Northern Rivers dairy co-operative Norco won unanimous support of Lismore City Councillors last week to have more than $300,000 in charges related to non-compliant waste written off.
Council staff recommended the write-off in a report included in the agenda for the council’s ordinary September meeting, while also advising councillors carefully consider the decision, ‘given the large sum involved’.
During public access at last week’s meeting, the charges recommended for write-off were described by various speakers as punitive, or as a deterrent, rather than cost-recovering.
Formal discussion lasted around 40 minutes and included multiple references to ratepayers’ interests, fairness and the merits of Norco, Lismore’s largest employer.
Greens Councillor Virginia Waters unsuccessfully moved an amendment to adjust the debt again to reflect the existence of two separate non-compliance issues.
Cr Waters said including costs from ‘the December incident’ would bring the debt owed to ‘approximately $131,480’.
‘I believe that it’s in the best interest of everyone, because they have accepted responsibility for that,’ Cr Waters said.
But her amendment failed to win support from anyone besides fellow Greens Cr Adam Guise and Labor Cr Harper Dalton-Earls.
Norco was ‘proactive’, say council staff
Norco ‘unintentionally discharged a non-compliant trade waste stream’ from its ice cream factory at 120 Union Street South Lismore between October and December 2023, the staff report stated.
The discharge went into the South Lismore Treatment Plant, contaminating ‘all treatment processes’ with milk solids.
Norco said a blockage had led to council staff using incorrect samples in their calculations for subsequent charges.
While staff said a review showed the charges were correct, they thought a reduction of $318,592.58 fair.
The report showed staff considered Norco’s ‘proactive efforts to rectify the situation and the primary purpose of council’s trade waste charges being for cost recovery and fairness’.
The recommendation was to charge Norco an outstanding balance of $99,590.00 including GST.
Waivered in ‘good faith’
Returning to vote on the original motion for the staff recommended write-off, Cr Dalton-Earls referred to ratepayers ‘doing it tough’.
‘We all know that we’ve increased rates 3.5% on the individual,’ Cr Dalton-Earls said.
‘If we do start waiving things because of a collaborative approach, we have to look at that holistically and not just favour any company or any certain institution,’ Cr Dalton-Earls said, ‘at what point do we see working in good faith as something that should be waivered, as opposed to forfeiting potential revenue for council?’
‘Difficult decisions, as I said,’ the Labor councillor said, before voting in favour of the write-off.
Norco ‘fixed it’
Independent Councillor Big Rob was vocally in favour of the staff recommendation during both public access and formal debate and said he ‘couldn’t help’ but speak again before the official vote.
‘I heard ratepayers mentioned a thousand times as if Norco isn’t a ratepayer,’ Cr Rob said, ‘businesses are ratepayers, they’re, in fact, our highest ratepayers’.
‘Without businesses, you have no town, you have no ratepayers,’ Cr Rob said.
Norco hadn’t ‘done anything wrong that we can tell,’ he said, ‘then nothing intentional and as you heard, it was hidden and not found till December’.
Cr Rob said there was a catastrophic flood event in ‘22 ‘which caused a bit of ruckus down that way,’ and he didn’t ‘blame them for something’s happened that they’ve lost track of their systems’.
‘At least now they’re back on track,’ he said, ‘and if there’s something in the future that’s directly linked to what has been addressed now, there may be punitive damages, but not now’.
‘They fixed it.’
Lismore councillors all fans of Norco
Cr Waters also spoke again before voting in favour of the write-off, partly to defend herself.
‘To fellow councillors who had a go at me about, you know, not loving Norco or not being supportive of our city and town, I think that that just really was not okay,’ Cr Waters said.
‘I am a supporter of business in our city and I just also want to make sure that we are doing the best for everyone, including ratepayers,’ she said.
Cr Jerri Hall, who was later elected the council’s deputy mayor in a new, extended term until August 2028, moved in favour of the staff recommendation, saying she really wanted to support Norco.
‘They’re one of our biggest employers,’ Cr Hall said, ‘I heard that they were going to leave us after the flood and take their business elsewhere, which would have been a tragedy, and I’m so glad that we’ve retained them, because they’re such a valuable employer, and they’ve gone through hell and back with the floods’.
Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the staff recommendation to write-off $318,592.58 of Norco’s debt, leaving an outstanding amount of $99,590.00 including GST.
Caniaba excess water charges waived
Councillors also voted, in the majority, for another staff-recommended waiver of charges.
Staff said the circumstances surrounding a water leak at 41 Caniaba Road were exceptional and largely outside the property owner’s control.
A separate report on the matter recommended more than $17,272.74 in excess water consumption charges be waived, leaving ‘a recoverable balance of $10,042.34’.
Cr Hall spoke for the motion, noting the council wouldn’t be writing off the entire amount of debt, that average water use was calculated, and there would ‘still be a hefty water fee applied’.
Greens Councillor Adam Guise spoke against, saying the council had established policies for writing off excess water consumption charges and it seemed like the recommendation went ‘above and beyond those policies’.
‘We’ve applied those policies in quite a strict fashion when it’s come to other ratepayers,’ Cr Guise said, ‘and required such ratepayers to demonstrate hardship, which for some can be quite onerous and personal’.
The ratepayer under consideration hadn’t demonstrated financial hardship, Cr Guise said, and there was no demonstration in the staff report of why it would not be cost effective to recover the charges.
‘So my mind isn’t convinced that it would not be cost effective to pursue this, and we should be seeking the recovery of these funds to the amount where our existing policy exists, which is up to 50% of the excessive consumption,’ he said.
Councillors except for Cr Guise voted in favour of the write-off.
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. 
