23 minute read
5 spaces in the already established basement carpark. Nearby Bogangar residents have since received Council letters seeking feedback about impacts from extra
continued from page 3 Health system ‘buggered’ MP tells striking nurses
Departing Maclean branch secretary of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, Mel McDonough, leads the chants at the nurses rally in Grafton last Thursday Mr Gulaptis his baptism of fre as an MP in 2012, during the downsizing of the Grafton jail.
“You learned then you had to stand up for your community, ahead of your political party,” she said.
“This can be your legacy.”
But Cr Novak said for his commitment to change to be really worthwhile, she would like to see it in writing.
She also called on the community to food the MP with messages bearing the hashtags like #strike4ratios to hammer home the community support for nurses.
Grafton nurses union branch secretary Thea Kowal, also an emergency nurse, painted a dire picture of a day at work.
“How do you feel knowing when you walk into work that if a person comes in with a heart attack you won’t be able to provide the level of care that patient needs,” Ms Kowal said.
“And that’s on a normal day, when we’re supposedly full staffed.” She pointed that when nurses enlist for the job they tick a box saying they must provide an adequate level of care to each of their patients. “It’s heartbreaking to hear 80% of your colleagues want to leave the job because they can’t provide the level of care they want to give,” she said. Away from the microphone, Mr Gulaptis agreed the health system was in dire trouble, but said the source of the problems was a bloated administration, which soaked up an inordinate amount of the health budget. “Staff ratios aren’t the answer,” he said. “There’s a fat middle section of administration that needs to be cut open and cleaned out. “The money could then be redirected to the frontline health workers.” Mr Gulaptis, who won’t be standing at the next state election, said the band aid measures of agency nurses being paid double the rate of full time staff and locums – doctors brought in on as much as $3000 a day – were another sign of a system in trouble. Mr Gulaptis said he could remember when Maclean Hospital performed operations and delivered babies, but relied on a relatively small administrative staff backing up a dedicated local doctors and nurses. “Now we have administrators to make sure every rule and regulation is followed,” he said. “I don’t know what the answer is, but there has to be changes because it’s not working now.” He said he would spend the last six months of his term fghting to improve the situation in public hospitals. But the last word has to go to the nurses, who warned last Thursday’s strike action won’t be the last time nurses “get out on the grass”. “We will be back here again, until we get what we need,” Ms Kowal warned.
BEACH FIRES A BURNING ISSUE AFTER TODDLER BURNT
A toddler suffers severe blistering from a covered beach-fre which was not extinguished PICTURE: Mark Cowan
By Margaret Dekker
A simple visit to the beach and run near the dunes, has left a small boy with third-degree burns to his little foot after he unknowingly stepped on hot coals from a beach-fre still burning from the night before but covered by sand.
It was around midday the next day that the two-and-a-halfyear-old stood on the camoufaged hot pit along Pottsville North Beach, which appeared like any normal mound of sand. He was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.
The shocked grandfather of the toddler, Mark Cowan, said the experience was “extremely traumatic for everyone involved,” after his grandson was taken to hospital suffering serious burns to his sole and toes, and resulting severe blistering. “We have all been guilty of putting fres out with sand, but we need to be more educated and aware of the devastating consequences this causes,” he said. It is illegal to light open fres on any stretch of beach in the Tweed Shire. “Council does not permit the lighting of fres on Council controlled land, this includes beaches,” TSC policy states. Jared Lee from Tweed Coast Rural Fire Brigade told The Northern Rivers Times it’s heartbreaking to hear of another person – this time, an innocent toddler – getting seriously burnt when “out enjoying a walk on the beach and this happens.” Jared Lee implored anyone who starts a fre or person party to the fre - to extinguish the blaze with water. He issued this grim warning to all beachgoers and campers about the lasting illeffects of beach fres: “The heat can actually stay in there for up to 2-weeks, depending on the intensity of the original fre, not 1 or 2 days as is commonly thought but quite some time,” Jared Lee, Tweed Coast Rural Fire Brigade, said. “Please don’t cover campfres with sand. Take a bucket of water,” he added. Tweed Shire Council wants anyone who sees an illegal fre or smouldering remains on a beach to call 000 (fre.)
