Jo Faith, Newtown
Many thanks for the last editorial addressing road funding and the dynamic between Ben Franklin, the Byron Shire Mayor and snubbed local MP Tamara Smith.
May I take this moment to thank Tamara for all of her excellent ‘green’ work. Yes the snubbing of you is misogynist but from the history of preceding Council dynamics concerning women speaking out – it is not only sexist, ignorant, and appalling – but sad, sad, sad, that the offenders cling to such a low level of consciousness.
Jan Barham, ex- Mayor, was ordered by the current Mayor not to speak in Council resulting in her symbolically placing black tape over her mouth. Michael Lyon commented that you ‘should look after your patch’ and not enter the male dominated world of local politics. Such snubbing is hardly surprising. Indeed, it has been noted by the community that they were hoodwinked democratically when they voted unknowingly for a Faux Green Council. A very dishonest strategy.
Indeed, the recent Masterplan strategy, attempting to appear ‘democratic’, is a strategy from the modern corporate handbook of creating ‘focus groups’ to enhance the neoliberal market. A favourite corporate strategy for decades in America.
Perhaps you were saved by this snub of the Nationals/Faux Green Byron Brand Party! We all witness the corporatisation of nature, mind, and soul of humans in the Byron Shire (and elsewhere).
Stay on your real ‘green’ path Tamara. It’s the protesters that step out, chain themselves to trees to be logged, the protesters that demand rights for First Nation Peoples, the local people that seek nature respecting alternatives to sustaining sentient life and this suffering climate change planet, the fate of future generations, journalists, and much more.
The karmic wheel will turn again and again. Just keep the good struggle going,