Happy New Year! PUBLIC ART PROJECT SINCE 1986 The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 33 #29 • Wednesday, December 26, 2018 • www.echo.net.au
Tyagarah beach safety a concern: Police Police have expressed concern about beach safety at a known sexpest area as peak tourism season approaches. Tyagarah is a clothing-optional beach, and its surrounds, which include the tea tree lakes, are a known problem spot for sex pests. Tyagarah residents are maintaining their calls for the clothesoptional status of the beach to be removed, despite a strong campaign by naturists, who claim incidents are significantly down. Regarding Council’s recently adopted plans for closed-circuit cameras, Detective Inspector Matt Kehoe told The Echo, ‘CCTV will have some deterrent effects, but will be resource intensive if Council or police are required to review the footage to identify possible offences or offenders.’ Det Insp Kehoe added there is a ‘significant amount of underreporting,’ and the issue is a ‘drain on our existing resources.’
Summertime!
The government’s much-trumpeted independent review of water mining in the northern rivers will fail to fully explore the impacts of the practice unless its scope is broadened to include environmental, agricultural and community factors, local farmers say. The Save Alstonville Aquifer group says the terms of reference for the review, released last week, are far too narrow and limit the investigation to the water mining operations themselves.
Airbnb mute on its political campaign Hans Lovejoy Airbnb’s Australian public policy and media spokesperson has declined to comment on whether his company is waging a political campaign against NSW Labor’s policy on holiday letting. Last week The Echo reported that Airbnb had emailed its property hosts across NSW from its Ireland headquarters, specifically attacking Labor (and Greens) support for a registration system. Such regulation is standard in many large European and US cities.
Revolving political and big business doors
Summertime in Bruns! Of the many popular activities in Bruns is the bridge jump on high tide. It’s always worth checking what’s coming under beforehand, of course. Photo Jeff Dawson
Ground water study terms of reference ‘weak’ Paul Bibby
Big NYE & Falls Fest feature ▜ centre pages
‘On our reading of the terms of reference, there are a number of important issues which won’t be included,’ the group’s spokesperson Michael Hogan says. ‘These include the impact on local fauna and flora, the health of local creeks and rivers, or on our wetlands. It would also ignore the impact on local farmers in terms of both farming practices and personal wellbeing, and the wellbeing of the community more generally.’ The independent review was announced by Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair on November 20
Ceglinskis help the kids in Vanuatu ▜ p7
Byron Shire Council Notices ▜ p8
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in response to growing community anger over water mining, including protests in Uki and Murwillumbah. It is likely to be an important issue for local voters in next year’s state election.
Alstonville DA With the government so far resisting calls for a moratorium on water mining in the region, the Save Alstonville Aquifer group are hoping the review will provide ammunition for their fight against plans for a major extraction operation on their patch.
A local flower farm has lodged a development application with Ballina Council for an extraction and bottling facility capable of mining 100 megalitres of water per year on a site that is currently being used as a flower farm. Victorian company Mountain Springwater would operate the facility, and claims there will be no negative impact for local groundwater users in the area. But the farmers disagree, arguing that their own data suggests there would be a significant impact on the regeneration of local aquifers.
NSW Greens now like every other infighting dumpster-on-fire political hack party ▜ p10
Furthermore it’s emerged that the Airbnb spokesperson, Julian Crowley, is a former staffer to the NSW Liberal-National coalition. According to his online LinkedIn profile, Crowley was an adviser to the NSW Attorney-General (April 2015 – January 2016) and an adviser to the minister for Family and Community Services (April 2014 – April 2015). It’s not uncommon for political staff to be employed by large corporations who are also political donors to the same political parties. Former NSW Liberal premier Mike Baird’s staffer – when treasurer – was Stephen Galilee. Galilee has been CEO of the NSW Minerals Council since leaving that post in 2012. The Echo also asked, ‘Why wouldn’t Airbnb want to ensure that its Australian customers operate in a safe and regulated environment?’ No on-record reply was received, only ‘background information’.
The Festivities of the season continue ▜ p17–24
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