THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 27 #43 Tuesday, April 9, 2013 Phone 02 6684 1777 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
Inside this week
CAB AUDIT
Barnaby meets The Echo p8
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T H E W O R L D I S A M A G I C A L P L A C E F U L L O F P E O P L E WA I T I N G T O B E O F F E N D E D
Super showdown fizzles says Mungo MacCallum p8
Joyce and Milne swing through electorate
Letter writers give vent to steam p9–12
OD on Seven fun p20–26
The fierce smell of sport p35
Byron Shire Council Notices Page 41
Truth is a virus and courage is contagious
The federal leaders of the Nationals and The Greens were in the northern rivers region last weekend; Barnaby Joyce attended a Young Nationals conference while Christine Milne launched Dawn Walker’s Richmond election bid for The Greens. Mr Joyce told The Echo that CSG is a hot button issue for the upcoming election. He said however that many Byron Shire residents may not agree with his view that the CSG industry should continue. ‘We shouldn’t have a moratorium,’ he said, but stressed that he would like to see more autonomy for farmers and their land. ‘Farmers should be able to broker better deals with mining rights on their properties,’ he said. He also said that News Ltd’s control of 70 per cent of Australia’s newspapers was not a healthy thing for democracy. Richmond Nationals candidate Mathew Fraser later told The Echo that the Youth conference attracted around 65 people who all, ‘gave spirited input Underground: The Julian Assange Story screened at the Palace Cinema last Friday night. Pictured is writer/director Robert Connolly, lead actor Alex Williams into policy direction for the party.’ and Samantha Castro, co-founder of WikiLeaks Australian Citizens Alliance. Samantha is also working with Julian Assange on his bid for a seat in the Q Editorial page 8
Senate. Julian’s mother Christine also joined the Q&A that was held afterwards. Photo Jeff ‘Infamously Anonymous’ Dawson
Renewables sector hampered over conflict of interest Hans Lovejoy
Federal politicians Barnaby Joyce (Nationals) and Greg Combet (Labor) have refused to comment to The Echo on a conflict of interest regarding the regulation of the renewables industry. CEO of The Australian Gas Light Company (AGL), Michael Fraser, is also the chair of The Clean Energy Council (CEC) which issue licences for the wind, solar and hydro sector. Despite AGL claiming to be a leader in renewable energy, it also operates large-scale CSG operations and brown coal power plants
instead told The Echo, ‘Coal seam gas extraction is a low impact and low risk industry that can help meet the growing demand for low emissions energy sources. AGL is the best owner/operator to manage Loy Yang [a brown coal power plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley] because of its dominant pipeline of renewable energy projects. The capital generated from Loy Yang will enable AGL to continue investing into renewable energy projects.’ AGL: CSG is low impact Meanwhile, federal Nationals leader When asked if CEO Michael Fraser’s Barnaby Joyce told The Echo that he position would be considered a con- would not be drawn into whether it flict of interest, an AGL spokesperson could be considered a conflict, a posi-
throughout Australia. The Clean Energy Council told The Echo last week that its policies are being amended to address microturbine hydro technology, which can provide a continuous electricity supply from a running stream or creek. The comment was in response to Dorrigo based company Pelena Energy closing last week, due in part to CEC policy and regulatory obstacles.
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tion shared by federal minister of climate change, Greg Combet. His media spokesperson told The Echo, ‘We are not in the practice of making general comments on other organisations that the government is not responsible for.’ He did, however, spruik the Renewable Energy Target (RET) legislation. ‘Thirteen micro-hydro generators have been supported under the smallscale component of the Renewable Energy Target and there are 100 hydro generators accredited as power stations under the large-scale component. ‘State and territory policies have not provided equal support to micro-hydro
technologies, with feed-in tariffs only covering micro-hydro in Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. Meanwhile federal Greens leader Christine Milne told The Echo that the CEC has always struggled to be a strong advocate for renewable energy, ‘because it has always been a hybrid between the fossil fuel industry and the renewables industry.’ ‘They have never been able to sort themselves out in terms of having a clear direction because they are always protecting the fossil fuel sector while at the same time advocating for renewables.’