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North Coast news daily:
Saturday’s result and the poll that counts
Volume 33 #08
August 1, 2018
Another DA under lights At this Thursday’s Council meeting, councillors will consider a development application (DA) at 8 Coomburra Crescent in Ocean Shores to subdivide a large lot into four, including removal of 15 trees, earthworks and associated infrastructure like a two-way driveway and retaining wall. It’s worth a closer look at this DA because Ocean Shores was originally built in 1973 with large lots on some steep inclines. Fast forward to 2018, and with massively increased property prices, it should surprise no-one that some owners of those large lots will try to monetise their asset. The Coomburra Crescent DA could be considered an example given the proposal is to create housing over an area of highvalue vegetation which is constrained by quite a slope. What is the process and can it be improved? In this case, the DA appears generous with its lot sizes – they are 971m2, 800m2, 800m2 and 1,675m2 (which includes road access). Council require a minimum lot size of 600m2. This might be explained by it being a steepish block; another constraint is noted as ‘High Environmental Value Vegetation.’ Another interesting aspect is that there appears no way to further subdivide the blocks in the future. There is a proposed restriction on the titles ‘limiting the future development of the four lots to one house only’. But how big will the houses be? The report didn’t say. The DA has travelled through the council conveyor belt to reach councillors – it was on exhibition for the minimum of two weeks (which really should be longer) and that sparked ten objections. It was then considered at the planning review committee (PRC) meeting. They bounced it back to councillors. All of Council’s expert staff – the Environmental Health Officer, Development Engineer, S64/Systems Planning Officer and the S94/Contributions Officer all gave it a tick. Staff are also satisfied that the (desktop?) geotech report for the site addresses landslip issues. They say, ‘It is considered the site can be developed for residential purposes.’ It wasn’t considered bushfire prone land, or koala habitat, and Council’s ecology planner has recommended compensatory planting for the removal of the native trees. ‘Appropriate conditions of consent have been recommended in this regard including the preparation of a Vegetation Management Plan.’ What could improve neighbour concerns and provide certainty for Council and any developer would be including all associated requirements at the time of DA lodgement. For example the Vegetation Management Plan, as mentioned above. Another missing piece of the DA puzzle is, ‘A driveway drainage system is to be incorporated in to the driveway design’. ‘Concept plans are to be submitted to Council showing the location of driveway grated pits, pipes, and any easements required to discharge driveway runoff in a controlled manner.’ Another issue that emerges when applying for just a land subdivision (not a building) is that any concern for loss of privacy for neighbouring properties can be ignored because there is no building DA to consider. There will no doubt be more of these types of proposals coming before Council and, as a result, more neighbours will be affected with the prospect of losing their once quiet neighbourhood. It’s to be hoped that councillors take an interest in improving the DA process, and perhaps outline how they plan to maintain the high-biodiversity values this Shire is known for. Hans Lovejoy, editor
The Byron Shire Echo Established 1986 General Manager Simon Haslam Editor Hans Lovejoy Photographer Jeff Dawson Advertising Manager Angela Cornell Production Manager Ziggi Browning
Nicholas Shand 1948–1996 Founding Editor
‘The job of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.’ – Finley Peter Dunne 1867–1936 © 2018 Echo Publications Pty Ltd – ABN 86 004 000 239 Mullumbimby: Village Way, Stuart St. Ph 02 6684 1777 Fax 02 6684 1719 Printer: Fairfax Media Brisbane Reg. by Aust. Post Pub. No. NBF9237
10 August 1, 2018 The Byron Shire Echo
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ell, what was all that about? After nearly three months of unremitting angst, barely restrained hysteria and several shitloads of money, we are precisely back to where we started. Every single one of those turfed from the House of Representatives over the dual citizenship imbroglio is now back in the parliament or, in the case of David Feeney, replaced by a colleague from the same party. So no changes to the parliament, and most importantly no real effect on the government, either way. And, as necessary corollaries, no early election and no leadership spills. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten can forget their immediate concerns for the moment, at least, and go back to what they do best – abusing each other. In the prime minister’s case, this has become something of a vocation, if not an obsession: as the climax of the campaigns approached, his screams of liar, liar, pants on fire became progressively shriller and less coherent. And, it appears, less convincing. Which is why, despite all indications to the contrary, Super Saturday was not merely status quo Saturday, as the estimable Peter Hartcher rechristened it. Turnbull’s Kill Bill approach has now demonstrably failed, most crucially in his most vulnerable state, Queensland. The catastrophic collapse of the LNP vote in Longman at the hands of both Labor and One Nation cannot and will not be ignored. But to attempt to fix it – and the other five marginals in the Sunshine State – will require not just a bit more tweaking of the message, but a major revamp of just about everything. Turnbull’s campaign style emerges on three distinct levels. We have already mentioned the negative bit and its lack of
CHESS
by Ian Rogers Senior events in chess might seem rather pointless, since it is possible to play at a respectable strength even at an advanced age. Yet the World Senior circuit, incorporating both over 65 and over 50 divisions, has become remarkably popular. The success of senior events can be attributed in part to the relative wealth of the Baby Boomer generation, to older players’ desire not be embarrassed by 10-year-olds, and also to the social aspect of sharing post-game activities with friends their age, even those who were once great rivals. Last week’s World Senior Teams Championship in Dresden saw a familiar story, with Russia dominating the 65+ division and England yet again failing to take the 50+ title. In 2015 and 2017, businessman Terrence Chapman had sponsored an English super team in the 50+ event, including famous names Nigel Short, John Nunn and Jon Speelman. However, Chapman had then ruined the team’s gold medal
traction: whether the voters actually believed that Bill Shorten lied about health policy (or anything else for that matter), a majority were clearly less concerned about the precise figures than the fact that they wanted more. Turnbull could inveigh until he was hoarse (and in fact did) about how his government had been wonderfully generous to the hospitals in the area, but the punters knew that the previous Abbott government had cut them and they weren’t prepared to forgive and forget just yet.
