Mothers
THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 27 #47 Tuesday, May 7, 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
Day
AUDIT
Inside this week
Pages 26-27
HAPPINESS IS AN INSIDE JOB
CAB
S Sorrensen kicks off a column in The Echo! This week: MardiGrass – p19
Well done in Ethiopia – p18
Meaty & bouncy beats – p28
Sell it, rent it or buy it – p45-49
Byron Shire Council Notices Page 52
Holiday letting stirs Spook spotted at MardiGrass after case won A win by neighbours next to a holiday rental in the NSW coastal town Terrigal has put the spotlight on perhaps the Shire’s most contentious issue: holiday letting. Gosford Council failed its constituents by not resolving the issue of an illegal holiday house rental in Terrigal, the Land and Environment Court ruled last Thursday. According to AAP news service, Justice Rachael Ann Pepper said the short-term holiday letting of a sixbedroom house was unlawful because the property is located in a 2A residential zone. Justice Pepper also said that the fault did not entirely lie with the holiday let owner, as she had never been told by Gosford Council that it was illegal to rent out her property. Doug Luke from the newly formed ‘Victims of Holiday Letting’ group told The Echo it’s up to councils to regulate and explain the laws. ‘They are letting us down,’ he says. ‘We need to tread a bit carefully here, but we are really pleased for those people [who won], and we are working on getting the same result. People want it stopped here, not regulated. We need to get back to being a community. ‘Regulation by HLO (Holiday Letting Organisation) is insulting and makes no difference, even with security guards. It only addresses a problem after it occurs – they may address one lot of punters, but next week there’s another.’
Decline in population
use that hasn’t contributed financially to Council to offset the pressures of tourism. In an area already under housing stress such as Byron Bay, it has diminished the available rental stock for locals and has meant that essential workers such as teachers, nurses and tradespeople have not been able to find affordable housing.’
Mayor: too early to tell But Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson was careful to keep the issue from heating up. He told The Echo that it was too early to tell what the ramifications could be for Byron as a result of the recent Land and Environment Court case. ‘Council has for many years challenged unapproved development in the courts with significant recent successes. ‘However the issue of holiday letting in our shire has focused on whether a tourist facility, as per the Byron LEP 1988, can be operated in a residential zone, and this is yet to be tested.’ He added that Council will hold a meeting with key stakeholders on the issue of holiday letting in June. Meanwhile, John Gudgeon from the Holiday Letting Organisation (HLO) told The Echo it’s a state government responsibility which has lacked leadership. He also says Council has been ‘very ineffective to date’ in addressing behavioural issues that involve both short and long term occupants. ‘HLO’s position is that owners have a right to let their properties whenever they want to, short term or long term. On the other hand, they should ensure that their properties are managed responsibly.’ He says the underlying problem is that short term letting is not captured by the Residential Tenancy Act.
Greens MP and former mayor Jan Barham has also weighed in, saying, ‘The last two Census reports have shown that Byron Bay, where many homes have been given over to holiday lets, has lost permanent residents, and this has seen an erosion of community Q For the full text of Mr Gudgeon’s spirit. In terms of tourism use, holiday response on holiday letting, see letting has not served the community Wednesday’s edition of Echonetdaily well. It has operated as an unapproved at www.echonetdaily.net.au.
Pictured is just one of the many undercover agents who kept a watchful eye over those who threaten our way of life and challenge sacred accepted norms. Photo Jeff ‘It’s Not Easy Greening Out’ Dawson Luis Feliu
The call to legalise medical cannabis, and to release from jail a man considered a hero by cancer sufferers around Australia who use his free medication, was loud and clear at the 21st annual Nimbin MardiGrass drug law reform rally held at the weekend. Thousands of people again lined up to show their support for drug law reform in a march and festival that included talks by doctors, academics, politicians and activists, as well as the usual workshops on the benefits and wide uses of cannabis which have been suppressed for so long by governments the world over. The mood for change was palpable, especially with the NSW Upper House inquiry findings next week expected to recommend legalising medicinal use of cannabis, but exactly how it will be regulated is yet to be determined. ‘Free Tony Bower’ was the cry that
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most reverberated throughout yesterday’s rally along the main street of the counterculture capital of Australia. Mr Bower, 56, is still in custody despite lodging an appeal against the one-year jail sentence handed down by a Kempsey magistrate last month for growing cannabis for medicinal use and producing a free tincture. An appeal date has been set down for June 3.
Tincture stops epilepsy
Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) president Michael Balderstone said, ‘those who stand in the way of an epileptic child’s seizures being stopped, almost instantly, with no side effects, are very heartless and sick souls’. Greens MP Cate Faehrmann and Labor Richmond MP Justine Elliot also both attended the MardiGrass. Ms Faehrmann was a guest panelist at one of the many forums on drug law reform, while Ms Elliot gathered signatures for a petition against coal seam gas (CSG) mining. Police reported the festival was relatively trouble free and the 3,500 strong crowd mostly well behaved, except for a few alcohol-related incidents. They said there were seven arrests arising from 70 drug detections. For more pics see www.offmyfacebook.com.au.
Longtime campaigner for legalising medical cannabis, Dr Andrew Katelaris, told a large crowd at MardiGrass the Bower case was an outrage and an example of ‘pharma-fascism’ at work. Dr Katelaris, an expert in postoperative care, said it was shameful that Mr Bower was jailed for helping young children suffering from epilepsy and that his tincture, which Q See the video of this story at stopped them having epileptic fits and kept them alive, was being ignored by Go to echonetdaily.net.au medical and legal authorities.
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