Latest News
Ballina Shire Council supports application for new croquet club
The Ballina Croquet Club is hoping to receive up to $300,000 in funding for a new club house at Cawarra Park.
Other News
Navigating through laws around business lockdowns
This is the full version from the edited down July 28, 2021 Echo print edition:
A flyer circulating within the...
Criticism of Ballina Cr Cadwallader’s water election tactics
The Ballina Environment Society (BES) has accused Ballina Councillor Sharon Cadwallader of politicising water security by using ‘the Dunoon Dam as one of her key concerns in her bid for mayor in September’s local government elections’.
Editorial – Free fi fo dumb?
Hans Lovejoy, editor
Scientists have warned that now the UK has come out of lockdown on ‘freedom day’ (July 19),...
Spyware unplugged – New software attacks cast a light on cybersecurity
A major investigation conducted by news organisations has found that governments around the world may have been spied on by a malicious software called Pegasus.
45 Sydney-Ballina travellers exposed to COVID-19
Forty-five travellers from Sydney are being urged to get tested for COVID-19 and continue self-isolation on the Northern Rivers after sharing a flight with a confirmed case.
With avocados, farmer fresh is best
There are many different avocado varieties, but walk around the supermarket and you might get the impression there is...
Stories about "racism":
The code of silence could develop racial bias in children
A new study by Monash University has found that children are capable of discussing issues of racism in the classroom and with friends, but parents and teachers are actively avoiding these conversations.
Framing the guilty: Uluru deniers, banksters, Dutton’s spies
The Liberal bullies and the Murdoch-Costello press have jammed their frame around indigenous recognition, and it boils down to 'we will decide what you can have, and it’s probably going to be bugger-all'.
Can You Herd Me?
When gritty Aussie hip-hop outfit The Herd hit the airways with Scallops back in 2001, the band forged themselves into the Aussie psyche. This was...
Byron’s freedoms should be valued
Sarah Blogg, Ocean Shores. In response to the letter: 'Is the Echo showing racist tendencies?' How irritating to see how language can trigger people to ridiculous levels of whining and whingeing.
Is the Echo showing racist tendencies?
Sharon Gibson, Mullumbimby. I felt sick when I read last week's letters comparing the practice of renting illegal dwellings in the shire to what the writer describes as 'Nigger huts'.
Misogyny the root of most evils
Cat Anders, Lismore. Stan Grant claims that racism is at the heart of the nation. I don't deny this, however, misogyny is at the heart of most cultures and this, as always, is denied aggressively by men and women.
I am racist!
'I am a white middle aged guy, I’m gay and I believe I am racist. I am working with awareness to notice when I have racist thoughts or actions. It’s hard work because it’s so much of who I am,' writes Anand Anderson.
Right-wing group NCC rallied to Abbott’s rescue over challenge
Tony Abbott's leadership was saved in part by a last-minute email campaign by right-wing group the National Civic Council, which denigrated Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop in an email to its supporters.
Defending the burqa
Dawn Blackwell, Mullumbimby. I am not a religious person – quite frankly I find it baffling – however, never have I met nicer people than Muslims. Their faith, just like any other, has been exploited by extremists to peddle their own agenda
Arrests made over racist Sydney bus attack
Police have arrested five teenagers in Sydney's eastern suburbs following reports of an anti-Semitic attack on a group of school children on a bus.
Storylines
Storylines: Growing hope
Hope is a fragile thing in 2021. With the current pandemic and the uncertainty in so many aspects of life, our hope is being shadowed by fear. It is profoundly affecting our humanity.
Local News
Northern Rivers responds to cal for COVID-19 testing
Following the flight of a COVID positive traveller from Sydney to Ballina and the detection of COVID fragments in the Byron Bay Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) both locals and visitors have responded to calls for more testing in the region.
Local News
Open-air art walk by the river at Murwillumbah completed
Aslan Shand - 0
The Ages of the Tweed mural that accompanies the open-air riverside art walk has now been completed.
Science Goes Viral
Cherry-picked COVID-19 statistics: Were the weekend’s ‘Freedom Rallies’ based on science?
A flyer recently dropped into the letterboxes of some New South Wales residents urged people to attend the controversial ‘Freedom Rallies’ – Let’s break it down and present some context.
