At last week’s Ballina Shire Council meeting, I moved a motion that Ballina Council rejoin the Arts Northern Rivers (ANR) collaboration, which it left in 2021. The cost would be around $20,000 a year, funded from budget savings to existing programs. To put things in perspective, this amounts to $1 per year, per ratepayer.
Instead of supporting the motion, Ballina’s mayor moved an amendment that we instead seek to investigate the Arts Northern Rivers funding agreement with the NSW state government, suggesting that Ballina should get all the benefits of ANR membership without paying. This was supported 7-3 with only Greens councillors opposed.
Ballina remains the only council in the Northern Rivers that is not part of the ANR collaboration. This means our artists and creatives miss out on important opportunities to promote their work, and our broader community misses out on opportunities to be part of regional projects.
With an attitude like this it’s hard to imagine how Sharon Cadwallader would be able to represent the interest of the broad electorate, should she be elected as our state MP in March 2027.
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. 
