THE BYRON SHIRE
mothers day
Volume 31 #48 Wednesday, May 10, 2017
www.echo.net.au Phone 02 6684 1777 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
pages 23-27
THE MARKET HAS SPOKEN BUT THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN
CAB AUDIT
NSW Health What is happening bureaucrats to the world’s behaving badly – p5 bees? – p15
Get informed with police powers – p20
An earthly renewal
On the sunny side of the street with Phillip Frazer – p21
Online in
netdaily
Tweed mayor wins defamation case www.echo.net.au/tweed-mayor-winsdefamation-case
Groundwater flogged off by DPI bureaucrats New licences up for grabs across NSW Hans Lovejoy
Alas poor Yorick wasn’t completely renewable. Liminal, Jen and Brandon Cassidy do, however, live on a selfsufficient, renewably powered, no-fixed-address tiny house. Their home was a centrepiece of last weekend’s Renew Fest, which showcased renewable energy, ethical economics and humanity working sympathetically with nature. The event also drew international leaders in their fields, workshops and music. Photo Jeff Dawson
Lennox Ski jump plan hits DA stage Aslan Shand
The NSW office of sport have lodged a development application (DA) with Ballina Council for a 35m-high, $10.5m Olympic aerial training ski jump at Lake Ainsworth, Lennox Head. It’s stirred residents further into action. Michelle Shearer from the Lennox Head Against the Ski Jump action group said, ‘We really support and sympathise with the Olympians. We are not against them, we just feel that Lennox Head is not the place for this.’ ‘We are happy to have Olympic training that is appropriate to the
area. But an 11-storey ski jump looming out of the dunes is just ridiculous.’ Ballina mayor David Wright confirmed councillors would be receiving a briefing on the DA and that Joint Regional Planning Panel (JRPP) would make the decision.
JRPP approval ‘This is an information session for councillors to ask questions of the planners. It is not open to the public.’ But the independence of the JRPP has been called into question by the Lennox Head Against the Ski Jump action group. They have written to MP Justine Elliot expressing their concern after they learned, ‘that this
development will go through the JRPP which approves 98 per cent of proposals presented to it.’ They wrote in the letter, ‘The DA that is put through Council may be considered at this stage, but they are not required to be guided by Council or community concerns. ‘The NSW Office of Sport continues to provide updates presenting the jump as a done deal.’ Ballina Council has said that the application hasn’t been exhibited yet as it has only just been submitted. Q The DA will be put on public exhibition within the next fortnight. Submission and enquiries can then be made to Council.
Groundwater located within Byron Shire is among 42 additional sources identified across NSW that will be opened up for new extraction licences. Job creation and economic growth appear to be the driver, yet the cheerful press release by the Department of Primary Industries Water (DPI-Water) last Friday fails to mention any environmental safeguards, oversight or potential impacts. And while the move has raised major concerns with local Greens MP Tamara Smith, the utility that supplies the region’s water, Rous County Council, said in last year’s Drought Management Plan (page 73) that the potential secure yield for greater extraction ‘is not currently known’. It’s a position broadly in line with UNSW professor Andy Baker, who says on www.conversation.com that ‘we still know very little about this precious resource, particularly about how it may be affected by increasing pressure and a warming world.’ The May 5 edition of the NSW Government Gazette, which is the permanent public record of official government notices, identifies the 42 groundwater sources across the NSW and provides a value and unit availability. It also offers a draft ‘Terms and Conditions for the Controlled Allocation of Access Licence Process’. Locally, the Tweed-Brunswick Coastal Sands Groundwater Source (CSGS) covers an area of 160 km2 and
runs from Tweed Heads to Suffolk Park, according to DPI-Water. A DPI-Water spokesperson explained the pricing, allocation and environmental safeguards: ‘The order releases 1,900 unit shares in the Tweed-Brunswick CSGS. When full water allocation is available, one unit share is equal to one megalitre of water. In periods of drought, or other times when full water allocation is not available, the amount of water in a unit share will be reduced and could be as low as zero.’ ‘The “unit shares” represents the potential number of share units able to be issued onto a new licence in the groundwater source for the successful participant(s). The minimum bid price is $500 per unit share in the Tweed-Brunswick CSGS.
Water-sharing plans ‘Water-sharing plans have set groundwater extraction limits to ensure the sustainability of the water source and prevent over extraction. ‘Assessments have been undertaken on the available water in each water source and the controlled allocation process only releases to a maximum of 80 per cent of the limit to ensure ongoing protection of water sources.’ Yet DPI-Water claim on their website that the yields within the Tweed-Brunswick CSGS are ‘typically low to moderate’. But they do say that higher yields can be achieved in both sources when excavations are utilised or in continued on page 2
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