Comment
Byron Echo
Editorial – Wokie dokey
Last Thursday’s Council meeting was an example of when a good idea gets kiboshed because the people proposing the idea are considered crazy conspiracy theorists.
Byron Echo
The politics of climate are a changin’
When Tony Abbott won the Liberal Party leadership in 2009, he said the politics of climate had changed. He was referring to soaring electricity prices and his belief that blaming these price hikes on the Rudd government’s proposed climate change commitments would bring him electoral success.
Byron Echo
Piccadilly Circus comes to Mullum
Richard Hil - 0
When it comes to the art of complaining, I’m among the best. Ask my friends, my partner, my mum-in-law – the cat…
Byron Echo
Editorial – Getting recovery right
Aslan Shand - 2
The recognition of loss and damage at COP27 is a cause for celebration by those countries, especially developing countries, already experiencing the impacts of climate change.
Byron Echo
Editorial: Building flood resilience
Aslan Shand - 3
Resilience is a word bandied about a lot these days. From fires to floods we are being told to build ‘resilient communities’, but it is not just the human aspect that needs resilience. It is also the infrastructure.
Byron Echo
Lex Luthor buys Daily Planet
After acquiring Twitter for $44B, the world’s richest individual is now trolling its users, and removing people’s accounts he doesn’t like.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Don ya toga and let’s start this party!
The wheels of commerce and governance, indistinguishable as they perhaps always have been, again cranked into gear at the local level last Thursday.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Council’s top brass seeks renewed contract based on secret review
Council’s general manger, Mark Arnold, is seeking to renew his contract from July 1, 2023, presumably for another five years.
Byron Echo
Vanishing koalas – why risk their extinction?
Eve Jeffery - 1
It might not seem like a huge drama to cross the floor of parliament – unless you’re the person doing the crossing. That’s exactly what Catherine Cusack NSW MLC did and it was all in the cause of saving koalas.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Where’s the drug reform?
While the rest of the planet seems to understand that cannabis is a healing magical plant, as well as a superior fibre for clothing and building materials, it’s as if most of those who inhabit NSW parliament have no clue. Or even care.
Editorial
Editorial – Everything seemed to be going just dandy before the asteroid hit
We survived the awful fires, then a terrible global pandemic, then some dreadful floods.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Labor believes in transparency, but…
Phew. Last week, federal Labor introduced legislation into parliament that would hopefully stiffen the spines across the Commonwealth public sector.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Break out the bubbly for Budget Estimates
Budget Estimates is truly one of the most revealing and best educational services that the NSW government offers. MPs from the opposition grill ministers and agency bosses without mercy, for hours.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Secret governments are untrustworthy
The small amount of information that Resilience NSW supplied a resident regarding their GIPA request was wrong
Byron Echo
Editorial – Just quietly, Govcorp is doing very, very well, at your expense
Gosh, the one per cent are having a field day, aren’t they?
Byron Echo
A time to remember
This weekend we’ll commemorate the 49th anniversary of September 11, 1973, when a fascist military coup d’etat, backed by the Nixon administration, was conducted on a democratically elected government on the other side of the world, Chile.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Secret meeting held over poor governance
Councillors, like all politicians, are in the unenviable position of trying to represent the interests of two parties that are often in conflict with each other.
Articles & Columns
Comment – Flood recovery roadmap missing
James Hacker of BBC TV’s Yes Prime Minister once said, ‘(there are) three articles of civil service faith: It takes longer to do things quickly; it’s more expensive to do them cheaply; it’s more democratic to do them in secret.’
Editorial
Gerontocracy rules, okay?
The American president displays the unmistakable signs of old age. He shows a frailty in his movements, and a tendency to forget names.
Articles & Columns
Life long learning with environmentalist Bruce Chick at Wollumbin High
I find it an insult to the pioneering work of students such as myself and the legacy of Mr Chick that such crucial collaborative, educational and sustainable living contributions to the ecosystem are proposed to be destroyed.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Proselytising the demise of democracy
According to most political commentary last week, the reason for the former prime minister casually screwing up parliamentary democracy is to be found in his overweening, narcissistic nature.
Editorial
Editorial – Will the NSW government act on disasters, or just manage them?
The Select Committee on the response to Major Flooding across NSW in 2022, headed by chair Walt Secord (Labor) painted a picture of unprepared agencies, such as Resilience NSW, and documented a lack of planning.
