says he ‘cannot fathom why, in this climate of uncertainty on our streets, that council does not want to take this opportunity to make our streets safer – I cannot express our disappointment enough!’ He added that funding of this magnitude for CCTV, ‘will not come our way for a very long time.’