Letters
A mixed cheerio to Don Page I write on behalf of the committee of management of the Byron Bay Community Association (BBCA) to publicly recognise and thank Don Page for his contribution to the Byron Community Centre, and for his tireless work for the Byron Bay community. Don Page provided great support when the community association sought to rebuild the dilapidated community centre into a first class facility for our community. Despite the many pressures of his public role he was always interested and concerned about not just the community centre’s issues but also the welfare and issues of the Byron community. David Sweet President, BBCA
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Don Page is leaving the building. He has served a long time in a particularly
Police in conflict The use of police as foot soldiers for insurance companies, Metgasco et al and the banks who finance them is detrimental to law and order which they have sworn to uphold. It is the equivalent of sending our military to unjust wars or our navy to send back the boats. It is demoralising and leads to post-traumatic stress syndrome along with its generational fallout. We tend to focus on the shortcomings of some members of the police force but, as members of community and as parents, many of them are obviously conflicted. It is unlikely that all of them are from the two to three per cent who support fracking. They
difficult profession, dealing with people and their hopes and aspirations. It’s a good time to get out of politics. Don was very helpful to me many years ago when I needed help and I thank him. However, in more recent years, I have disagreed with positions he has taken on a number of issues. That’s the problem with party politics: the party takes precedent over the locals. It’s a fair bet that Don has managed to help a lot of people and piss off a lot of people. That’s a pretty good score. It’s a nasty job and someone has to do it. Thanks, Don. Andrew Hall Mullumbimby Q Don Page needs to clean up his mess before he goes. In June 2012 Don voted to allow recreational shooting in all national parks and nature reserves in his electorate at
are constrained by their oath of office to become enemies of the people who are, at considerable cost to themselves, upholding the democratic rights that they, the police and their families, enjoy. The best we can do is to empathise with them in their struggles of conscience and give them the love and support that they need. Jim Nutter Main Arm
The DA road ahead Councillor Hunter’s successful application for a ‘road transport terminal’ in a rural residential area is a significant victory for deregulation. What’s good for the goose is good for the paté, so when I lodge my DA later this year
the discretion of the environment minister. Before he goes he needs to stop this threat by adding our reserves to those already listed for exclusion by his Sydney colleagues. Don intervened in September 2012 to stop north coast councils from including environmental protection zones in their local environmental plans, supposedly for six months while a review was undertaken. We are still waiting. He must restore councils’ rights to protect rainforest, oldgrowth forest, endangered ecological communities, core koala habitat and other highconservation-value lands before they are opened up for development and logging. Don supported his government’s intervention in March 2013 to allow shore-based fishing in Cape Byron Marine Park’s sanctuary zones. to convert my MO to community title I will be sure to model my application on the one lodged by Cr Hunter, which was only four pages long. Other DA applicants will have experienced demands from Council for extra studies or documentation; indeed staff have been known to refuse to accept applications which they deem provide insufficient information. All that is now a thing of the past. As a result of Cr Hunter’s precedent I will provide no plans for parking areas or for turnarounds; I will simply assert that ‘sufficient land is available for these’ – as Cr Hunter did. Nor will I provide any documentation to prove
there is no contamination; I will simply state that ‘the property has never been used for bananas’ and imply that therefore it couldn’t possibly be contaminated. That’s what Cr Hunter did. If the scale of what I propose might alarm the neighbours I will understate the impacts in the documents to be put on public exhibition and only address the greater impacts at a later date. In saying that Cr Hunter did any of those things I’m over-simplifying the situation. My critique is actually of a report prepared by an ‘independent consultant’. This consultant was employed and continued on next page
THE
Letters to the Editor Send to Letters Editor Michael McDonald, fax: 6684 1719 email: editor@echo.net.au Deadline: Noon, Friday. Letters longer than 200 words may be cut. Letters already published in other papers will not be considered. Please include your full name, address and phone number for verification purposes.
LYNNE WALLIS
Again this was supposedly for only six months while a review was undertaken and yet it is still open season on our sanctuary zones. He must restore the integrity of Cape Byron’s sanctuary zones. In July 2013 Don claimed credit for changing the law to allow trees from native forests to be burnt to generate electricity, which recently came into effect and has the potential to be disastrous for forests in his electorate and throughout NSW. And now he refuses to intervene over West Byron to ensure that there are proper assessments of koalas, acid sulfate soils and traffic. Similarly, he appears deaf to pleas from Ballina Shire Council to move the proposed route of the Pacific Highway south of Ballina to avoid core koala habitat. Dailan Pugh Byron Bay
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