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The Northern Rivers Times Edition 131
Driver backs into .. a parking fne
By MARGARET DEKKER
A visiting female driver has been fned $120 dollars and left confounded after she wrongly reverse-parked into a Byron Council carpark at Main Beach Byron Bay over the New Year’s period.
The woman took to social media to vent her dismay at being fned for the local offence by a Council parking offcer.
She had missed the small print on the parking sign – easily done from a distance or moving vehicle - which stated: FRONT IN AT ALL TIMES. VEHICLES
UNDER 6M ONLY.
“Can the small print perhaps be put at the top?” she put to social media.
“Can someone please explain to me why it’s now illegal to reverse into a park? Here we are paying to park and getting fned for it $120. Just awesome!” she added.
Byron Shire Council explained the reason behind its ‘no reverseparking rule’ at the iconic beachfront location is to keep drivers from parking rear-in, opening their boots and leaving them up all day over the adjacent public footpath, making it diffcult for others to walk by.
“Like every other road
rule, this one represents a basic courtesy to other people,” a Council statement read.
As public debate raged online - with everything from cries of ‘Council revenue raising’ to support for the 13-year-old local rule - one person saw the funny, albeit sorry side to the situation.
“They should change the name of the town to Byron Pay!”
Correct way to be ticked off .. Freeze it Don’t Squeeze it!
Freeze the tick with spray, don’t squeeze it with hands or tweezers
Northern New South Wales Local Health District is urging locals and visitors alike to familiarise themselves with the correct way to remove a tick if it burrows into the skin.
While myths abound, the medical advice is simple:
“There is a right and wrong way to remove a tick. Remember to always freeze it, don’t squeeze it. Don’t squeeze the tick as it can make
the bite worse, making it more likely to inject its saliva into you,” Northern NSW Health advises.
User-friendly ‘tick freeze’ sprays can be purchased over-thecounter at any Northern Rivers chemist.
“Freeze the tick by spraying it with a product that contains ether .. Hold the spray about 1cm above the tick and spray 5 times.
“The tick should die after 5 minutes. It should
then drop or be easily brushed away,” Health authorities advise.
Northern NSW Health also advises if the tick doesn’t drop off or for whatever reason can’t be reached to be frozen, leave it in place and seek urgent medical assistance for its professional removal.
More information can be found at www. healthdirect.gov.au/ tick-bites
NSW Labor to abolish or discount stamp duty for first home buyers
LISMORE MP Janelle Saffin has welcomed NSW Labor’s plan to abolish stamp duty for first home buyers buying a home worth up to $800,000 as taking real action to make housing more affordable for singles, couples, and families.
“This fresh initiative, combined with other measures to ensure more fairness for renters, is good public policy and even better regional and rural public policy,” Ms Saffin says.
“How long have we waited for this? It is fantastic.
“Given the target is $800,000 or below that would cover people in the Lismore Electorate and the regions who need to have stamp duty waived to allow them to get into their first home.
“Under our plan, an estimated 46,500 future homeowners in NSW will be paying no stamp duty or be able to claim a heavy discount over the first three years of a Minns Labor Government.
“We will provide this much-needed stamp duty relief by scrapping Premier Dominic Perrottet’s dreadful land tax on the family home.”
NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns and NSW Shadow Treasurer Daniel Mookey today jointly announced that Labor will abolish stamp duty outright for first home buyers buying a home worth up to $800,000, while offering a concessional rate to first home buyers purchasing a property up to $1million.
Independent modelling by the Parliamentary Budget Office shows that within the first three years
LISMORE MP Janelle Saffin
of Labor’s changes, 27,700 first home buyers would have paid no stamp duty whatsoever. An additional 18,800 first home buyers would have paid a discounted rate. This means that an estimated 95 per cent of all first home buyers in New South Wales will pay no tax or a reduced rate when they buy their first home.
With more housing policies still to be released, a Minns Labor Government has already committed to:
• Remove or reduce the stamp duty tax burden from 46,500 first home buyers over the next three years;
• Abolish the NSW Government’s forever land tax on the family home;
• Introduce a mandatory requirement for 30 per cent of all homes built on surplus government land to be set aside for social, affordable
and universal housing;
• Provide longer term funding certainty for homelessness and housing support organisations and tenancy advocacy services dealing with the fall-out from the housing crisis
• Create a Rental Commissioner;
• Protect tenants from unfair evictions by requiring them to be given a lawful reason for terminating their lease;
• Banning the practice of secret rent bidding, which pits tenants against each other in bidding wars;
• Implement a Portable Bond Scheme to allow tenants to apply their current bond to their next lease;
• Make it easier for renters to have pets in their homes
• Host a renters’ roundtable to hear from stakeholders and community groups.
