Councillor fails koalas – and his constituents

Menkit Prince, Uki.

Labor Cr Reece Byrnes has failed to fulfil his job as an elected representative of the Tweed shire community. He said that by voting for a Men’s Shed in the middle of core koala habitat was what the whole community of Pottsville wanted. Wrong. Our Concert for Koalas on March 11 drew 300-400 people mostly from Pottsville, Koala Beach and Cabarita, all in favour of koala protection and against a Men’s Shed in their habitat.

Cr Byrnes announced that Labor will resolve the issue of the Men’s Shed at Black Rocks. Clearly Cr Byrnes fails to understand conflict resolution,it means you get both opposing sides’ needs met. By getting one side’s needs met to the exclusion of the other only causes more conflict! It is not a solution at all.

He failed to comprehend a document from Crown Lands saying that a member of the Men’s Shed asked about Lot 3 Centennial Ave and was told the Men’s Shed had to make a formal application for it. He falsely claimed that the Men’s Shed actually applied to Crown Lands when a member only enquired versus making an application.

Cr Byrnes failed to read the environmental study commissioned by the Pottsville pre-school on Lot 3, which said no contamination on Lot 3 and also no koala habitat on Lot 3. Instead young Reece agrees with council staff’s report that says there is contamination and the same suite of threatened species as at Black Rocks, which is patently false.

He has failed Men’s Shed members, many of whom don’t want to go to a remote spot with a history of vandalism but who are too afraid to stand up to the Men’s Shed committee and presidentb who have closed down all discussion on the issue. These men need a safe place to be to enjoy their twilight years not a place rife with hooning, testosterone-fuelled teens with dangerous breeds of dogs off-leash – all of which have been documented at Black Rocks sports field.

Cr Byrnes has also failed the community who overwhelmingly don’t want to lose the Black Rocks sports field. By allowing the Men’s Shed to go in to the sports field and expand their facility while welcoming other community groups to join them, don’t they see that in time there will be no sports field left?

Out of 4ha sports field (which is already 1ha smaller than the minimum size), the men’s shed want 1ha and to expand: 25 per cent will be gone with the potential to lose more.

He has also failed his election promise to protect koalas. He shook my hands three times pre-election saying Labor will protect koalas. He has also profoundly failed the very people who helped get him elected – Community Voice – as part of a Progressive Alliance to protect our environment.

Cr Byrnes has failed to respect world koala expert Dr Steve Phillips who said there is likely to be a significant impact on the koalas if the men’s shed is approved. Dr Phillips also called for a moratorium on all developments there until the koalas have recovered from the Xmas 2014 fire, which they have certainly not.

He has failed to vote with the progressive councillors on this and other environmental issues in the first six months in office.

Cr Byrnes has failed his children and grandchildren who will not be able to see koalas on Tweed’s coast in the future.

He has failed to read studies showing that human episodic noise creates stress that causes an aversive response that can lead to death and disease. Already a total of 10 koalas in the Black Rocks/Pottsville Wetlands area have died (most with chlamydia) since 2014. Out of a very small population that is enough to accelerate decline of this fragile population. They need protection, not more stress like an industrial-like facility just 20m from their habitat!

As a result of his failure to study up on the issue he has failed to sift through the claims of the Men’s Shed that koalas can live with human noise. There is a huge difference between the noise of kiddies playing at the school ground and the noise of construction, industrial council mowing, paramotoring, petrol-fuelled model aeroplanes, trail bikes and barking dogs – all of which koalas will have to deal with at the sports field (while trying to get 20 hours sleep a day) if the Men’s Shed is given the green light by Cr Byrnes.

Cr Byrnes has failed to understand that once the Men’s Shed are in there, they have no intention of relocating in the future i.e. Black Rocks is NOT a temporary facility in the minds of the Men’s Shedders. They will simply reapply for a permanent licence.

Cr Byrnes failed to understand that if he votes for the Men’s Shed licence he is committing political suicide. He underestimates how hard the koala-loving community will work to make sure he is not re-elected to council (as they did with Barry Longland for the same reason).

Last but not least Cr Byrnes will fail the koalas on the brink of extinction. If we lose these koalas, everyone loses. They are our world-famous iconic species, a powerful drawcard, if only we had a council with the vision to protect them at least for the sake of tourism, if not for their irreplaceable ecosystem services.

Of course the other pro-developer councillors (Cr Polglase, Cr Owen and Cr Allsop) are equally guilty if they vote for the licence but more especially Cr Byrne because he should know better and because he was elected on forked tongue promises to be a progressive councillor.

Cr Byrne has till Thursday to reconsider and reverse his monumentally egregious decision. Will this man acknowledge that our Concert for the Koalas proves he is not going with what the community wants or will he spend the next four years blundering on, voting with the Nationals?

Will young Reece change his mind while he can or must he learn the hard way while koalas and koala-loving people all pay the price for his lack of experience?

Council is on the verge a solution that will really solve the problem not only for koalas, but will give the Men’s Shed a permanent site, remove all valid cause of community disruption and disharmony and protect the rights of vulnerable men who have been wrongfully excluded from the shed because they want a suitable site, not some inaccessible, remote and insecure site that the majority of the community objects to.