It’s been another turbulent year for local Greens councillors Kiri Dicker and Simon Chate, as Ballina Council struggles to balance the needs of a fast-growing population with a fragile coastal environment.
Cr Dicker wanted to emphasise the positives first when she caught up with The Echo, noting that Ballina Council re-zoned an environmentally sensitive floodplain at West Ballina as C2 (Environmental Conservation), which will prevent it being developed for seniors housing.
‘The previous council decided to rezone this site to enable a housing development, despite numerous studies showing it was home to several threatened and endangered species,’ she said.
‘The fight isn’t over yet because the developer has taken Ballina Council to the Land and Environment Court, but given that the Northern Region Planning Panel unanimously refused the development application, I am hopeful that the Land and Environment Court will as well.’
Cr Chate added, ‘I reckon it’s not the last we’ve heard about this one!’
Food security
In Ballina’s last meeting of the year, Cr Dicker succeeded in introducing a motion to support food security by conducting an audit of disused council owned and managed land with a view to offering low cost leases to people capable of producing food for local markets.
Cr Chate says council ‘hotly debated’ the issue. ‘Team Cadwallader was concerned about asking council staff to do more work, despite staff stating in the meeting notes that this could easily be done in about a week and would not be a burden to council staff.
‘When we finally voted on this one, it was approved with the Team Cadwallader councillors – Bruem, Ramsay, Buchanan and Cadwallader voting against it and Crs Dicker, Chate, Johnson, McCarthy and Meehan voting for it. A good result for community gardens within our shire,’ he said.
Cr Dicker told The Echo, ‘Food security is something that I am learning more and more about, and as I do, I get more concerned about the lack of resilience in our local food systems.
‘Earlier this year Simon and I fought to prevent industrial development on the Alstonville-Wollongbar buffer zone and we’ll continue to oppose the encroachment of residential and industrial development on productive farmland.’
Koalas
Cr Chate said, ‘As a result of my first Notice of Motion, Ballina Council was recently awarded a grant of $100K to match our own $100K. This funding source was then made available to landholders to apply for grants of up to $10,000 to increase and enhance our shire’s koala habitat.
‘Council is hoping to create an additional 50 hectares of core koala habitat as a result of this initiative.
Ongoing attacks on the environment
Cr Dicker says, ‘We hit rock bottom this year when Team Cadwallader Councillors succeeded with their “opt-in” approach to Conservation zoning on the mayor’s casting vote.
‘The most fundamental principle of land use zoning is that it operates in the public interest, not the interests of private landowners. What’s the point of having land use zones if people can just opt out of them? This is classic National Party political ideology that places the property rights of landowners before environmental protection,’ she said.
With the issue set to drag long into the next term of Ballina Council, the Greens say they will be strongly advocating for a fair and evidence based approach to Conservation zoning.
4WDs, again
‘Twice this term we have had to defend motions to reopen South Ballina Beach to 4WDs,’ said Cr Dicker.
‘The beach was closed to vehicles in 2021 by National Parks. It’s a breeding site for the endangered Pied Oyster Catcher and Beach Stone Curlew, which have recovered in numbers since it was closed.
‘It’s so frustrating because there is so much reform to be done but we are constantly defending these short sighted motions from conservative councillors.’
Other issues
Simon Chate said, ‘We fought hard to ensure the community at Wardell was listened to when they called for inclusion of a multipurpose court when it came time to upgrade their tennis courts. They now have an exciting multi-sport venue and a thriving tennis club with heaps of new members.’
Cr Chate also noted, ‘We’ve successfully moved motions to support our local business community, reduce micro-plastics, reduce wildlife deaths by vehicle strikes, make our community more inclusive for refugees, minimise danger to marine wildlife through balloon ingestion and increase food security through urban agriculture.
‘We’ve connected with residents through listening posts and events across the shire, and responded to countless emails, phone calls, messages and tags on social media.’
Investment drift
Cr Chate says of Ballina’s final meeting of 2023, ‘Sadly, our investment strategy allowed another $2 million to be placed with institutions that are actively invest in fossil fuels. That means we now allow $59,600,000 of council money (59.7 per cent) to be invested with fossil fuel aligned institutions.
‘I still feel very frustrated by this continual creep upwards that seems to be happening. In the December meeting, I asked again “What would David Attenborough think?”
‘This month I tried to add a point to our investment summary: “That future investment summaries include a section which details and compares fossil-fuel aligned interest rates on any newly invested monies with the corresponding best possible non-fossil fuel aligned interest rates and potential differences in interest earnings over the chosen investment period.”
‘The purpose of this point was to provide us with information, to simply see the differences in investment interest rates and possible income raised from both the fossil-fuel aligned option as well as the nearest non-fossil fuel aligned option,’ said Cr Chate.
‘We debated this extensively, but sadly the majority of councillors decided they didn’t need that information, with team Cadwallader councillors not wanting to “add to the burden of council staff”.
‘I can’t help but see the irony in this, considering they refused to even look at the work that council staff had compiled after hundreds of diligent and expert hours spent trying to find a solution to the Conservation Zone Review – one that was more palatable to the NSW Dept of Planning than to simply “opt in”.’
First Nations
Cr Chate said, ‘We successfully moved the council’s Australia Day Award Ceremony from Jan 26, 2024 to the evening of Jan 25, only to lose this change in a rescission motion the following month. It was a good feeling while it lasted!
‘We also campaigned hard with and for our local mob for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament and, despite the loss of this wonderful opportunity, we became a part of a larger community of people working towards reconciliation and First Nations justice.’
Elections
After just two years, Ballina ratepayers are set to return to the election booths to elect a new council in 2024 (this is a shorter than usual term because of the way COVID disrupted the previous local government elections).
‘I’m all in!’ said Cr Dicker. ‘It’s been a challenging two years but I feel like Simon and I are the last line of defence on Ballina Council, in terms of people who are willing to give primacy to environmental considerations in decision-making. I’d be genuinely concerned about the direction this Council would head in if we were not there to defend our environment.’
Cr Chate said, ‘It has been an honour and privilege to sit at the council table and represent my community on matters of great importance throughout the year.
‘I’d like to acknowledge and thank my council colleagues who, for the most part, have been respectful and genuine in their deliberations and communications. I’d also like to thank the amazing staff from Ballina Shire Council. They are incredibly knowledgeable, hardworking and patient and do so much for our community, often unrecognised.’
Cr Chate said he wanted to thank the whole community for supporting him in his role throughout 2023, and encouraged people to continue bringing issues of concern to Ballina Council, particularly via his regular listening posts in Alstonville Plaza (the next one will be Saturday 4 February).
Ballina Council’s first meeting of the new year will be Thursday 22 February 2024.
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