Yesterday the new Byron Shire mayor and eight councillors took their seats in the Council Chambers in Mullumbimby to declare an affirmation to serve the community, and to outline some of their ideas.
It started with a song
Before the official part of the meeting began, new Mayor Sarah Ndiaye and Councillor Janet Swain and members of Big Song Choir joined in singing The Bridge to celebrate the start of the new term.
The mayor, followed by councillors Michael Lyon, Michelle Lowe, Delta Kay, Elia Hauge, Jack Dods, David Warth, Janet Swain and Asren Pugh – each spoke the following words:
‘I solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will undertake the duties of the office of councillor in the best interests of the people of Byron Shire and the Byron Shire Council and that I will faithfully and impartially carry out the functions, powers, authorities and discretions vested in me under the Local Government Act 1993 or any other Act to the best of my ability and judgment.’
The chamber was full to capacity of witnesses to the affirmations, with family, friends and community members filling the gallery for the occasion.
Each of the councillors was given a few minutes to make a speech to the gathering about their hopes and intentions for the next four years.
Cr Michael Lyon
Cr Lyon said it was a privilege to be here in the community. ‘I look forward to completing some things that have been underway for some time now, particularly around housing. I’m really happy with what the councils I’ve been part of over the last eight years, have been able to achieve, particularly in the planning side of housing equation.
‘But now it’s a critical of delivery behind that housing strategy – that’s my primary focus for the next four years.’
Cr Asren Pugh
Cr Pugh wanted to acknowledge the beautiful song that started meeting. ‘It just filled my heart with joy,’ he said.
He continued by saying that having Cr Swain in the chamber was one of the most exciting outcomes of the election. ‘To bring music and positivity to the very first meeting – a song about coming together and building bridges, I think is a really exciting way to start this council, and I hope that it can continue that way for the next four years.’
Cr Pugh said he also had a focus on housing, particularly, truly affordable housing and social housing – finishing the rail trail, protecting our local environment, building vibrant communities and stopping urban sprawl, supporting arts and culture and doing something to arrest the decline and destruction of our festivals.
‘Thanks to the community that supported me – I’ll do my best to represent you and the rest of the community as well,’ he said.
Cr Michelle Lowe
New Councillor Michelle Lowe spoke about how incredibly proudly she was to be part of the Greens ticket. ’As a mother and a school teacher, there are lots of things that keep you awake – about the future of children, and I feel incredibly honoured that people voted for us as a ticket and myself as an individual.
‘The biggest thing that I really want to do is to stand incredibly strong and with a very clear vision that the most important and fundamental cause for me is the future of our children and their children, the future of the wild spaces that we are custodians of, the future of the wild species that we share the planet and our shire with.
‘I feel incredibly, incredibly honoured to be standing here with my Arakwal sister and to be part of an historic council that has two First Nations women, but also that has five women in general.
‘I hope that we can bring some of those conciliatory, peaceful negotiations that many women and obviously men are partaking as parents and as a highschool teacher that I engage in every day, and I just feel really lucky to be here. Thank you so much, and I hope that we all do you proud.’
Cr Janet Swain
Cr Janet Swain said she was reflecting on the words from that song that we sing. ‘They’re so powerful. Every time we sing it, I really feel what those words actually mean. It’s not a song that tries to make things nice. It is asking us to actually face the truth, hard truths in this country, and to find ways of working together.
’It was really great as a new councillor, to be reminded of why I’m here, and to be honest, I’m still a little surprised that I’m here.
‘I decided to run for council after much thought, after 35 years of raising kids, and I’ve got a little bit more time to be involved in local politics. I think local politics is where it’s at. I think it’s the most important level of politics, actually, because this is where we live, and this is where we connect. This is where we create community, and also when we make art.
‘I’m really interested in nurturing and developing what is already a very vibrant, grassroots art community here in the shire. I think it’s time we listened to artists, creative people, because often we have really powerful, different ways of seeing things and changing things.
‘So that’s what I hope to do here on council. Thank you very much.’
Cr Delta Kay
Cr Delta Kay said that the community is the heart of why she was in the chamber. ’As councillors we stand so proud to represent you and do that truthfully and with transparency. I’m so blessed and grateful for having such a strong, caring Greens community around me – but first and foremost, I’m Bundjalung.
‘I’m a proud black woman, and I’m so proud to have a bunch of brothers and sisters here supporting us.
‘I really want to be that person, to be able to give voice to the voiceless Aboriginal people in the Byron Shire, such a tiny percentage, and we’re still struggling to be heard and to be seen. So I’m here for my brothers and sisters. Thank you so much for believing in us, and we’re going to be making some really tough decisions.
‘We need housing. We need transport. We need so many things. There’s a strong, vibrant, diverse community here.’
Cr David Warth
Cr David Warth said the choir was a reminder that there is so much love in the community. ‘I’ve always been very, very impressed with all this. It’s a wonderful community to be in, and it’s a community that’s been very, very good to me. So this is my way of giving back, and I’m very honoured to be able to do that.
