Time for tea? Or perhaps a little tease?
Wallum protesters have responded to the CEO of Clarence Property, Simon Kennedy, who referred to them as a ‘sophisticated extremist group’ on the local radio station BayFM on June 21 by holding a sophisticated ‘high tea’ in Bayside Brunswick Heads today.
Mr Kennedy spoke with local radio BayFM about the new specialised security team brought in from Sydney with the job of collecting evidence on the Save Wallum group’s peaceful protest, stating ‘our security team alone have logged over 1,500 incidents’.
Granny’s on the loose
Save Wallum campaigner Lisa Sandstrom says calling Save Wallum protesters a ‘sophisticated activist group’ and a ‘sophisticated extremist group’ is laughable, stating that the majority of protesters are mothers and grandmothers living and working in the local community, doing their best to save this rare coastal ecology.
‘It is a fundamental human right to protest,’ says Lisa Sandstrom. ‘And we have an obligation to call out the weak environmental and planning laws that are leading to the destruction of vital habitat for endangered species like the koala, the glossy black cockatoo and the Wallum sedge frog on this site.’
The protest vigil at the Brunswick Heads Wallum site is now in its fifth month.
‘Today’s high tea illustrates once again the face of this campaign is the local community, and certainly not some extremism activist group,’ said Lisa.
‘Save Wallum is urging the community to continue to write to local member Justine Elliot and ask for her help. We invite everyone to come down to visit the Wallum protest site and see what is at stake here and join the campaign to save this last one per cent of wallum heath in the Byron Shire.’
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