THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 31 #32 Wednesday, January 18, 2017
www.echo.net.au Phone 02 6684 1777 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
Pages
18–19 A L I TA N Y O F C A R E F U L LY C R A F T E D P R E S U M P T I O N S
CAB AUDIT
Vale Paul Mayor waxes Sports Beauty Return of the Barrett lyrical over the sign on and style Cat Empire – p5 big issues – p8, 9 – p15–17 – p20–21 – p37
netdaily Ballina Hospital ED ‘like the third world’
Online in
www.echo.net.au/ballina-hospitalemergency-department
Staff defended Ridin’ on Mayor hits back at fellow Green over governance Hans Lovejoy
Division has emerged within the Byron Greens party, with mayor Simon Richardson and former Greens councillor Tom Tabart trading barbs over the mayor’s performance and ability to hold Council staff to account. Last Wednesday, Tabart addressed the Greens mayor in an email which also included all eight councillors and general manager (GM) Ken Gainger. Tabart claimed that DAs were taking 60 days to process and that contract planners were being employed at great expense. ‘You may like to ask or you may think this okay, I don’t,’ he wrote. Additionally Tabart claimed ‘no applicants have been sought by the GM for new community members on advisory committees.’ ‘You may also like to instigate some sort of audit of the depot organisation and operation – my information is that it is a shambles that is costing heaps in terms of lost hours and employee morale.’ Tabart ended with, ‘I know that governance has never been your top priority, but it is your responsibility and you now have the numbers.’ Both the GM and director of Sustainable Environment and Economy Shannon Burt have replied to all of Tabart’s claims (see other stories). But the rift between the mayor and Tabart later escalated after Tabart told The Echo the mayor ‘threatened to not communicate with me any more unless I mended my ways.’
The Echo asked the mayor, ‘Is it true you said that to Tabart, and if so, isn’t that a little precious? Why not embrace the criticism?’
sunshine
Baseless accusations
Cr Richardson told The Echo, ‘I love Tom but he gives me the shits.’ ‘I sat next to him for four years in Council and I supported every single resolution he put forward to uncover the “baddies” within staff. That was virtually his only project. ‘The problem was that whenever he put something forward he could never back it up. The GM would say, “okay, show me some evidence,” but there was none. You can only do that for so many years. After four years, Tom really didn’t achieve much. I fully supported his initiative [while] he kept looking for rats under the bed… maybe there aren’t that many rats? ‘[The assumption that] “Don’t trust the GM, don’t trust staff, they’re all bastards”… sorry, I work intimately with these people every day, and they’re not [untrustworthy]. It’s that simple. ‘Ever since I helped to employ the current GM, I have had faith in him. He also employed [Sustainable Environment and Economy director] Shannon Burt and I was on that panel… I see what they do every day. The vast bulk of what they do is professional and efficient and I don’t want to second guess everything they do, because I have other shit I want to do. Whereas Tom had no other shit he wanted to do other continued on page 2
Byron’s solar-powered cycle rental company Sunshine Cycles will be hosting a ‘Towards Zero Emissions Byron’ Lighthouse ride on February 4. The day will include a chance to try the retro-styled electrocycles, which are designed and built in Byron. Pictured is Luke and Phoebe, who have set up their office and a charging station at the entrance to Byron’s First Sun Caravan Park. For more info call 0406 755 547. Photo Jeff Dawson
Shark net trial results: 43 caught, 12 dead While the deaths of marine life caught in north coast shark nets have been labelled a failure by Greens MLC Justin Field, NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) have described the number of animals released alive as ‘a promising start.’ DPI director general Scott Hansen released the results of the first month of operation Tuesday, and said, ‘four sharks from targeted species (White Shark, two Tiger Sharks and one Bull Shark) were caught in the nets.’ Of the 43 animals caught in the nets, 12 animals were killed, including a Bottlenose Dolphin, a Green Sea Turtle and a Bull Shark. Hansen said his department was committed to doing all it could to
ensure captured animals were released as soon as possible. ‘These nets have provided greater peace of mind to the community particularly during the school holidays,’ Hansen said.
Increase NSW catch prompts net review Yet remarkably, a review of shark nets across the state was announced on the same day as the trial results. A report on the NSW net program found a dramatic fourfold increase in the number of animals caught and 300 per cent increase in marine animals found dead in the nets. Shark mesh nets at 51 beaches
between Wollongong and Newcastle caught 748 marine animals and killed 364 of them in the 2015/2016 year, according to the Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program Annual Performance Report. Again the DPI gave it a positive spin, claiming that ‘Encouragingly, more than half of the marine life caught in the nets were released alive (51 per cent), up (12 per cent) from previous years.’ Mr Field blasted the DPI for sitting on data that showed ‘the existing nets with dolphin deterrent devices weren’t working effectively.’ ‘It’s time we phased out this culling program and replaced it with non-lethal solutions,’ he said.