Patricia Warren, Brunswick Heads
What ‘vibe’ Mandy (Soapbox, 13 January) is underpinning your fury? The ‘vibe’ of nostalgia or the realty ‘vibe’ so well marketed by ‘Destination Byron’?
If the changes in Byron Bay are indicative of the ‘vibe’, then let’s deconstruct it: traffic gridlock, potholes that eat tyres, a sewerage system that’s struggling, tourists whose behaviour warrants the Tactical Response Team, and developers who have demonstrated no moral or social compass. I won’t even comment on the ‘colour’ of the current Council’s decisions when it comes to developers versus environment and heritage!
The tsunami of increases in realty prices will continue to be powered by the financial institutions. There is no notion of social justice or conscience in their manifesto and shareholders are not going to inject any of that into the business of banking! So, delete ‘kindness, compassion.’
Australia’s bankers are not interested in what is happening on the ground in relation to their economic cleansing of any community. Their focus is the mortgage market, and with Australians addicted to real estate, the banks’ balance sheets have over 60 per cent of assets tied up in those loans. With cheap credit, banks in Australia are accumulating assets on their balance sheets and household debt is the highest in the world. The homeless and disadvantaged are just flotsam.
There is a deliberate agenda by the global banks, the overwhelming majority of which are privately owned, to keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future. Australia’s financial institutions are intimately connected to that group and their ‘recommendations’ on monetary policy. It’s called deregulation and globalisation! Credit is cheap and it’s generating a massive transfer of wealth. The World Bank reported that the one per cent of the richest people on the planet increased the value of their asset holdings 25 per cent in 2019! And it’s continuing both globally and nationally!
The real estate market, including that in Byron Shire is inflated, while people, probably including the recent $60m purchaser are offloading currency and buying up property.
As for the wealthy, Mandy, there is scant chance of them putting anything towards ‘social responsibility’. They probably don’t pay taxes and feel no obligation to do so.
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. 
