Copyright © 2024, The Echo
Latest News
New data reveals NSW social housing waitlist blowout
A fresh analysis by Homelessness NSW reveals where people are waiting the longest for social housing, sparking calls to double the supply of social homes and boost services funding.
Other News
Menacing dog declaration revoked
After an emotional deputation from the owner of the dog involved, Ballina Shire Council has this morning revoked a menacing dog declaration for the kelpie Lilo, which was brought into effect following a bite in July 2022.
2022 flood data quietly made public
The long-awaited state government analysis of the 2022 flood in the shire’s north is now available on the SES website.
Mullumbimby railway station burns down
At around midnight last night, a fire started which engulfed the old Mullumbimby railway station. It's been twenty years since the last train came through, but the building has been an important community hub, providing office space for a number of organisations, including COREM, Mullum Music Festival and Social Futures.
Sweet and sour doughnuts
Victoria Cosford
‘It’s probably a good thing I don’t have a sweet tooth,’ says Megan.
I’ve called in at the pop-up...
Increased Byron Council fees on the cards as fossil fuel investments decrease
Byron Council’s financial ship is beginning to list concerningly, taking from its reserves and other funds in order to bail out its bottom line.
New insights into great white shark behaviour off California coast
Marine scientists using tracking devices have been able to shine a spotlight on the behaviour of great white sharks...
Stories about "Prime Minister Tony Abbott":
Operation Fortitude: it’s not just clumsy wording that should worry us
The news that the newly formed Australian Border Force (ABF) was partnering Victoria Police and other agencies to mount a special operation in Melbourne’s CBD sparked an immediate storm of protest on Friday.
Thus spake Mungo: The holes in Abbott’s holy cause
Once again our creative prime minister has devised a bold and imaginative solution. Now it just remains to discover a credible problem to go with it. Tony Abbott’s latest wedge, to shut down the protection of the environment from its friends.
Marriage’s (un)holy alliance
It was all over the news on Monday lunchtime – or at least the News Corp news: a new poll showed that 76 per cent of Aussies would like to have a plebiscite on the issue of same-sex marriage. But who commissioned the poll and who conducted it?
Mandy Nolan’s Soap Box: Why is Tony Abbott scared of same-sex marriage?
I don’t imagine there are too many loving gay couples putting an empty seat aside for Mr Abbott just in case he decides to cross the floor and the sexuality divide at the same time. He’s like the Grinch who stole gay weddings.
Thus Spake Mungo: Human tragedy triggers Abbott’s nope gland
Nope, nope, nope – the most negative and illiterate of all Tony Abbott’s three-word slogans.His rejection of even the merest consideration of the complex, harrowing and indeed tragic plight of the Rohingya asylum seekers is frankly contemptuous.
Thus Spake Mungo: COAG comes unstuck
Paul Keating’s famous dictum that you should never stand between a state premier and a bucket of money, and his other advice that you should always back self interest because at least you knew it was always trying, has seldom been more dramatically confirmed.
PM to launch new ice taskforce
Prime Minister Tony Abbott says a new taskforce will seek to coordinate a national response to the growing ice epidemic.
Abbott will live to regret his ‘lifestyle choice’
Tony Abbott’s brain snap describing the indigenous outstation movement was not only crass, unthinking and deeply offensive; it was just plain wrong, and wrong on a whole series of different levels, writes Mungo MacCallum.
Right-wing group NCC rallied to Abbott’s rescue over challenge
Tony Abbott's leadership was saved in part by a last-minute email campaign by right-wing group the National Civic Council, which denigrated Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop in an email to its supporters.
PM speaks up for drug smugglers, not asylum seekers
Harald Ehrlich, Suffolk Park. It is good to see that our prime minister has discovered his heart and is speaking up on behalf of our Aussie drug smugglers. Can he extend his compassion a bit further and act on behalf of the hundreds of children incarcerated for no crime, for no good reason and for the rest of their life just for being children of refugees?
National News
Domestic violence service calls for urgent action to address crisis
Relationships Australia NSW is calling for urgent intervention from the NSW government to address men’s violence against women, following the horrific murder of Molly Ticehurst.
Local News
Menacing dog declaration revoked
David Lowe - 0
After an emotional deputation from the owner of the dog involved, Ballina Shire Council has this morning revoked a menacing dog declaration for the kelpie Lilo, which was brought into effect following a bite in July 2022.
Byron Echo
More Byron CBD height exceedance approved
Paul Bibby - 7
Two multi-storey mixed-use developments with a combined value of $36.2 million have been approved for the centre of Byron Bay, despite both exceeding height limits for that part of the Shire.
National News
eSafety commissioner granted legal injunction as X refuses to hide violent content
Australia’s Federal Court has granted the eSafety commissioner a two-day legal injunction to compel X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, to hide posts showing graphic content of the Wakeley church stabbing in Sydney.