Thank you North Coast National! A FREE Gate for the Lismore Show.
This year entry to the North Coast National (Lismore Show) will be FREE. I thank President John Gibson and the North Coast A & I Society for this fantastic initiative. The show coming back bigger, better and free at the gate will be a great chance to celebrate all we love about our community. I encourage everyone to come along October 20-22!
Gets Things Done Janelle Saffin MP
MEMBERFORLISMORE
By Samantha Elley
Lismore’s recent catastrophic foods have been a mixed blessing for Ace Community College.
While the devastation can’t be denied with the loss of all their paper records and the damage done to their Magellan Street premises, CEO Kerry Johnson and Business Operations Manager, Erin Hutchinson have seen the silver lining to the overcast skies.
“In 2017 we lost everything on the ground foor in that food and we’d only just renovated the whole building,” said Ms Johnson.
“Then Covid hit, so we weren’t in it for very much.
“After the food this year, which went
through the whole building, both foors
we lost absolutely everything, I think we’d had enough.”
The next diffculty came about when the college started looking for a new place to rent when, understandably nothing was available.
“We realised at least half our business has to be out of food,” said Ms Johnson.
In May the college were able to secure premises in the Westlawn Building at 26 Molesworth Street, Lismore.
“We were very lucky to secure it,” said Ms Hutchinson.
“We were very lucky Clarence Property Group helped us fnd First Place Constructions who have been managing that whole campus build.
“That came together in fve weeks.”
During that time the college was supported by other businesses.
“North Coast Community College helped give us some space for meetings,” said Ms Hutchinson.
“Cherry Street Sports Club were very kind and gave us some meeting spaces just so we could meet with our staff more to check in with everybody.
Training rooms will soon be ftted out on the frst foor and business and admin spaces to be established on the fourth foor of the Molesworth Street building, with spectacular views over Lismore.
“One of our community team members was so thrilled that she gets to look over the Lismore area,” said Ms Hutchinson.
While the college has been running online and remotely over the past six months since the food, they will soon have somewhere to call home, aiming to be settled into the new campus by the end of October.
To fnd out more about courses with the Ace Community College contact 6622 1903 for more information.
New premises, new chapter
L-R Erin Hutchinson & Kerry Johnson
Free Springtime Play events in the Pocket Park this month
The Byron Shire community is warmly invited to a series of fve free lunchtime events at the recently upgraded Pocket Park (corner Bayshore Drive and Banksia Drive) in the Byron Arts and Industry Estate.
The upgrade of the Pocket Park was completed earlier this year thanks to a $56,096 grant from the NSW Government’s Stronger Country Communities Fund and included landscaping, footpaths and lots of new seating. The grant will now help bring some fun activities to the space and promote opportunities for social connection.
The family-friendly event program is called Springtime Play and has been curated by the Roundabout Theatre to run from 12 midday to 2pm as follows:
Thursday 8 September: Circus Playground by Circus Arts Byron Bay. Tuesday 13 September: Walk & draw the line. A visual arts and funambulism (tightwire) experience by Claudie Frock & Seed Arts. Wednesday 14 September: A pop up dance party by The Cassettes. Thursday 22 September: Pooch Pampering by Andy Forbes and Simone O’Brien. Wednesday 28 September: Lunchtime music and sing along with alt-folk duo Bella Frankie.
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Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW Paul Toole to bring some local artists together for some much-deserved fun in our new and improved Pocket Park,” Council’s Place Liaison Offcer Kristie Hughes said.
“A big thank you to Valley Lipcer, the artistic director of Roundabout Theatre for bringing this great line-up of events to the Byron Shire community,” she said. Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW Paul Toole said the Stronger Country Communities Fund is helping to enrich the lives of residents in regional communities. “The Stronger Country Communities Fund is already making a real difference to regional communities, with work on more than 2,000 projects already underway in every local government area across the state,” Mr Toole said.
Batty start to MP’s career
By Tim Howard
It was a combination of fruit bats, a high school and a graveyard that first pushed the man who would become the Clarence Valley’s representative in State Parliament for the past 11 years into public life.
