THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 30 #49 Wednesday, May 18, 2016
www.echo.net.au Phone 02 6684 1777 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week CAB AUDIT
p16–17
G R O W T H Y M C G R O W T H FA C E W I T H A D D E D J O B B I E S
How’s the minister for Goldman Sachs holding up? Mungo – p8
No holds barred cinema reviews – p35
Need a tradie or professional? – p37-41
Hans Lovejoy
Cars were shut out of the main street of Bangalow on Sunday as competitors of all ages took to their hand-made vehicles in a downhill race towards a ‘crash barrier’ of hay bales. Organiser of the annual Bangalow Billycart Derby, Tony Heeson, said, ‘The Billycart Derby is a wonderful example of a community event because there are no barriers to entry.’ Drivers Cam Hollows and Dana Perrignon took a fairly laidback approach to their entry. See more of Jeff Dawson’s derby photos at www.echo.net.au/2016/05/bangalow-billy-cart-derby-in-pictures.
Mining PR blunder reveals NSW sell-off deposits’ identified across the state were packaged into promotional materials and used at various overseas mining ‘investor conferences’.
No prior knowledge The materials that relate to the northern rivers area have been withdrawn, and a spokesperson said that ‘neither the minister, nor his staff or any other member of parliament, reviewed or had prior knowledge of this material before it was published.’ ‘The NSW Division of Resources and Energy is fully aware that the NSW government policy is that
www.echo.net.au/bankrupt-former-byronbay-cookie-king-drives-a-maserati/
Complaints and threats embroil coastal policy
Bangalow’s race day
Despite the promise of a gas-free region by National Party MPs, a bungle by state government bureaucrats has revealed efforts to sell off the northern rivers, as well as large swathes of NSW, to overseas mining investors. It was all on offer at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto, Canada, which attracted around 20,000 people in March, according to its website. Staff from the NSW Division of Resources and Energy (DRE) released a letter on Friday with a ‘full and unreserved apology’ for the gaffe, which admits ‘gas finds and mineral
Online in netdaily Bankrupt former Byron Bay Cookie king drives a Maserati
there will be no further petroleum or gas exploration or production in the northern rivers region of NSW’. On February 11 this year, the Division announced on its website that it had finalised and rebranded an interactive CD containing a mining resource directory, called XplorPak 2016. That webpage has been deleted; however, it can be accessed via web tool www.archive.org/web, which serves up webpages that no longer exist. Remarkably the blunder also extends to trying to sell uranium continued on page 2
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It was all going swimmingly for the council majority at last Thursday’s meeting. Plans to publicly exhibit a major coastal policy – albeit incomplete and with major legal uncertainties – was passed with the usual vote, accompanied by the usual rhetoric and noisy residents in the chamber. Those in favour of protecting Belongil landowners with beach frontage are Councillors Ibrahim, Woods, Alan Hunter, Cubis and Wanchap. Those in the minority are mayor Richardson, Crs Dey, Spooner and Cameron, who are against possibly losing the iconic world-renowned Belongil beach. A 1.6km rock wall is planned. But a last-minute recission motion by Cr Duncan Dey threw the coastal zone management plan Byron Bay Embayment (CZMP BBE) into chaos. A recission motion allows councillors to revisit previous motions that have been passed, and in this case, puts even more pressure on whether the policy can be done and dusted by the June 30 deadline. Cr Dey’s recission motion – which will most likely be rejected at this Thursday’s council meeting – attempts to seek more information on planned retreat options, extend public consultation past the minimum time frame and asks for ministerial and department advice. It enraged Cr Sol Ibrahim, who immediately instigated a Code of Conduct (CoC) complaint against those who signed the recission motion: Crs Dey, Cameron and mayor Richardson.
Cr Ibrahim claims the trio intentionally delayed the CZMP BBE. He told The Echo, ‘The Local Government Act 1993 has been amended so that the use of rescission motions to impede the proper functioning of a Council is misconduct and therefore subject to Code of Conduct complaints.’ But mayor Simon Richardson told The Echo that he has every right to contest the motion, owing to so many problematic issues identified within the CZMP BBE.
CoC threat It also turns out that Cr Ibrahim previously threatened Cr Dey with a CoC complaint, after Cr Dey recently announced he intends to publish a press release by a committee overseeing the CZMP BBE. Cr Dey is chair of the Project Reference Group (PRG), and he will ask Council this Thursday to support him in providing the public with more information over planned retreat. And while Cr Ibrahim claims going to the media contravenes the PRG constitution, it appears that section 15 allows it. It reads that, ‘PRG members, unless authorised by Council, are not to promote or advertise the group’s activities or to speak on behalf of the committee with the media. Only the chair can speak on behalf of the Committee with the media.’ The Echo understands that Council staff are considering the CoC investigation into the three councillors who moved the recission motion. And as a result of Code of Conduct inquires, those under investigation are forbidden to talk to the media, as it is treated as confidential.
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