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Byron Shire
March 28, 2024

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: The High Ground

Latest News

Man charged over domestic violence and pursuit offences – Tweed Heads

A man has been charged following a pursuit near Tweed Heads on Monday.

Other News

Wild dog breeding season can increase attacks on domestic dogs

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Zoom meeting

Just to clarify the report that Michael Lyon now declares ‘no’ to developing Ann St and New City Road....

Bruns-Billinudgel RSL marches on

Though recently the membership of the Brunswick Heads–Billinudgel RSL sub-Branch has grown, the numbers are still very low and if there is not a continual increase, this chapter faces closing.

Heavy traffic on M1 predicted over Easter long weekend

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Fresh air federal funds for Northern Rivers schools in need

Eighteen schools in the Northern Rivers division of Richmond have received $25,000 each as part of the federal government’s School Upgrade Fund, Labor Member for Richmond Justine Elliot said last week.

Mullum and Byron locals lock on at Ewingar State Forest

Byron Bay and Mullumbimby locals Emma Briggs and Bassi Brown locked onto machinery at Ewingar State Forest, in the Upper Clarence area, yesterday as they called for an end to native forest logging. 

I write this on Monday morning. The rain is coming down. It’s like a torrent. Like someone left the bath tap turned on fully and forgot. The water is rising. My town is going under.

My friends have water coming into their houses. Some have moved to dry ground. Some are praying it’s not going to get higher. How do you know? It’s uncertain. The only certainty is that we are in trouble. This is clear and present danger. The whole Northern Rivers has been issued an evacuation order, which is a bit terrifying for those where the water is coming in fast because there is literally no way to get out. 

This is the great equaliser. It doesn’t matter what you believe, whether you vote for Clive Palmer or Albanese, for the Greens or the coalition, whether you vaccinate or you don’t – nature doesn’t discriminate. You can’t hide from the climate and the climate is coming. In buckets. Tractor buckets. We are in the middle of a catastrophic climate event. People are going to die.

Peter Dutton has put up a GoFundMe to raise money for flood relief. Yep, he’s asking us to pay for his government’s lack of action. For his government’s abject failure. How dare they ask the people of Australia to pay! The same government invested $173 million into the Beetaloo Basin shale gas reserve. Before that they’d tipped a cool $19 million into the coffers of the company wanting to develop it. Ironically, it’s coal and gas and their subsequent climate impacts that are drowning us right now. 

Climate change is real. It’s lapping at your door. It’s why you’ll end up sitting on your roof. And guess what, our current government are the ones who’ve embarrassed us by dragging the chain at Glasgow; who bickered over emissions targets, who settled on a shamefully low and life-threatening emissions reduction ‘commitment’ of just 35 per cent by 2030. Well, Scotty, this is what we face. By backing your profit hungry mates, and not backing change, you’re drowning us. We’re drowning in your lies, and the tangible consequence of lack of action by successive coalition governments. And there is more to come. So much more.

How long are we going to run? 

There is a war in Ukraine right now. We watch in horror and sadness and think it won’t ever happen here. But there is a war here. A climate war. This is how it is fought. One catastrophic climate event after another. We had devastating fires. And now we sit, powerless, in the grip of water. Our homes, our habitat, our native animals are all at severe risk. Our landscapes are being filled with polluted waters. They are saying this will be the worst flood event on record.  

Climate change has a profound effect on the weather. The changes in atmospheric temperature can lead to more severe storms and greater rainfall. Climate change impacts mean warming increases precipitation variability, meaning more periods of extreme precipitation. And more of the other extreme – drought – bringing fires. We’re having one-in-100-year weather events every 10 years now, or less! Cyclone Debbie was in 2017 – WTF!?. 

All that seems a bit academic right now when what we need to do is stay safe and get through this. 

We have to reach out to our community. Check on your neighbours. Think about those living in their cars. The homeless. If you are safe and dry then open your doors. We have to look out for each other, because if the best our government can do is a GoFundMe after the event, then we’re fucked.

You see, they don’t have to worry. They’re the elite. They always take the high ground. Let’s look after each other. Stay safe. 


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30 COMMENTS

    • Chris, you must be reading a completely different article to the one that is up here.
      This is exactly what the just released IPCC Report, Climate Change 2022 talks about.
      The Mandy is simply reinforcing the reality, but sure deniers can ‘wash’ it away claiming it something that it isn’t.

      But let me for a moment pivot to the politik. Dutton is a disgrace at worst or a complete idiot at best with his ‘go fund me’ thing.
      Disasters require whole of governments response, that’s what governments do. And better still government action on mitigation and planning ahead before the disasters even arrive would be rather more useful than launching ‘go fund me pages’ after the horror has struck. Just saying, yeah.
      The Morrison / Joyce malfeasance administration has a lot to answer for. Not least, not one cent spent of $4billions Emergency Response and Relief funding that the Prime Incompetent banged on about 2 years ago in the wake of the National Bushfire Apocalypse 2019 / 20.
      But I guess who needs a National Disaster Fund arrangement when you can simply launch ‘go fund me’ thingys.

