Backlash While our local council and state government seem relatively caught up in fixes-onthe-run for coastal planning problems, with the state government changing the goalposts (as they sink into the sea) on a regular basis, the Sea Change Taskforce is devoted to tackling the bigger issues, and is staging the the 2014 Australian Coastal Councils Conference at Ballina March 24–26. The conference will consider major issues facing coastal councils, such as current population trends, legal risks associated with planning decisions, and changes in coastal planning policy. Find out more at seachangetaskforce.org.au. As the coast disappears under sea-level rise, the federal government needs to take a greater role; perhaps this is one job for the Green Army. Q Q Q Q
Yes, the Libs’ Green Army proposal has often been criticised as another flakey workfor-the-dole scheme using cheap labour, but it does have some benefits for participants, local communities and the natural environment. Participants get an education in the value of having a healthy environment and learn new skills while fixing up local environmental problems. That can’t be all bad, can it? The
companies have been trying to scare us into believing there will be shortages, despite evidence to the contrary. The real issue of course is that there is no legislation to protect domestic supply from impending wholesale export of our gas. Q Q Q Q
The Mandy Nolan bug is spreading. Booksellers at a Taiwanese book fair flocked to hear Finch Publishing’s Chinese agent David Tsai translate from Mandy’s book What I Would Do If I Were You: ‘Every morning I wake up and I think today I am going to be a nice person‌’ The next minute they fall down laughing. Publisher Rex Finch also said the interest was big in Nolan’s new book Boyfriends We’ve All Had And Shouldn’t Have, launching April 1 (appropriately) at Mary Ryan’s Bookshops with a Q&A with Nolan and Steve Bisley.
Green Army legislation has been introduced into federal parliament and you can learn more about the scheme at http://bit.ly/ozgarmy. Q Q Q Q
Backlash is gobsmacked. Byron Council has picked up a seven-hectare block of land for sportsfields in the north of the Shire at the bargain-basement price of $318,000. It’s at the junction of the old Pacific Highway and Shara Boulevard, North Ocean Shores, close to the site which was the subject of so much controversy for so many years. Could this be the end of the saga? Who will be the first to have a whinge about the purchase? Q Q Q Q
Mullum energy activist Sapoty Brook has taken his Half A Mo movement one step further and released a video into the uncharted wilds of YouTube: http://bit. ly/halfamo.
The outdoor lifestyle specialists
It’s encouraging to see the baldfaced lies and collusion by govcorp – the NSW government and the fossil fuel industry – is finally being reported by Fairfax. The Echo beat Fairfax to the punch by
Patios & ĆŽ /,2#132#
reporting on the rort last year – AGL and other fossil fuel
Could govcorp sink any lower? Former energy MP Chris Hartcher is now under an ICAC probe and his former chief of staff now consults for the NSW minerals council. Before being elected, O’Farrell and Hartcher promised no new coal mine for Wallarah 2 on the central coast but now it’s been given approval. Whatever credibility govcorp once had has now vanished and this is the clearest indication yet that the fossil fuel industry is in charge in NSW.
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44 March 4, 2014 The Byron Shire Echo
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au