Chris Gulaptis, who last month announced he would not contest the seat of Clarence at the March 2023 State Elections, revealed the spur to public office 25 years ago was the flying fox colony next to Maclean High School.
“In my first term as P & C president, which I was told was a very simple, easy role, the kids went out on strike because of a huge infestation of flying foxes,”
“I took up the cudgel on their behalf and it attracted international media because it was such a kooky sort of a story.
“You’ve got a school at the end of a cemetery, next to a bat colony and it’s very macabre and dark and it caught the attention of the international media.”
But the worries of a parent of two students at the school and a P&C president were more down to earth.
“I couldn’t understand how we could have a school with those conditions, where the kids had to learn,” he said.
“It didn’t seem appropriate that it would meet any health standard.
“In a backyard you couldn’t have 50,000 chooks, so I couldn’t understand how you could have 50,000 flying foxes next to a school and it wouldn’t pose that same health risk.”
It was a start of struggle that would continue as Mr Gulaptis moved deeper into public life as a councillor on Maclean Shire Council, then as Maclean Mayor and when he was elected to State Parliament in a by-election at the end of 2011.
In 1998 all that lay in the future.
“That’s when I found out how powerful the environmental laws are in this country – for better or for worse,” he said.
“It’s not that we want to exterminate flying foxes, but they weren’t in the appropriate place.”
It’s been an ongoing battle for him in local and State Government and most observers would say the flying foxes are in front.
Mr Gulaptis said what drove him over the years in the struggle to move the bats was a desire for the community’s voice to be heard.
Around 2000 Mr Gulaptis retired from his surveying business determined to do more in public life and was elected as a councillor and then mayor.
In 2004 the amalgamated Clarence Valley Council formed, and he was a member of the first council.
“I guess I must have had political aspirations at the time beyond local government and had a tilt at the Federal seat of Page in 2007, where he lost to the ALP’s Janelle Saffin.
The experience could have ended the venture into public life.
“It was the Kevin 07 era and Janelle won it for Labor off the Nationals and I decided to go back into surveying”, he said.
“I had a stint in Fiji as a risk analyst in a building company and then I went to Mackay and managed a surveying office until I received a call in 2011 when the former Member (for Clarence) Steve Cansdell stepped down,” Mr Gulaptis said.
The experience had left him feeling a little gun-shy.
“I took a bit of a hiding in 2007, you don’t like to lose,” he said.
But he stayed involved in LNP politics taking backroom roles in campaigns of two controversial politicians, George Christensen at Federal level and Jason Costigan for the state, who have both been controversial MPs.
Controversy also created the 2011 vacancy in the seat of Clarence.
Popular local Member Steve Cansdell had confessed to lying on a statutory declaration to avoid a speeding fine and resigned.
“I took a bit of convincing,” he said of local attempts to lure him to stand.
There were a lot of phone calls, and he went over the situation with his wife Vicki, who had remained in the Clarence while he worked in North Queensland.
Eventually he bit the bullet and entered the preselection race with six other Nationals, including big names in the region like Stuart George, whose father Thomas, had held the seat of Lismore.
The party chose Mr Gulaptis to represent it and despite a 16.3% swing away from the party, he won the seat comfortably with 65.1% of the twoparty preferred vote.
The first 12 months of his tenure was probably the hardest, when the O’Farrell government decided to downsize the Grafton jail, removing more than 100 jobs from the region.
Mr Gulaptis had promised during his election campaign the jail was safe, so the decision came as a complete shock.
“It hit me hard,” he said. “I didn’t expect my own side to punish me like that or punish my community like that.”
In front of the community Mr Gulaptis admitted he had “stuffed up” backing his party ahead of the community over the jail decision.
“At the end of the day when I leave this role, I want to be able to walk down the street, look people in the eye and say I’ve done the best for you and the broader community, and I haven’t deviated from that.
“The government made the jail decision out of fiscal responsibility.
“The problem is fiscal responsibility is a line on a budget in Macquarie St, but up here it’s livelihoods, its families, it’s kids in school, it’s kids at sport, it’s disintegration of a community.
“It’s something I learnt. A budget is not as important as people.”
