THE BYRON SHIRE
Byron Bay International Film Festival Program inserted in this week’s Echo!
Volume 26 #36 Tuesday, February 21, 2012 Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
NOBODY EXPECTS THE BUDDHIST INQUISITION
CAB AUDIT
Mullum finds spirit
QLD police paid by CSG company at Kerry protest Hans Lovejoy & Simeon Michaels
Queensland police minister Neil Roberts has defended allowing the state’s police officers to be hired by mining companies as private security. The comments came after it was revealed that QLD police were recently hired by coal-seam gas (CSG) mining giant Arrow to guard the company at protests for approximately $111.10 per hour, per officer. A large contingent of ‘special services’ officers – or SS officers – were present at the recent protest in Kerry, in south east QLD. The Echo reported in January that a tense ten-day standoff ended with a symbolic protest by farmers throwing their Akubras under CSG trucks leaving the area.
Conflict of interest?
Pictured are Amir and Nirupa Paiss, shortly before Amir took to the stage with the Nomadic Voices at the inaugural Byron Spirit Festival on the weekend. Organisers say they have been overwhelmed by the success of this first effort. ‘Our gratitude to the entire community, every single participant, stallholder, volunteer, staff and the weather god is immeasurable,’ says Alison Pearl. ‘We feel the incredibly positive response reflects a great yearning in our region for meaningful, joyous, inclusive gatherings.’ Hundreds of visitors mixed with residents to enjoy music, forums, dance, circus and yoga. Photo Jeff ‘Yoghurts And Yoga’ Dawson
‘I do not accept that there was any conflict of interest in police officers performing special services at the recent CSG protests at Kerry,’ MP Neil Roberts told The Echo. ‘At all times police officers are subject to the direction of the commissioner of police. Officers never become the employees of the person or organisation paying for special service duties. All officers work to
uphold the laws of the state and do so without fear or favour.’ MP Roberts echoed the statement issued by the QLD police media unit on January 27, which explained, ‘special services is a user-pays arrangement for events which require police attendance over and above ordinary policing response.’ The statement claims the SS is ‘appropriate in certain circumstances’ and that, ‘Officers on specials do not take instruction from the organisation that has paid for the specials.’ The police media unit also says the service ‘manages thousands of protests each year.’ MP Roberts said that officers were dispatched to Kerry, ‘to ensure there were no breaches of the peace or trespassing at the site.’ ‘When it became obvious that the need for police to be present at the site was outside of the ordinary course of police business, additional officers were brought in on “specials�.’ The question of how the public can distinguish between an officer on duty and an officer on special services was not answered by the minister. Both are armed and in the same uniform. Arrow Energy is owned 50/50 by PetroChina and Royal Dutch Shell.
Council ‘in the way’ of parks development, says confidential NSW govt report Luis Feliu
A once-secret report reveals the NSW lands department orchestrated the removal of four Byron Council-run caravan parks because Council ‘got in the way’ of its agenda to expand commercial activities. But after six years of the state government running the four parks (The Terrace, Massey Green and Ferry Reserve at Brunswick Heads and Clarkes Beach at Byron Bay), widespread and longstanding breaches of compliance, access and encroachment have yet to be resolved despite the department labelling these breaches as ‘extreme risk’ in its excuse for the takeover. Brunswick Heads residents at a
recent council meeting applauded councillors and staff after progress association and foreshore protection group spokesperson Michele Grant thanked them for their ‘relentless efforts’ in ‘battling the awesome and determined power of the state’.
More detail wanted The once-confidential report produced by the then Department of Lands (DoL) was tabled at the meeting in what staff said was an attempt to give councillors insight as to the reasoning behind the decision to resume direct control of the parks. Councillors have called for a further report providing more detail of the circumstances of the takeover.
Ms Grant said the public release of the 2006 report on the parks’ management ‘finally lays to rest years of speculation’ and provided council and the community with some insight into the department’s justification for the sacking of Byron’s Reserve Trust.
DoL’s agenda and ruthless intent to take over administration of Crown parks and other significant Crown assets along the NSW coast’ after it had adopted a commercial business focus. ‘The plan is maximise profits for DoL, privatise our prized public assets and disregard any adverse impacts. Brazen manifesto ‘This is the vision, the future for our ‘Some may be disappointed DoL’s caravan parks under DoL’s current report reveals no salacious slush management team. fund scandals or damning evidence of corruption, fraud or inappropriate Risks continue dalliances, just the usual casual negMs Grant said the many photos ligence when it comes to compliance,’ submitted in recent years by the comshe said. munity showed the ‘perilous high‘The report is fundamentally a bra- risk activities continue with the usual zen manifesto that clearly spells out overcrowding, inadequate car park-
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ing, traffic, noise amenity issues, lack of open space and “overflow� onto adjoining lands, and the ongoing absence of legally required setbacks and buffer zones along park boundaries, roadways and along the foreshore.’ She said they were issues ‘we are still locking horns over today with park management and DoL, and most remain unresolved in the most recent plans of management’. Ms Grant said the department’s ‘latest heavy-handed manoeuvre seeking the compulsory acquisition of hotly contested encroached road reserve lands is simply another demonstration of their thuggish, bullying tactics and the complete absence of due process or negotiated outcomes’.
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