Ballina Shire Council’s penultimate meeting for the year covered a lot of ground. A motion regarding the establishment of a Richmond River Commissioner found support, with amendments.
Before the discussion of that motion, the contention issue of the proposed rate rise for Ballina’s ratepayers came up, briefly, with Cr Erin Karsten saying, ‘I just want to take this opportunity to discuss the special rate variation and particularly the recent spate of emails and social media posts that, quite frankly, are inaccurate and ill informed…
‘I want the community to understand that strong investments are a sign of good management, not spare funds. When community members see a healthy bank balance sheet, they go, oh, you know, there’s there’s money in the bank. But in reality, councils are expected by the NSW Audit Office and IPART to maintain strong liquidity and reserve funds for risk management, future renewal and disasters.
‘After the floods and other natural events in recent years, maintaining those reserves are more important than ever, to ensure Ballina can respond quickly and recover without relying entirely on state funding. Using these funds for day to day costs would weaken Council’s resilience and lead to greater reliance on debt or emergency funding later down the track, which would worsen our financial position.
Cash reserves aren’t spare money,’ emphasised Cr Karsten. ‘They’re mostly committed funds. And this is just like people in the public who might have money in an interest earning savings account. Typically, you have a plan for that money. It’s not just extra cash for your everyday expenses. Council really isn’t any different.’
Should there be a Commissioner for the Richmond River?
Cr Karsten returned to the microphone later in the meeting, with her proposal for a Richmond River Commissioner, which was seconded by Cr Therese Crollick.
She asked Ballina Shire Council to write to government ministers seeking their urgent support to improve the health of the Richmond, via four steps:
- Appointing a Richmond River Commissioner with a statutory obligation to increase the health of the Richmond River catchment.
- Increasing funding for research and education on river recovery, fencing provisions for riverbanks, wetland restoration and weed management.
- Establishing a state government revolving land acquisition fund and a voluntary covenant program for the purchase and sale of key pieces of low-lying agricultural land, based on the work of Rous County Council.
- Ending native forest logging in the catchment and establishing the Richmond River Koala Park.
‘My hope is that, because there are so many councillors who are passionate about the river, and of course, so many in the community who are as well, that this idea can have broad support,’ said Cr Karsten.
‘We know the Richmond is one of the least healthy rivers across NSW, but really across the entire east coast, there’s so many issues surrounding the needs of a river, and our river, in particular, from swimming to fishing to agricultural needs, and often those are in conflict with one another as well.
‘Following the blackwater event earlier in the year, we heard from OzFish and Rous about some really key initiatives that could deliver some great outcomes for local farmers, for commercial fishers and the seafood industry, not to mention the potential for creating the Kakadu of the south and exploring the Richmond River Koala Park and the benefits that that could bring to our region, which is really only achievable with funding that would ideally be led by a recognised statutory role, a Richmond River Commissioner.
‘We really must continue to advocate to the state government to work with the community, including local fishermen and businesses reliant on the Richmond River with the science-based expertise and First Nations native title holders to deliver a whole system, integrated approach, and to fund the above plan to rescue and revive the Richmond River before it’s too late.’
She explained that the Richmond River Koala Park would potentially be a new national park linking the coastal Bundjalung lands to the Border Ranges, with the intent of creating unfettered access for koalas and other species, protecting genetically distinct koala habitat.
‘The point about ending native forest logging in the catchment is also ultimately to protect the soils and prevent additional sedimentation into the river, so it achieves two good aims with that point noted in the motion,’ said Cr Karsten.
Cr Kinny says no
Cr Simon Kinny supported points one, two and three in the motion, but came out strongly against point 4, saying the recent declaration of the Great Koala National Park had ‘devastated’ timber communities in that whole area.
‘I think that to completely end native forest logging in the whole catchment and establish a Koala Park along the same lines as the one that’s just been proclaimed on the mid north coast, with minimal consultation, I might add, would be socially devastating.’
He proposed an amendment removing point 4, which sought to eliminate native forest logging in the upper Richmond catchment.
Cr Phil Meehan echoed Cr Kinny’s words, claiming that the forestry industry was being conducted in a sustainable way, and saying he would support Cr Kinny’s amendment.
Complete dissonance
Cr Kiri Dicker spoke against the amendment, saying ‘I think this really gets to the frustration that I have with improving the health of the Richmond River, and the complete dissonance…
‘When it comes to actually making the changes in land use that we need to make in order to actually do the job, people don’t want to do it. You cannot say you want to improve the health of the Richmond River, and also say at the same time that you think that native forest logging in a catchment area is a good thing. They’re completely incompatible.
‘I just think people need to get serious, and if you’re not serious about it, fine, just get out of the way – you don’t have the leadership that it takes to do the job that we need to do.’
Mayor Sharon Cadwallader then waded in, saying she supported the forestry industry. Providing no evidence, she said, ‘I believe the forestry industry is sustainable when we talk about koalas.’
Cr Phil Meehan said he would also support the amendment.
In response, Cr Karsten said that if her motion got through with only points one, two and three, ‘I won’t be unhappy’.
The revised motion (removing any mention of logging or the idea of a Richmond River Koala Park) was then carried, with only Crs Therese Crollick, Erin Karsten and Kiri Dicker opposing the amendment.
Cr Simon Chate was absent from November’s meeting. There will be one more Ballina Council meeting in 2025, to be held on 11 December.
More stories about Ballina Shire Council:
With local government meeting practice across the state returning to confusion following the NSW Legislative Council's recent decision, Ballina Shire Council's last meeting included a lot of unanimous decisions and an argument about the remnants of the Big Scrub, in which Mayor Cadwallader used her casting vote to squash Cr Simon Chate's motion. Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has approved Ballina Shire Council's application to increase its general income through a permanent special variation (SV) of 26.25% [in rates] over four years, from 2026-27 to 2029-30. Byron Greens members could expect to be asked to take the future of the Richmond River further south into account when choosing a candidate for next year’s state election. Local business owners in the Alstonville and Wollongbar townships are being encouraged to take the time to read through Ballina Shire Council’s draft plans, which are currently on exhibition. The Lennox Kinvara Action Group is calling for email submissions to Ballina Shire Council to stop the development of thousands of houses in a sensitive, flood-prone area, as the full scale of what's planned becomes better known.
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