      • Dear Joachim,
        I do appreciate the fact that you have recognised the rudeness of Chris’ statement, but that doesn’t mean you have to write an entire essay on him you nonce. In conclusion, respectfully be quite.

  1. Yes stay safe everyone.. very trying times !!
    Mandy you are gas lighting exactly what
    The Greens do .. Alarmist propaganda..
    9 percent of the vote and declining ..!!
    Why ?

    • Not the time to talk about climate change? Yeah sure – just like after each US massacre the gun lobby says it’s not the time to talk about gun law reform.

      Facing reality when we are most starkly reminded of it is EXACTLY the time to talk about it. If not when – on grand final day?

      • Because we had lots of rain Joachim
        As the Qld Premier alluded to a unexpected
        Cyclone.. !! Bom ???Seasons come and go ..
        a land of droughts And Flooding rains
        all these so called experts.. the only
        People i will ever listen to regarding Global warming are our first people’s who would know a thing or two about weather events
        For thousands of years.. gaslighting Joachim
        Absolutely any weather event ..climate change nonsense.. whatever !! Told you
        Fossil fuels blamed for all weather events ..
        yes and Scott Morrison.. all those affected
        By the devastating floods the government
        And Australian’s will rise above for you ..

        • I hope you remember to turn the light off Barrow because you are very much emerging as the likely candidate to be the last to leave the room.

          Even the most troglodyte, science denying climate sceptics are coming around to acknowledging that we have a problem. The astute ones – who always knew but found it suited their hip pockets not to let on – are seeing where the smart money is going and divesting.

          The trouble for the rest of us is that irreversible damage has been done and the task ahead is so much harder because of the lost decades.

          • Smart Money Liz Levy ? Oh you mean the
            Same smart thats been invested in Germany ? Green Government.. how’s that worked out
            For the Germans Liz ? Frezzing cold temperatures in winter but have not enough power to keep the population warm ..
            Wait a minute why is it so cold? record low temperatures in Europe !! How is this remotely possible with Global Warming Liz ?
            Never mind i do remember the one and only
            Tim Flannery informing that record cold temperatures is climate change as well .. !!
            Sorry got off track Liz ..yes smart money
            What the money invested in renewables
            By Turnbull and his son and cannon brooks
            All in the goodness of his heart right
            Bulldust* they will make more than fossil fuel industries owned by multinationals..
            How ironic.. such hypocrisy.. laughable really..

          • My goodness Barrow you do have a tendency to go off track. What about Origin Energy closing Australia’s largest coal-fired power plant in 2025 – seven years early – and AGL closing Liddell next year? Banks are looking sceptically at fossil-fuel investments as well. Hardly the traditional bastions of loony left-wing renewable advocacy.

            But despite your obsession with Turnbull, believe it or not I’m looking further afield than our little neck of the 🪵. It’s a worldwide trend. Similarly Tim Flannery – with whom you seem equally obsessed – is not the Robinson Crusoe of climate science. Why are you so determined to dismiss the research and empirical evidence of the vast majority of the work’s eminent scientists?

            Transitioning won’t be easy and without cost to us all, but denial is only making the situation worse – decade by decade, year by year.

        • Barrow, Now / NEVER is the time to talk about climate change.
          The just released UN / IPCC report, Climate Change 2022, best keep the lips zipped and the head buried down deep in the sandpit.
          But what would Science know, yeah.
          I was waiting for you to mention at the end of your piece that the ‘Arc of Autocracy’ is the cause of the problem.
          There is just no way our fossil fuel burning could be causing it all.
          But what would Science know, yeah.
          And yes Barrow, Australian’s are rising. They rising, physically rising / being carried higher in their own homes by record flooding that they never dreamed could happen to them.
          But what would Science know, yeah.

          • Barrow, as an odd on.
            I can see how much you value and respect our BoM.
            I’ll leave you the following from the BoM State of The Climate 2020 Report for you to finally get it into your head.
            “Australia needs to plan for and adapt to the changing nature of climate risk now and in the decades ahead. Reducing global greenhouse gas emissions will lead to less warming and fewer impacts in the future.
            Australia’s climate has warmed on average by 1.44 ± 0.24 °C since national records began in 1910”.

            But what would Science know, yeah

  2. Ha, ha, ha.
    Barrow, Barrow, Barrow, “gas lighting”, is that really the best you can do.
    It does prompt the line..”desperate times desperate measures”. Truth, Fact, Reality, best not talk about that.
    But I guess the just released UN / IPCC Report ‘Climate Change 2022; is just more…gaslighting, yeah.

  3. Not the time to talk about climate change? Yeah sure – just like after each US massacre the gun lobby says it’s not the time to talk about gun reform.