‘We obviously have many, many issues. These are extraordinary times, and we are facing many challenges. Housing has become an absolute priority. We have people that just can’t even stay in the shire anymore.’
Cr Warth said that business was also really suffering. ‘I am a businessman so I do understand the implications of a lot of things.
‘Tourism is down and this is reverberating right throughout our community, so we have to really pick that back up again. I think we dropped the ball seriously there. This area has so many natural assets, it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s got one of the best, wonderful communities in the world.
‘We are so diverse and we are so talented that really, we should be doing a lot better than we are.
‘There are many, many issues, and I’ll be working as hard as I can to address them, and I am very honoured that I’ve been chosen for this job. And thank you very much. And I really love this community, so thank you.’
Cr Elia Hauge
Cr Elia Hauge said she was very humbled by this opportunity to be on Council. ‘I’d also like to acknowledge the rest of the councillors at this desk, and how exciting it is to to be part of a council that has shown already so much commitment to collaboration and coming together in the best interests of our community.
‘It’s very exciting to be part of the first majority of female council as well. That’s something that I’m very excited about, to see what we can do over this term.
‘I think the diversity of those of us at this bench today is a real strength, and it’s up to us to use that strength to address the most pressing issues in our shire. We know that housing crisis is impacting across our community and is really challenging. We have really unaffordable housing, and we’re in desperate need of really practical and innovative solutions to address this. I look forward to working with all of the councillors on this.
’I think that as a younger person, I’ll be able to really bring to this council that forward look at what our shire can look like, not just in the next two decades, but maybe the next five or six.’
Cr Hauge said that with her background in water and engineering, healthy waterways, resilient waterways and resilient water systems are really important to her. ‘My special subject is the health of our beautiful waterways, restoring our riparian zones, regenerating our catchments, ensuring that we have a resilient, sustainable water supply for our community.
‘But I think what is most important to me is community’s trust in council, our accountability, the transparency of the decisions that we take, and I hope that over the next four years, we’re really able to rebuild that trust so you see your values reflected here in the decisions that we make as a council. So thank you very much.’
Cr Jack Dods
Cr Jack Dods said he was very honoured to be sitting at the bench. ‘This was not something that I thought would happen in such a short time frame, but I put my hand in the ring and I’m sitting here in front of the community, so I pledge to everyone to do my best to serve your interests and to work collaboratively with the amazing team of people that we have here.
‘We’re a very interesting, diverse, complex mix of people, but I think that we’re going to be collaborative and collegial, and I think that over the next four years, working together, we’ll be able to deliver something really special.
‘I’d also like to say thank you to our staff. They don’t get a lot of recognition. They’re in the background, ticking away, and in the last week of our induction, where we’ve had to digest a huge amount of information, staff have been incredible in helping steer us in the right direction and giving us all the help and support that we need.
‘I’m going to support amazing things like the rail trail, tourism planning, beautifying our towns and villages, a better youth culture, a nighttime culture for our youth and community services – better environmental regeneration and enhancement through the controls that we can put onto approvals through the planning process.
‘I want to see Byron as a place that people can continue to love and continue to thrive and continue to flourish in the best possible way,’ he said.
The new mayor
Cr Sarah Ndiaye said it was wonderful to hear from all the councillors and their passion for the community.
‘I came here when I was about 18 years old, to go to a festival and with a broken heart. I had the most incredible time and fell in love with this place. How could you not fall in love with this incredible place? But it’s become a lot more than that. To me, it’s the community here, the geography here. There is so much to love, and so much that needs looking after.
‘For my first speech I am wanting to say thank you for the support. My family, of course – my dad – I just want to send a big thank you to him and his endless ideas, my mum as well for helping give me my voice, and the rest of my family as well, my kids, they’re not here, and a lot of kids leave this area.
‘I remember my son got a job at The Farm, and he couldn’t even get a bus there, to start at nine o’clock and finish at five. These are the kinds of things that as council we really need to fix, because kids have to move to the city because the opportunity is available to them. Unless you have a car, unless you’re driving, you can’t do that…
‘Thank you to all of those who entrusted your vote with our ticket. It was the most incredible ticket I could have ever hoped to stand with. It was a real privilege and honour just to go through that journey with all of you. And I hope that we can bring that joy, curiosity, care and respect to this council.
‘I know we will make mistakes, and I know we will have to muddle our way through, but with a community as passionate and dedicated as you all are, you will hold us to account. You will remind us if we lose our way, and I thank you for that. Thank you very much.’
Councillor Jack Dods new Deputy Mayor
After a break to let the new Byron Council hug their families, the meeting resumed and saw Councillor Jack Dods elected to the position of deputy mayor for the next 12 months and Cr Elia Hauge and Cr Ndiaye appointed to Rous County Council.
The next meeting of Council will be held on 24 October.
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