Jo Faith, Newtown
Many people who uphold the rights of nature are not surprised that cosy politics sought the successful ongoing path to extinction of the Mitchell’s Rainforest Snail and its habitat rights. The Byron bypass will go ahead. Why? Because all levels of NSW government are dominated legally by the fantasy that commercial rights have ascendancy over all other sentient rights. It’s bollocks!
I strongly object to the fact that ‘the market representatives’, those who hold the dollars, appear to have finally ‘won’ in the ongoing battle for the Byron bypass. A construction to be developed over a wetland area.
This act is violence against nature and all species. It is violence against diminishing communities of persons who not only believe in the rights of nature and community, but as a community actively work for the rights of all sentient beings.
There exists a legal tension in this debate. I submit articles from The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 3 addresses the security of persons… Article 12 notes ‘no-one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy/family home or correspondence’.
Freedom of speech is strongly supported. It is a right upheld by legal principle. Therefore, arguing for the rights of nature, implicitly contained within this Declaration, creates a ‘voice’ for civil society to uphold the rights of all sentient beings.
The Butler Street community have, with dignity, expertise, and passion been an example for the Byron protectors to uphold; as we now embark upon addressing the total commercialisation of Byron Bay. An ongoing market violation in times of climate change, drought, extinction of a billion species in Australia due to lack of adherence to scientific warnings.
This is not a fait accompi there is a paradigm shift in human consciousness… the debate and struggle continues.