While the jail decision was a disaster for the community, in the longer term it led to the new Clarence Correctional Centre at Lavadia, south of Grafton, which has replaced a worn-out museum piece with a state-of-the-art prison, described as the largest in the country.
Being a member of the Nationals is more geography than ideology for Mr Gulaptis.
He signed up almost by accident in the mid-1990s because his bank manager was also the recruitment officer for the local party branch.
“I sort of lean that way, because I live in the country and I always believe the Country Party, or the National Party best represented country people and I still think that” he said.
“I don’t believe we are a party of ideologues, we come together because of geography.
“That’s why I am happy to go out and support the nurses and midwives’ association, the teacher’s union, because they’re members of our community and we need them.”
Despite feeling like “little brother” at times to the Liberals, Mr Gulaptis said overall he has felt part of a team that has delivered as never before for regional NSW.
“In particular for this electorate,” he said. “I’ve lived here for more than 40 years, and I’ve never seen the investment in this area that I have over this part 10 years.
“There’s been the Pacific Highway, new bridges, the art gallery, upgrades to Rushforth Park, the Angourie Sporting Fields, the Casino Livestock
The Maclean High School fying fox camp spurred retiring MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis into public life and it became such recurring theme he acquired a new nickname.
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Clarence MP Chris Gulaptis celebrates the opening of the new Grafton Bridge with two long time bridge activists Ron Bell and Des Harvey.
Exchange, we’ve combined with the Feds to provide $10 million for the Casino Showground upgrade.
“Tens of millions of dollars have been spent in the area.”
He said the boom brought its own problems.
“We were a victim of our own success,” he said. “There was so much going on we were struggling to find construction companies capable of doing the work.
“And of course, the price went up, so getting value for you dollar was even harder.
“But was really important for regional NSW that we get these projects underway.”
And he was sure the spend had not finished with further projects like the reconstruction of the Grafton Base Hospital to begin soon.
But typically, Mr Gulaptis did not want to hog all glory.
“It wasn’t just me. I was part of a team,” he said.
“And for me that’s the most satisfactory part of
the role, that I have been part of a team that has been focussed on delivering for the regions.”
While the Clarence has been going gangbusters, in Sydney Mr Gulaptis found himself in the middle of a controversy in 2016 when NSW Premier Mike Baird announced regulations that would end dog racing in the state in a year.
The decision did not sit well with Mr Gulaptis, who felt it was a slap in the face for people in regional areas.
When the vote came, he and fellow Nationals Katrina Hodgkinson and Kevin Humphries crossed the floor.
Personally, Mr Gulaptis lost out, stripped of his role as parliamentary secretary for Northern NSW and the ban went ahead.
But the news was worse for the premier and his deputy Troy Grant, who both resigned even as the government decided not to go ahead with the ban.
“How did I feel crossing the floor?” he said. “I had mixed feelings.
“I’m glad that I did it, others in my party didn’t see it as I did, and the broader community saw it.
“In the end I think they misread the sentiment of the public.”
More recently Mr Gulaptis has come out in support of another underdog, former NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro.
He is a fan of the former deputy Premier whom he credits with the massive spend in regional NSW.
He said the controversy over his appointment as trade commissioner to New York was not a good look and deserved censure, but it wasn’t the first and won’t be the last “jobs for the boys”.
“Out of all the leaders I was under I admire Barilaro,” he said.
“He fought for regional NSW tooth and nail and if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have the Iluka Ambulance Station, we wouldn’t the Grafton Regional Gallery, we wouldn’t have the Northern Rivers Livestock Exchange, we wouldn’t have the hospital.
“He was not in my mind a politician, he was a chippy, as he described himself, who had a passion for the regions.
“And I like that, because that’s how I feel I am.”
As Mr Gulaptis counts down the months, weeks, and days to the state election in March, he still has plenty on his plate.
Last week he gave a commitment to local nurses to take their concerns over their work conditions to Sydney and Regional Health Minister Bronnie Taylor, when he addressed a rally in Market Square, Grafton.
He’s also firmly committed to ensuring the work on the Grafton Hospital remains front and centre for the government as the election nears.