    Facing reality when we are most starkly reminded of it is EXACTLY the time to talk about it. If not when – on grand final day?

  4. Can’t you just ‘cool it’ for a second or two, Barrow. You are not the only
    person to have an opinion & it matters ‘not at all in a time like now.’ Try
    yoga or talk to your belly-button. I’m more interested & care for those
    who are homeless & need our support. The same applies to Chris.

  5. Barrow, I am aware that climate catastrophe is beyond you simply because
    you appear to get a ‘kick’ out of people suffering what you refuse to see. Try
    telling the washed-up Queenslanders being hit beyond belief – Lismore, the
    worst in its history [are you taking the phone calls I’m getting… the grown
    men crying like children with no insurance / those injured trying to get off
    roofs! Nah!!! Ballina & beyond & the rest of NSW? You’ll have even more fun
    when the power-force turns again as predicted. What a cost to the country
    let alone the business people we all rely on – more importantly, those who
    died while trying to stay alive. Go, tell the homeless that what they are
    seeing is a mirage. The ‘climate’s got more than your tongue seeing as how
    you support it. Let it rip! Mandy & the rest of the world are doing what needs
    to be done. I support that not ‘blown up egos stuck on a page.’

  6. What ever Mandy’s for, I’m against. What ever Mandy’s against, I’m for. The most polarizing mouthpiece ever. Good luck in politics. LOL

  7. Thank you Mandy for daring to say the freaking obvious. This is political. Our govt has failed us on multiple fronts… privatise telecomm, deny climate change, hold the electorate in contempt. Toy with a disaster fund ergo another slush fund.

    • Stefanie, you omitted Really’s question mark – ? .
      I’m thinking that there is a very good reason why Really has that ? where it is.

  8. Not a time for Mandy to be speaking out. She should be out there amongst the clean up. Just like Justine Elliot is no where to be seen. We need truthful honest leaders with integrity.

    • Perhaps they don’t hold a hose either Mate! Can’t talk about it now, can’t talk about it without a shovel in your hand – all a rise to silence the inconvenient. Any time is a good time for people to make pertinent observations.

  9. Hi, I live in Lismore Heights ( have lived in Byron Shire for many years too)…and most days I have been helping people. I started at the evacuation centre when people were arriving in ambos, choppers, cars etc. There was 1 doctor and 2 nurses, St Johns and the Salvation Army. It was chaos to say the least. I have played songs with my friend Mish to lift the spirits of the people and more recently helping friends in Nth Lismore with food, cleaning, doing their washing, shopping etc. I work with Lifeline (which also went under in the flood) and am watching my peers set up a hub at the Showgrounds in Nth Lismore to receive and provide clothes, food, groceries, water, cleaning stuff ect ect. There will be crisis support workers and many others to help find items and carry them to cars.

    I know that humanity needs to change it’s ways and start respecting our planet and all living beings. Climate Change has become a growing movement that I have supported however my gut tells me that there is so much more to this rain, rain, rain…. I was sent this piece of legislation yesterday and I have forwarded it on to a few people who replied saying that their heads were spinning after reading it.

    Try it for yourself its called the Rain-Making Control Act 1967. I request that you take a look at the Contents of this 12 page document just to start with and if something jumps out at you perhaps go and have a look… drill down a bit further.

    Maybe try Section 8 Cloud-seeding in Victoria to induce rainfall in another State or perhaps take a look at the ‘Definitions” on page 3 where you will find “rain-making operation means the seeding or nucleating of clouds by artificial means from a manned aircraft”.

    Many Blessings and Live Bravely.

    • Thanks for all your great work in the aftermath Tina, however I don’t really know where you are headed here. Just remember that the planet is warming, the La Niña effect was predicted by the BOM many months ago and of all the things this area needs right now, another conspiracy theory isn’t one of them.

        • Hi Tina. I didn’t doubt that the legislation exists nor that the concept of cloud seeding has been around for some decades. All that’s the fact bit. Conspiracy requires another step.

          Now I may have been on entirely the wrong track (Which I indicated) but I thought I could detect an inference in your words that cloud seeding could be behind the recent deluge: “…my gut tells me that there is so much more to this rain, rain, rain…”

          Therein lies the leap from fact to conjecture. The leap from “this” to “this therefore that”. I’m just suggesting to be careful about downplaying the role of anthropogenic climate change and our shared responsibilities, for mere conjecture with no immediate evidence.

          Further – I’m happy to be corrected but my understanding is that cloud seeding has been largely abounded in Australia as pretty ineffective and I’m at a loss to know why any would be undertaken in a La Niña cycle. Or is there emerging an idea that evil clandestine forces are messing with our clouds?

          Important to ask yourself these questions: What was your friend implying by the sending the copy, what are you implying by sending it further afield?

  10. Oh Mandy you poor dear have you not read of El Nino that arrived with lots of rain ?
    By the way climate change is a furphy because it happens naturally where as weather changes can be put down to human influences

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