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Byron Shire
March 29, 2024

Activism saves

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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

Queer family visibility

Did you know that, statistically, if you’ve met a redhead, you’ve also met a trans person? Over 800 trans and gender diverse people live in the Byron Shire, which includes at least 200 children. They’re often a bit hidden though, so come on down and celebrate with them this Trans Day of Visibility!

Seize the Decade report outlines benefits of renewables

The Climate Council says many more Australian families can directly benefit from rooftop solar and batteries under a new plan that spells out how we can electrify the nation and cut climate pollution this decade.

Floodplains

We need a serious talk about development on floodplains with more creativity and sophistication. The recent discussion about development...

Richmond Valley Rail Trail grand opening

The latest leg of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail opened in style on Saturday, with hundreds of two-wheeled travel enthusiasts spinning along the newly opened 13.4 kilometre section from Casino to Bentley.

Dynamic, rustic yet polished

Animal Ventura is the brainchild of Byron Bay-based singer-songwriter Fernando Aragones. Growing up playing punk and reggae in noisy garage bands in Southern Brazil, Aragones ventured to Australia where the eclectic sounds of the Sydney music scene beckoned.

Superbowls

Superbowls is your go-to spot for a burst of woodfired flavour! Nestled in Byron Arts and Industry Estate, the...

It’s been an inspiring week for activists on the north coast. Bob Brown was in Lennox Head to provide an update on the critical situation in Tasmania’s Tarkine rainforest. Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek is about to determine whether a massive new toxic tailings dam proposed by a Chinese mining company should be allowed to destroy the planet’s last remaining unprotected wilderness area. The Bob Brown Foundation is supporting forest protectors, covering legal costs and instigating legal action with the EDO to save this irreplaceable and spectacular wilderness.

Offshore detention survivor and refugee advocate, Behrouz Boochani, was at Byron Community Centre to talk about Australia’s cruel and inhumane offshore prisons on Nauru and Christmas Island and the poor bastards stuck in Port Moresby since the closure of the Manus Island gulag.

Mr Boochani’s visit was sponsored by the Byron Writers Festival and I urge everyone to read his shameful account of those fatal shores in his award-winning book, No Friend but the Mountains. Depriving people of their language, their identity, treating them in a brutal, uncaring, dehumanising manner, without decent food and medical attention and leaving them in limbo without hope, for years on end – we are doing that. 

Our ‘processing centres’ fail to provide a clear pathway for refugees to anywhere but the terror from which they fled. There is no need for the cruelty and brutality, yet it is inflicted in our name by successive governments, putting us up there amongst the worst tyrants who run gulags.

Our new federal Labor government has decided to continue this evil regime, spending billions on new contracts with the US militia thugs now running these prison camps. Surely this money could be better spent?

The federal government created this hideous system and only they can dismantle it. Minister for Immigration, Andrew Giles, and Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, should both be concerned about future litigation from tortured refugees. They have the power to end this brutal system and we all have a voice and the power to influence their decision.

If you’re not doing enough, get active – write letters to lawmakers, sign petitions, add your voice to the debate. Doing nothing is not really an option when the future of so many lives is at stake. Supporting the status quo through passive indifference is a death sentence for humanity. 

Michele Grant, Ocean Shores


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12 COMMENTS

  1. A week or so ago, the Tanya gave a glimmer of hope that Lab was better than LibNat on environment when she knocked off Big Clive’s proposed new QLD coal mine.
    But then last Friday, the reality check of BAU… the Tanya approves the SANTOS gas project in the Surat Basin – another Big New Methane Bomb. That’s part of the dividend that is paid to the Fossil Fuel Industry for the $’shundreds of thousands in bribes and donations that the Fossil Fuel Industry sends to ALP HQ.

    We so lucky that we don’t have a Climate Emergency on our hands, otherwise we would need to take strong action and stop Big New Fossil Fuel Adventures….calling the Tanya, PEP 11 is waiting for your rubber stamp of, “Approved”!

    • ‘We so lucky that we don’t have a Climate Emergency on our hands’, very true Joachim. But we still have to deal with the easily fooled nutters that are determine to destroy our great civilisation over their ‘disaster movie’ delusions.

      • CS, you must have been in the cinema each time watching “Marvel” movies and missed the real life disasters as they happened – the National Bushfire Apocalypse 2019-20; the East Coast Australia Flood Devastation 2022 – Lismore was front row seating; the Kimberley Mega Flood 2023.
        The “delusions” are in your head, best you get help and quick.

      • “The land of drought’s and flooding rains ”
        Was taught this at school Christian
        Guess you were too.. maybe Michele &
        Joachim were absent on those day’s..

        • Barrow old son, I’m guessing you were absent when global warming lessons were conducted.
          Unprecedented Fire and Flood event lessons are being taught in real time.

          You in need of some serious learning, dial up the BoM website and the UN website.
          No need to be afraid of F A C T S.

    • ‘We so lucky that we don’t have a Climate Emergency on our hands’, very true Joachim. But we still have to deal with the easily fooled nutters that are determine to destroy our great civilisation over their ‘disaster movie’ delusions.

  2. Behrouz Boochani, he appeared as a guest panelist on ABC Q&A show a few Monday nights ago and he was brilliant.
    The Behrouz , he hasn’t been the first, but he again highlighted the rubbish that is the LibNatLab triopoly on the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.

    Australia needs more Behrouz, the Behrouz for President of the Republic of Australia.

    • Joachim this Behrouz.. obviously like yourself
      and michele need to stop listening to
      Propaganda…once again go travel the world
      With the above Joachim and if you come back
      and find a better model than what Australia
      Has to offer for asylum seekers overall anywhere
      In the world ..will stand corrected..!! dont think
      I have much to be concerned about ..

      • Barrow my man, it not hard to shoot holes in your ‘Australia Best’ idea.
        You only need to take one look, look at the way Germany handles asylum seekers.

  3. Last I checked, the refugee convention only allows you to seek refuge in the nearest safe country. Once you travel half the world and attempt to enter a country without permission, you are immigrating in an illegal way that will get you locked up in prison, especially if where you came from is not actually in a state of war. We don’t have the resources to take care of our own people apparently. You should be ashamed of yourself Michele. You are advocating for foreigners to steal from our poor.

    • CS, “Last I checked, the refugee convention only allows you to seek refuge in the nearest safe country.”.
      Where’s the actually support for your ‘idea’ in the Refugee Convention?

    • Well Christian the truth hurts dos it not!! …it matters
      Little whats facts you present to the above ..
      The left just go into meltdown.. you see Michele
      and Joachim governments don’t have any money
      Only what what we give them ..both of you should
      Be fully aware of this when paying tax ? 70 % of all
      My tax’s gos the some form of welfare.. incidentally
      Christian how many countries have a social system
      As in Australia. ? Not many i assume..hence why
      It is so viable to come to Australia 🇦🇺..

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