for corporate tax cuts was always unpopular but has now become poison: Shorten’s Longman line about money for hospitals and not for banks has almost certainly despatched it for good. It will be a difficult backflip for Turnbull to negotiate and will be seen as a betrayal by some of his colleagues, including the indefatigable Matthias Corman. But it has now become a matter of survival. And finally there is Turnbull’s big picture campaign, the one he relied on to replace
Turnbull’s Kill Bill approach has now demonstrably failed, most crucially in his most vulnerable state, QLD by Mungo MacCallum And when Turnbull ranted on about Shorten’s connections with the unions, especially the dreaded CFMEU, it was even more of a turn off; why didn’t he want to talk about their issues instead of his own? It all fed into the narrative of the Mr Harbourside Mansion, the ex-banker multi-millionaire who is hopelessly out of touch with the ordinary, hard-working Australians he governs. Then there is the hands-on Turnbull, the man in the fluoro vest or the hard hat or both, who invades carefully selected small businesses and interrogates the complaisant owners about how much they love his government for showering them with largesse. Quite apart from the fact that such occasions are clearly staged and inherently improbable, for most workers they miss the point: it’s all very well for the boss to be doing well, but how about a wage rise, or perhaps even moving from casual to permanent shifts? And the long-running push chances by insisting on playing, suggesting that Chapman’s interest was not so much a gold medal for England but more a world title for himself. In 2018, without Chapman (or Short or Nunn) England put together an all-Grandmaster team and led the event from the start. But in the final round the ‘Chapman Curse’ struck again and the English lost to the second German team, allowing the US, competing in the event for the first time, to overtake them. The top-seeded US showed the benefit of mass chess emigration from the old Soviet Union to the USA, with four of their five team members born in the USSR, and a red-hot Alexander Shabalov scoring 7.5/8 on board one. The Dresden 50+ tournament featured five women-only teams, with the Russian women’s team finishing an impressive eighth. Australia has never sent a team to this event and is unlikely to do so in the near future given the fact that Stephen Solomon and Darryl Johansen remain near the top of Australian chess and still compete successfully with ‘youngsters’.
Abbott with such bravado, but which now, like everything else, has become problematical. We don’t hear much these days about innovation and agility, it’s more about just keeping going, and hanging on for the very long haul. The now moribund company tax plan was part of the caution and incrementalism: it was to be legislated as soon as possible but would not take effect for many years, assuming it was not repealed in the meantime. The personal income tax plan is destined for the same delay and uncertainty. These big policies were enshrined under the slogan Jobs and Growth, which Turnbull boasts as his great success story; but really only half of it is true. There have been a lot of jobs created, although the boom is now stalled – in that sense there has indeed been some growth, within the jobs market. But the wider economy is still pretty flaccid: the Reserve Bank inflation measure is still a long way
from becoming sufficiently positive to push up interest rates. And of course the biggest worry, as the bank has confirmed, is the continued stagnation of wages. Turnbull’s solution is classic trickle down – pass the corporate tax cuts and all will be well. If there was a hope that this was going to sway the masses, last Saturday should have dispelled the illusion. Turnbull is hardly a natural retail politician but, if he is to reconnect with the voters who had such high hopes for him all those years ago, he would be wise to spend more time with the employees and less with their bosses – there are, after all, a lot more of the former than the latter. Our leader was happy enough to agree that the byelections were at least partly a test of leadership; of course he meant Shorten’s rather than his own, and he has no intention of resigning after Saturday’s voters rejected him in four states, so the referendum between the two has been declared invalid. But it cannot be denied that Turnbull and his chosen candidates are, at the very least, diminished. Big Trev has shrunk, Middle-sized Brett has dwindled and Little Countess Georgina has been reduced to the commonality. Shorten calls the result a signpost to a Labor win in a general election, which is a fair call, but it is only a signpost, not an irresistible surge. The point is that after all the sturm und drang, nothing much has actually changed, and in Turnbull’s case it has to, and quickly. Millions of words will be spent analysing the outcome, but for the moment, there is just one undeniable truth: Shorten won and Turnbull lost. That is the harsh reality the coalition will have to confront as it prepares for yet another poll – this one being the only one that counts.
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