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Byron Shire
March 28, 2024

Bob and Mungo

Latest News

Govt cost-shifting ‘erodes financially sustainable local government’

Byron Shire Council looks set to add its voice to the growing chorus calling on the state government to stop shifting responsibilities and costs onto local government.

Other News

NORPA’s wild ride at Lismore Showgrounds

NORPA is taking audiences on an adventure outside the theatre once again, announcing it will stage its original work Wildskin in a warehouse space at the Lismore Showgrounds. A sensory, destination theatre experience, Wildskin inhabits an outrageous and unpredictable world that’s part bush-thriller, part road-trip and a whole lot of NORPA’s signature theatrical style.

Editorial – Let’s do the development dance!

Some good questions were raised by residents at last week’s Council meeting – and were ‘taken on notice’ by Mayor, Michael Lyon.

How the coral crisis affects other marine wildlife

Marine heatwaves are killing coral and denuding reefs of their colourful beauty – but in a world where everything is food for something else, these heatwaves also pose a major threat to biodiversity.

Premier yet to respond to Albo’s offer of disaster recovery funds

Northern Rivers community groups are renewing calls for the NSW premier to formally ask the Commonwealth to fully fund the region's 2022 disaster recovery.

Richmond MP again called on for immediate Gaza ceasefire 

On Saturday, March 16 Northern Rivers Friends of Palestine unfurled a 20m scroll with the names of murdered children and host a ‘die-in’ action at the office of the federal Member for Richmond, Justine Elliot (Labor).

A seasoned bard

Guy Kachel had an idyllic entry to the world of music. Born in Tamworth, he was raised on the banks of the Peel River. The landscape was a fertile ground for his imagination. Seeing this rustic world change, as Tamworth developed into an inland city and friends grew to sometimes troubled adulthoods, provided insights for the artistry that later powered his career as a performer.

After last week’s glorification of one of the most unedifying characters in elected dictatorship politics – the ultimate puppet for corporate greed, Mr Bob Carr of Macquarie Bank and chief lobbyist for the pokies industry – I have to admit I’ve had enough of Mungo’s column. He is a fine writer who occupies a large proportion of The Echo every week but he seems to be out of touch and out of tune with the political vibrations of this area.

Almost everybody I meet is happy to give an articulate appraisal of the squalid state of national government and its cast of uninspiring hypocrites. We stand as a disillusioned majority seeking a genuine alternative to rampant capitalism.

Any of these characters Mungo flatters on a regular basis would fail to fill even half of the Coorabell village hall if they held a public meeting there with free admission, sausage sizzle and a shuttle bus. Let’s have some real political debate and insight instead of sycophantic, apologetic personality rubbish – we can find that all over the ABC.

Alan Hainsworth, Byron Bay

 


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1 COMMENT

  1. Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven’t had capitalism. A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a government decreed central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank. It’s not capitalism when the system is plagued with incomprehensible rules regarding mergers, acquisitions, and share sales, along with wage controls, price controls, protectionism, corporate subsidies, international management of trade, complex and punishing corporate taxes, privileged government contracts to the military-industrial complex, and a foreign policy controlled by corporate interests. Add to this centralised federal mismanagement of agriculture, education, health, superannuation, banking and welfare. This is not capitalism!

    To condemn free-market capitalism because of anything going on today makes no sense. There is no evidence that capitalism exists today. We are deeply involved in an interventionist-planned economy that allows major benefits to accrue to the politically connected. By all means, condemn the fraud and the current system, but please, call it by its proper names — Keynesian inflationism, interventionism, and corporatism.

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Saddle Road group home DA decision this week

Plans to build Byron Shire’s first permanent group home for women and children in housing stress are moving ahead, with the development application for the project coming before Council this week.

A health check as Medicare turns 40

If you’ll forgive the earnest tone, I’d like to propose a toast. To a friend who’s almost always there when you need them most. To a system that aims to treat people fairly and respectfully. 

Byron Council staff baulk at councillors’ promise of free parking for locals

Will Byron Council deliver on its pledge to make parking permits free for locals across the Shire when paid parking comes into force in Brunswick Heads?

Carrying and passing the torch

If I say the words ‘US Forces give the nod’, I can pretty much guarantee that you will hear the unmistakable voice of Peter Garrett ringing in your ears. Your head may even start to bob up and down a bit.