←Volume 34
June 10, 2020
In this Issue:
Priorities
Gareth W R Smith, Palestine Liberation Centre Australia claims its relationship with Israel has been strained by the Malka Leifer affair in which the ex-principal of the Adass Israel School is accused of sexually abusing her female students. Leifer was spirited...
Peaceful Bay
Bob Maughan, Byron Bay My name is Bob Maughan and this is my story; Months ago, I wrote that I was living in a ghetto, with drug addicts, mental health patients and homeless people. I refuse to pay my rates. Well, all good...
Informed?
E Ashworth, Lennox Head The Australian scientists and researchers from The Oceania Radiofrequency Scientific Advisory Association (ORSAA) www.orsaa.org have released their scientific findings and recommendations for Australian councils regarding radiofrequency (RF) radiation wireless technologies, including 5G. ORSAA is an independent scientific organisation...
Leaky boats
Fast Buck$, Coorabell My vast system of leakers tells me that there’s been much angst and finger pointing among The Greens as to who has been leaking and to what end. Considering that only weeks ago Simon Richardson ruled that The...
Failing system
David Gilet, Byron Bay Re Mandy’s column (3 June). If you were hoping to create a dysfunctional system you couldn’t do better than to take our current unemployment scheme as a model. As a system it is authoritarian, paternalistic, and moralistic. The main...
Police culture
Mick Stacey, Ballina It’s great to see the outpouring of concern re Deaths in Custody. Back in the ‘80s, my partner and I were active supporters in the organisation, Committee To Defend Black Rights, which was directly involved in bringing about two...
Editorial – Civil liberties: good or bad?
With attention fixated on injustice, policing and black lives, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) is just one voice of sanity in a country awash with racism and bigotry.
Misinformation
Keith Duncan, Pimlico In the months leading up to the American presidential election in November we are about to witness the mother of all state-sanctioned political misinformation campaigns the neo-conservatives have ever unleashed. Donald Trump should be hung, drawn and quartered for...
Spin or fake news?
John Lazarus, Byron Bay Buried in the attachments to last week’s Council Meeting was Council’s ‘Annual Greenhouse Emissions Inventory and Achieving Net Zero Emissions Target’, but it was all fake news. Council now doesn’t count ‘scope 3’ emissions (which can account...
Disaster resilience and youth mentoring for OS
Ocean Shores residents are set to benefit from a $40,000 grant as part of the NSW disaster resilient and future ready (DR:FR) Get Ready program.
Uncovering the mangrove fiddlers
The Brunswick River still has some extensive areas of mangroves that, thankfully, have not been sacrificed for development, and are a great place for photography if you know what to look for, and where to find it.
Runaway Byron?
Mr Don Opie, Ballina Byron Shire Council designs, regulates, and enforces rules regarding development application (DA). Yet Mr Dunn’s 139 Jonson Street development, smack on the roundabout bypass, has been approved by Council staff (again). Yes, they approved the DA objected...
Sad goodbye
Wally Hueneke, Byron Bay It’s sad to see the Byron News go online, but good to see a major source of litter off our streets (especially the plastic wrap). Now we just need to convince The Echo to letterbox its paper...
Job stats show decline of 10% in Byron Shire
Local jobs have plummeted by ten per cent in the June quarter 2020, compared to 2018/19 four-quarter average, according to new figures released by .id.community.
A Magistrate’s story – Part 2 – Threats, trauma and theatre
David Heilpern was in the early stages of his career as a magistrate when his life was threatened for the first time.
Dear Mayor, Why height limits?
Neil Matterson, Byron Bay Mayor Simon Richardson, responding recently to issues of breaching height limits for buildings in the Shire, says that those rules would eventually need to adapt. Why? And for whose benefit? It appears developers continue to hold sway...
Sobriquet
Chris Cooney, Mullumbimby The headline above the letters from Sarah Ndiaye and Fast Buck$ (Letters, 3 June) was unnecessary, not funny, and disrespectful to one of our councillors. It is ‘shock jock’ rubbish unworthy of this paper and damages the hard earned...
Cartoon of the week – 10 June, 2020
Letters to the editor We love to receive letters, but not every letter will be published; the publication of letters is at the discretion of the online and print letters editors. The deadline for the Byron Echo newspaper is noon Friday and letters longer...
Skin colour
Meg Pickup, Ballina As a white person I am horrified by the senseless death of African American George Floyd. This death, which happened during Reconciliation Week, shines the spotlight on the plight of peoples of colour globally. Deaths in custody are...
Entertainment in the Byron Shire for the week beginning 10 June,...
Entertainment in the Byron Shire for the week beginning 10 June, 2020
Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Black Lives – A White Matter
Black voices all around the world have spoken. They are demanding equality. They are calling for systemic change. They have asked us to stop killing them. They have told us they can’t breathe. That’s a confronting statement. It’s an even more confronting reality.
Turning one is Hunky Dory for Fiona and Tory
It was not quite fish and chips that Fiona and Tory Trewhitt had in mind when they started their working lives, but establishing Hunky Dory helped them make the sea change to Byron Bay after years of visiting and...
Thus Spake Mungo: Reconciliation week goes off with a bang
So Reconciliation Week has come and gone – and also gone is 46,000 years worth of priceless history pulverised by Rio Tinto in the Juukan Gorge.
