Hans Lovejoy, editor
The local Green councillors you elected in 2016 have little interest in protecting or enhancing the environmental credentials of this region and do the bidding of wealthy developers, Council planning staff and the National Party.
Presumably they will again support that agenda this Thursday and re-affirm their desire to pursue a high growth agenda which is underpinned by poor process.
As NSW Greens MP Tamara Smith points out in Greens councillors push high growth agenda; process matters. It engenders trust. Trust is in short supply with this Council and like everywhere, trust is rapidly diminishing in all aspects of governance.
That’s why this Council needs to spend tens of thousands of ratepayer dollars on a public relations exercise called the Community Solutions Panel.
The Greens councillors are at odds with the local Greens state MP over planning, along with those who started the party decades ago.
A branch movement against the current councillors is apparent at the monthly Greens meetings. There’s a resistance underway to expunge the four interlopers!
Greens meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month, starting 6.30pm at Temple Byron, 46 Melaleuca Road, Byron Bay. Why not join in on the fun?
With their preselection coming up in April, it’s timely to ask, as a Greens voter: Does the agenda of these Green councillors align with your values? How are these councillors engendering trust? Is there hope and vision in this leadership?
They may claim to be the ‘new breed of Green,’ yet when it comes to planning, I have not heard an articulated position that isn’t a Council staff talking point.
If you look closely at their rhetoric, or rebuttals of criticism, there’s nothing: just feel good spin, deflection or counter attack.
Political strategists will point out that in general, voters are loyal to their party, and rarely vote otherwise. Brand matters.
That’s why the current Greens councillors won’t run as independents in 2020, despite seemingly having nothing in common with the Greens’ values.
Political parties are able to pursue an adhoc agenda when they have not provided any policies. Greens policies exist at a state and federal level, but not locally.
These councillors might assume you won’t be aware of, or be concerned by sloppy governance, hypocrisy and reckless development at all costs. Like most political actors, perhaps they are banking on public ignorance of their activities.
If a party carries out an agenda inconsistent with the platform they were elected upon, should that party be re-elected?
It’s worth considering when Simon from Marketing, Crs Michael Lyon, Sarah Ndiaye and Jeanette Martin ask for your vote in the upcoming 2020 election.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
