Parents for Climate, Future Ready Schools, and the NSW/ACT Electrical Trades Union (ETU) has welcomed a motion passed at the NSW Labor Conference on the weekend calling for a comprehensive rollout of solar generation and battery storage at every public school and early learning centre in New South Wales.

Across Australia, Telstra mobile and mobile data customers have been dealing with widespread outages this morning, from cities to the regions, including the Northern Rivers.

While Australia’s parliamentarians were frocking up for the Midwinter Ball last week, representatives of the nation’s authors, musicians and artists were in Canberra pleading for assurances that the government would not water down copyright laws, as part of a deal with giant tech firms to build $50bn worth of new data centres across the country.

The Echo loves your letters and is proud to provide a community forum on the issues that matter most to our readers and the people of the NSW north coast. So don’t be a passive reader, send us your epistles.

There is so much happening in the always enthralling intersection of law and politics that it is hard to know where to start. I will stop my head spinning and focus on just five.

Billed as the 'longest running event on the Australian surfing calendar', the Thermos Australian Longboard Titles will return for a third consecutive year to Tweed Coast beaches 24-30 July.