It is a promise that Labor was adamant about during this just-finished NSW election: No privatisation! Now in power it is a definite principle that there is not going to be any more ‘privatisation’.
And then, shockingly, this story in The Echo last week… the state agency, Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE) is planning to sell a part (parcel) of our rail corridor to a private developer. So, here we go. Even the Coalition subscribed to the promise of no more privatisation when they were campaigning. To me this was progressive and we can even say that it’s ‘bipartisan’. Yeah. This agency’s decision is the first piece of what we have always feared, and even predicted, that our publicly-held rail corridor that connects all the community along the line can be ‘privatised’: chip, clip, chip.
This would make the first sale and set a precedent, used to leverage more sales (chopping up the corridor some more). TAHE has not identified who the buyer is and are clearly not following NSW government policy.
Thank you to our Councillor Duncan Day (Greens) who picked up on it. On the TAHE website their stated aim is: ‘Our role is to lead the development of a safe, efficient, integrated transport system that keeps people and goods moving, connects communities and shapes the future of our cities, centres and regions’.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to publicly ‘develop’ the short piece of railway corridor from Byron Bay town to Old Bangalow Road for light rail and bike trail side-by-side: and chip, chip away we could go in the right direction.
From a most concerned person who voted to halt ‘privatisation’.
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. 
