The Greens’ Tamara Smith’s win in the seat of Ballina on Saturday is a clear
indication of how the people of Byron Bay feel about the Nationals in this town.
We are calling on the NSW government to take West Byron back to the drawing
board after the resounding defeat of the National Party in Ballina on Saturday, with
their share of the primary vote being reduced to a third.
The extent of feeling about how much the people of Byron reject the Nationals is best
evidenced at the Byron Bay and Suffolk Park booths which delivered a clear result –
80 per cent of the primary vote was for candidates who committed to redoing the West Byron
rezoning to make it more in line with community aspirations.
The new Baird government clearly has no mandate to proceed with West Byron and
we ask the premier to honour the clearly expressed will of this community and give us
back our rights to decide the future of our town.
We implore premier Baird to heed the requests of our new representative in Sydney,
Tamara Smith.
Cate Coorey, Byron Residents Group
