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THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 25 #42 Tuesday, March 29, 2011
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Don Page romps home in Ballina
P. 19
COMMUNITY MEGAPHONE – USE WITH CAUTION
Kites, bikes and fun for everyone
Michael McDonald
Don Page took the seat of Ballina easily last Saturday, and now heads into his seventh term as a Nationals MP. Mr Page was part of the Nationals’ comprehensive drubbing of the ALP on the north coast, at the most recent count taking 20,422 first preference votes (56.72 per cent) to the ALP’s Toby Warnes’s 4,307 (11.96 per cent). In fact the ALP performed so badly that the Greens became the real contender for office in Ballina. Candidate Simon Richardson saw a swing of 23 per cent towards the Greens, taking 7,816 votes or 22 per cent of the total. Of the other candidates, independent Karin Kolbe took 2,022 votes, Christian Democratic Party’s Bruce Kemp 737 and Family First’s Nathan Willis 698. Don Page told The Echo he was ‘a little surprised’ he had increased his margin by about one per cent. ‘I expected Labor’s vote to collapse and the Greens to poll strongly, but I thought the Greens would poll a little better – perhaps Karin Kolbe took some of their vote. ‘I appreciate the support of the community over a such a long period of time. I think it’s because of the good service from my office and our representation on issues. ‘It’s good going into government and having a voice for this area. It will be a challenge when we are inheriting a mess, but I’m optimistic that we will have a good cabinet.’ Mr Page is expected to become the minister for the north coast and minister for small business and regulatory reform when Barry O’Farrell and Andrew Stoner choose their cabinet this week. All Coalition MPs have been called to Sydney this Wednesday by their leaders.
Olivia and Matilda Langtry get a little Kites and Bikes magic from Sarah-Faerie-Jane and Dani-Doo Butterfly. Festival participant Paula Moraes told The Echo, ‘I just wanted to let the organisers of the Kites & Bikes Festival know that some parents and I had the best time ever watching our youngsters happily jumping away with their favourite band yesterday afternoon. As we watched our kids healthily jumping away – with no alcohol or drugs there – it made me wonder if there is anything else we could do to promote similar outings for our kids? Photo Jeff ‘High As’ Dawson
As to his local priorities, Mr Page said he would ‘get cracking’ with expressions of interest for a study on reopening the north coast rail line and look at getting money for a DA for the proposed Ocean Shores cultural centre on council land. He also said Bangalow’s highway interchange would be ‘put on hold while we look at the RTA’s arguments for it’. The election was interesting on a booth-by-booth basis in Byron Shire. Page comfortably took six of the ten booths, while Richardson had slender leads at Byron Bay, Suffolk Park, Durrumbul, and Mullumbimby. The Greens’ hopes of getting the
balance in the upper house, the Legislative Council, were dashed. The Coalition will form an alliance with the Christian Democratic Party and the Hunters and Shooters to get its legislation through. This was despite the fact that the ‘statewide vote in the Upper House has increased by about two per cent to 11.08 per cent’, according to Greens MP and upper house candidate David Shoebridge. ‘This is likely to increase our numbers from four to five members in the chamber and on past trends that vote may well increase as counting continues,’ he said.
Dreaming Festival merges with Woodford, Splendour show still planned for July Victoria Cosford
The Queensland Folk Federation has announced that the Dreaming Festival 2011 will become part of this year’s Woodford Folk Festival rather than being held at the usual Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June. Woodfordia, the site where it has traditionally been held, sustained significant damage as a result of the devastating floods throughout south-east Queensland in January, and cannot be
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repaired in time, say organisers. This will have no impact on Splendour in the Grass in July, say organisers, and will go ahead as planned. They claim the damage will be repaired by the time of the festival. This will be the second year that Splendour in the Grass will be held at the Woodfordia location while the approval process for the festival’s own permanent home at North Byron Parklands at Yelgun continues. Splendour will be held Friday July 29 to Sunday 31.
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