Letters Trees safe for now
In regard to Mr McDermid’s letter of concern over trees north of Broken Head Hall (Echo, March 11), we’d like to assure the community that they have not been earmarked for removal. Council has it on this year’s capital works program to upgrade a 600m stretch of road on Broken Head Road from Midgen Flat Road to the north. This is being undertaken due to concerns on the failing surface on a road that is heavily used. As part of the required geotechnical assessment on the road, the trees need to be considered. As such, staff have marked trees in the section to enable an environmental assessment to be undertaken for various options. When the assessment is completed it will include work details, timing and if any tree removal is recommended. No works have been approved for the site and there is a standing Council resolution that any proposed works, which will include the assessment report, will be reported to Council for consideration. We will keep the community informed when the report is before Council. Phil Holloway Director, Infrastructure Services Byron Shire Council
Rail trail objectives
Louise Doran is suspicious of the motives of rail trail supporters (Letters, March 11). Their motives and aims are very clear: protect the disused rail corridor from planning changes and ensure this land stays in public hands; create a safe passage for bike riders, walkers, mothers with prams and elderly folk on mobility
A crisis of uncertainty There is a crisis of uncertainty in the charity and notfor-profit sector in Australia. It is being instigated by the Abbott federal government. This government should be publicly shamed for the gross mismanagement of how they are dealing with the funding supplied to the groups who support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our community. Hundreds of millions of dollars of government programs and services are under review in areas such as health, welfare, child support, youth, housing, employment and volunteering. Most organisations delivering these services have no idea what funds, if any, will be available after June this year. This government is operating with a total lack of
community consultation and transparency around how and what decisions are being made. Charities are reporting that staff are now looking for employment elsewhere as the uncertainty grows. What choice do they have? The Community Council for Australia (the not-forprofit peak body) has called on the federal government to end this crisis of uncertainty. This sector employs over one million Australians and turns over close to $100 billion. Such uncertainty is not good governance. It is shameful and disrespectful to those who assist the most needy. Even the car industry is giving its workers five years’ notice! We should demand better from our federal government. They are responsible for en-
suring adequate funding to organisations so that we have a viable social net to support the most needy and vulnerable. Without such a social net Australia will become a more violent and scary place as those denied support scramble to survive. If funds do dry up at the end of June this will mean many community services in the Byron Shire will struggle to survive and will be faced with the decision to close their doors. The charity queues will not disappear; they will grow longer. Be ready to put your hands into your pockets because if the federal government turns its back on the poor and needy someone is going to have to pay the price. Cr Paul Spooner Byron Bay
vehicles; and create a tourism product of world recognition that can attract visitors who care about the environment and want to explore our region. This is not just for the economic stimulus that the villages along the corridor will gain from the rail trail. It is also about jobs, not only in cafes, accommodation and tourism operations, but in food production, Indigenous tourism, museums and interpretive centres, and so much more. Supporters of the rail trail are not anti-train. They are happy to work with any group that can put forward a proposal that keeps the corridor in public ownership. The government closed the rail line because very few people were using it – the line did not meet people’s transport
needs. The rail trail ensures the corridor and rail formation are protected for any future train services. This is a huge opportunity – we need to get behind the rail trail: www.northernriversrailtrail. org.au. Geoff Meers Suffolk Park
not be stopped and so the warnings by Prof Stephen Hawking of a runaway greenhouse have come true. The film shows the predictions by the IGPCC of an ice free Arctic in 70 years will actually come true in the next three to five years. The controversial new ‘burning snow’, mentioned on internet forums, may well be methane hydrate snow, which is stable at just a few degrees C below zero and which burns. The Arctic will release hundreds of times more methane than now exists in the air. Sea levels will rise metres in the next ten or 20 years, scientists in the film say, resulting in the loss of human civilisation, famine and the continued on next page
The debate is over
Iris Ray (Letters, March 11), you make a mistake in watching a debate on global warming as that debate is over. Instead you should watch on YouTube Arctic Death Spiral and the Methane Time Bomb. This film shows it is too late for any climate action as Arctic methane release will soon exceed the warming effects of human-made CO2. Since that frozen methane is already melting, it can now
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AYSHA & DR BAZ The Byron Shire Echo March 18, 2014 13