Editorial
Editorial – Bye bye, Prince St froggies
It’s worth pausing to reflect on the mass frogacide that just happened on Prince Street, Mullum, which was led by unquestioning Byron Shire councillors and Resilience NSW.
Byron Echo
Mullum residents: ‘defeat and distress’ over pod housing
Many residents are concerned about the high-speed construction of the Emergency Housing Development along the railway corridor in Prince Street, Mullumbimby.
Editorial
Editorial – It was the best of happy times…
The start of the new federal Labor age saw advances in one short week that the previous government had failed to achieve in nine years.
Byron Echo
Editorial – A colourful catalogue of contradictions
Either it’s a nefarious blueprint for ‘Agenda 21’, where governments cede to unelected global bureaucrats pushing for depopulation and ‘The Great Reset’, or it’s an obligatory document to guide north coast councils (and developers) over the next 20 years.
Byron Echo
Half-hearted Byron Council approach to beach rehabilitation
Jan Hackett - 8
Protection, restoration and rehabilitation of Main Beach, Byron Bay, has been ignored by our local authorities for decades. Before I left Council I was assured an application for grant funding to address beach rescue had at last been made.
Byron Echo
Vindictive and bad faith prosecutions?
As Bernard Collaery’s friends and supporters celebrate the dropping of the prosecution against him, it is still relevant to ask, why were Witness K and his lawyer Collaery put on trial in the first place?
Articles & Columns
Where next for Lismore?
Lismore’s recovery cannot wait two years while reports are written, so we need to act on other evidence that events like the February flood cannot be mitigated, and need to judge the risk of such big floods recurring.
Editorial
Editorial – Emergency wedges!
Things are looking like they are about to get a bit messy, with Council and the NSW government dipping metaphorical political wedges into big pots of sour cream and tomato sauce, paid for by us, the taxpayer.
Articles & Columns
Imagining a new City of Lismore
Paul Jones - 24
The City of Lismore is my home town. It was an exceptional place to grow up, nestled within a picturesque valley at the confluence of two rivers; it was proud, sporting, cultural and busy.
Byron Echo
Byron’s future ‘reading’ for tourism and visitation
Destination Byron’s 2022 Tourism Symposium hosted at Elements of Byron 29 July had some ominous predictions. Board member and host, David Jones certainly shuffled the cards well.
Editorial
Editorial – Protect our whistleblowers
Aslan Shand - 2
It can be hard to know when to be a ‘dobber’. But there are times when the actions of others require us to take a stand.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Here’s a tiny violin
There are a few times when a tiny violin is required to be taken out of its small instrument case to sooth the sounds of the monied class.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Byron Council report card
Did you know it’s been six months since councillors were elected? They have another two years to go, and while a usual term is a gruelling four years, this time, it’s shorter, owing to a disrupting bat virus.
Byron Echo
The politics of gentrification and ‘holding the line’
B E Crowle - 0
Who are the visionary architects and planners that will protect and enhance this ramshackle surf town’s social fabric and built environment of Byron Bay?
Byron Echo
Bush stone-curlews in Byron Shire
The first time I noticed a bush stone-curlew in Brunswick Heads it was waiting at the pedestrian crossing, on its way to the pub, across the other side of the road.
Articles & Columns
Taking the time to remember as the future unfolds
Mary Creighton wanted to go for a drive to look around her town and her old homes at The Pocket and Main Arm. She wanted to see what the flood had done.
Byron Echo
Moral compass and the former PM
As I reflect on the Morrison government I wonder how it was okay for the former Prime Minister, who fervently professes faith in his God, to treat with such disdain so many people for so long.
Local News
Brunswick, Belongil and Tallows wait for Emergency Response Beacons
Aslan Shand - 0
In early November two men were saved from drowning at Dreamtime Beach, Fingal Head when a women activated the Emergency Response Beacon, alerting the Surf Life Saving NSW State Operations Centre that the men were drowning. There are three waiting to be deployed in Byron Shire.
Byron Echo
Editorial – Wokie dokey
Last Thursday’s Council meeting was an example of when a good idea gets kiboshed because the people proposing the idea are considered crazy conspiracy theorists.
Local News
Warning: Northern Rivers Rail Trail not ready yet
Love or hate it, the Northern Rivers Rail Trail is under construction and the community is being urged to wait until it is safe for public use.
Local News
Planning for Casino and Urban Growth
Richmond Valley Council is seeking community feedback on two key strategic documents - the draft Richmond Valley Growth Management Strategy and Casino Place Plan.
