The people have spoken. Byron Shire’s new mayor is the Greens’ Sarah Ndiaye.
Her Labor rival Asren Pugh graciously conceded a few days ago.
At least three Greens have been elected as councillors – Delta Kay, Elia Hauge and Michelle Lowe. Nell Schofield may join them. We’ll find out when the long, careful process of counting is over.
Delta and Michelle are Bundjalung women.
Finally, we have local First Nations representatives at the heart of decision making.
Caring for country and caring for community will be at the forefront of Council decisions, as never before.
Each of these new councillors comes with a plethora of knowledge and experience invaluable to their task of guiding this shire through difficult times.
Elia Hauge’s expertise as an engineer specialising in water and sustainability will come in very handy when reexamining the decision to rely on Rous County Council for Mullumbimby’s supplies rather than keeping a local water supply option available.
Apart from overwhelming community support for keeping Lavertys Gap viable, there are sound environmental and supply reasons to reconsider the last-minute decision.
We are now in an era of considerable uncertainty with global heating and ecosystem collapse and the consequences are speeding up alarmingly.
Who hasn’t seen the shocking footage of unprecedented fires and floods ravaging the world?
It can no longer be business as usual, with an expectation things will return to normal. There is no normal now.
We need to plan for unexpected emergencies if that is possible. This means keeping many options open.
The proverbial white shoe brigade won’t be happy at this council election result. Sorry guys, but your need to make a dollar must take second place to protecting this shire as a haven for both people and wildlife.
Asren Pugh has been elected as a councillor, as well as the number two on his ticket Janet Swain. Independent David Warth and former independent mayor, Michael Lyon, have also won spots.
The final seat may be Jack Dods, but it’s still too early to tell.
The bottom line is we have a great new group with lots of experience both in Council and in the community. We’re very lucky in this shire to have such a team of caring people.
Majority-female Council
Let’s hope they will work together in harmony for the benefit of all. As a friend remarked, we will have a majority-female Council, and ‘things will go down a notch on the testosterone gauge’.
There may be rapid changes. The planning department needs to be revamped to ensure ecology is at the forefront of planning decisions, and not just the wishes of developers to railroad through developments in endangered species habitat.
There is also a need to promote localisation of our economy to improve resilience and lessen dependence on outside sources and explore more options for moving to a circular economy.
We can expect Council to do its best to tackle the housing crisis. There are no easy or immediate solutions, but it must be addressed, in active co-operation with state and federal governments.
No person in Australia should be homeless or struggling to pay rent. We are about the richest nation on Earth per capita. There’s absolutely no excuse for this.
Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese is visiting US President Biden in Washington. I cheekily wrote on Albo’s Facebook post ‘Please, let Joe know you’ll be cancelling the four hundred billion dollar order for the redundant subs and spending it to build a million social housing dwellings instead. Tell him you’ve had to re-order your priorities.’
He is frustrated that the Greens are delaying the legislation to enable the government to acquire equity in homes that people buy. It is likely that such a scheme in today’s market would indeed put upward pressure on house prices. Presumably, the legislation will go through, but the government needs to negotiate with the Greens and the independents for a better outcome. The capital gains tax concessions introduced by John Howard to further enrich the already wealthy have contributed significantly to the housing crisis.
Even if the Albanese Labor government won’t tackle negative gearing (it being in the too-hard basket), reform of the capital gains tax system wouldn’t be costly politically. More funds would be made available for social housing which has become very run down after a succession of conservative governments.
The success of the Greens in Byron Shire, where talented people have been elected to represent the community, has been replicated in other areas, despite the attempt by the far-right billionaire-funded Advance Australia to hijack the elections.
Anthony Albanese goes to the people in a few months too, and the polls are not looking good for him right now.
He needs to tone down his rhetoric and stop attacking potential allies. He may well need the support of the Greens to stay in government. It’s time to work together.
♦ Richard Jones is a former NSW MLC and is now a ceramist.
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. 