And he said he would continue to push to keep the region’s recovery from the flood disaster on track.
Looking ahead he believes the NSW Government’s track record should see it re-elected but thinks an “it’s time” factor could count against it.
“Governments get old and this one is in its 12th year,” he said. “It shouldn’t be the decisive thing, but people do think that way.”
After March he is looking forward to travelling to the US and Spain to catch up with his two children.
But he is looking to stay in public life, albeit in a lower key role.
“It might be in a volunteer role or on a board or two, but I still want to be involved in this wonderful community,” he said.
Not only did Chris Gulaptis cross the foor to vote against a greyhound ban in NSW, he attracted millions of dollars of funding to rejuvenate the Grafton Greyhound track. Clarence MP Chris Gulaptis and Richmond Valley Council Mayor Robert Mustow deploy the golden shovel at the Northern Rivers Livestock Exchange.
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Baking over 400 cakes for food victims
By Samantha Elley
Since the beginning of the food, many people have been helping provide meals for those who lost their kitchens and have no home to go to.
One such group is the Evans Head CWA. Every Wednesday, they have been providing the Woodburn Hub with yummy morning teas through their trademark baking skills.
They have provided such delights as carrot cake, date loaf and more, as well as all manner of preserves, jams, and relishes.
This has been the opportunity for locals who may be feeling isolated in their deserted community, to come together for a cuppa, a chat, and some cake.
“The ladies have baked over 400 cakes over the last six months,” said CWA representative Roz Redwood.
“Now they need to care for themselves and those close to them.
Thank you to the Evans Head CWA Ladies for their commitment to the
Woodburn community
over the past six months
Leslie Carroll, Dawn Rayner, Roz Redwood and Lorraine Pedder of Evans Head CWA with a young friend.
“Once it’s gone, it’s gone” – 40ha just listed for sale in North Belongil Beach North Belongil – the next big listing out of Byron Bay
By MARGARET DEKKER
Oh! What money can buy.
Cast your imagination to 40 hectares of untouched, unfolding, beachfront land stretching 3-kilometres north from Belongil Beach to Tyagarah Nature Reserve, which has just hit the market for a cool $160-million.
That’s right, $160-million .. or $4-million per hectare; surely a record price for the Far North Coast’s most-famous hippieturned-hipster town.
This eye-watering ‘eco-parcel’ has just been listed by Brisbane billionaires Brian and Peggy Flannery as a half-slice of their total ‘North Belongil Beach’ property, purchased twelve years ago for $18.5 million, and where they’ve since created luxury eco-resort, Elements of Byron.
Christian Sergiacomi of Pacifco Property – now handling the unequalled sale - told The Northern Rivers Times it’s “a once in a lifetime opportunity to secure 100 acres in Byron Bay on the beach.”
The offering is one, whole parcel of 39.75ha of naturally vegetated land. Recent rezoning by Byron Shire Council permits further subdivision of the large lot into four x 10ha lots or 9 x 4.4ha lots with just one residence per lot. If subdivided, the northern-most lot must comprise 65-acres and remain an ‘e-zone’ with strict controls on location and scale of any housing development.
Listed only last Wednesday, August 31, agent Christian Sergiacomi’s phone is already running hot, with mostly national rather than international calls from cashed-up but discreet, domestic buyers.
“There’s a new wave of entrepreneur looking for that environmental angle, to appreciate and offset, rather than contribute to the concrete jungle,” Christian Sergiacomi from Pacifco Property said.
And with a strict ‘edict’ from his clients, vendors Brian and Peggy Flannery.
“They’re very, very selective. They really want us to fnd the right buyer, who appreciates nature and is opposed to the land being overdeveloped but rather who wants to take it to the next level regarding the environment and sustainability. There has to be an emotional attachment from the buyer who wants to be engaged here, it’s not just about numbers.” Christian Sergiacomi of Pacifco Property said.
Not surprisingly some of the interest is “from right here in town,” Christian added.
The (wildest) dreamsite is connected to town infrastructure, is less than 3-kilometres to Byron’s town centre, and might front on to one .. or two lesser-known local breaks.
Belongil sale
