YOU ARE WATCHING PEOPLE GO THROUGH WITHDRAWAL FROM THE EMOTIONAL ADDICTION TO THE MYTH OF CERTAINTY – ASHLEY C. FORD
The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 34 #47 • Wednesday, April 29, 2020 • www.echo.net.au
Food for the vulnerable running out
Telstra’s sham community consultation over 5G
Paul Bibby The Byron Community Centre is urgently seeking financial support from the community so that it can continue to deliver food to locals in need during the COVID-19 crisis. The Centre says that such is the demand being placed on its Byron Community Pantry program, it fears the service will run out of food in the not-too-distant future. ‘We are concerned that we will run out of goods, and won’t be able to help the most vulnerable community members when they need our support most,’ the Centre’s general manager, Louise O’Connell said. ‘We are grateful for the financial generosity we’ve experienced up until now for the Community Pantry, but these donations will only stretch so far to help meet the exponential demand we are experiencing.’ Demand for the service has drastically increased in the past few weeks owing to the health crisis and associated government regulations, which have forced many locals out of a job and deprived them of the income needed to support themselves and their families. ‘Frontline workers at the Byron Community Centre expect the number of people in need of help to explode – they have already seen people who have never [before] accessed their services asking for help,’ Ms O’Connell said. Q Visit www.byroncentre.com.au/ donations/bcc to make a donation.
Unpacking the cost of petrol ▶ p8
Paul Bibby The fight against Telstra’s installation of 5G in Mullumbimby looks set to continue, with campaigners maintaining a 24-hour presence at the site and lodging a formal complaint with the communication industry’s watchdog. The campaigners made headlines across the country last week when they held a large, peaceful protest at the Dalley Street mobile tower, preventing Telstra technicians from undertaking the upgrading work. The protest, which attracted around 100 people, defied statewide public health orders preventing large gatherings during the
Byron Shire Council Notices ▶ p10
COVID-19 crisis, and resulted in at least one arrest. While the protest has concluded, the 5G opponents are now maintaining a round-the-clock presence at the site in a bid to prevent Telstra from quietly returning to undertake the installation. As with the tower in Main Arm which was strongly objected to by the local community, the upgrade was facilitated by legislation that ensures that any objections from local councils and communities do not have to be taken seriously. While Telstra told The Echo that it had ‘met our obligations to progress the build at this site’, there was no information forthcoming as to how
How are the foodies doing in virus times? ▶ p11
public consultation was considered. Additionally, there was no response to the further questions: ‘Did Telstra consider the health implications of rolling out 5G in Mullumbimby when they could not have failed to understand that it would bring people onto the streets in protest? And: ‘Will Telstra be stopping the roll out of 5G in Mullumbimby and surrounds until after the COVID-19 pandemic so that they are no longer putting residents, protesters and workers at risk?’
No other option left An administrator of the Northern Rivers for Safe Technology Facebook Group, Rinat Strahlhofer, said, ‘The community and businesses
Going green during COVID-19 lock down ▶ p12
sent through many hundreds of objections to Telstra, and lobbied Council for a year against the 5G upgrade in Mullumbimby’. ‘What other option were we left with, than to take to the streets to protect the environment for our children?’ But local federal member, Justine Elliot (Labor), criticised the protest, saying that ‘disregarding social distancing directives endangers the health and safety of the wider community, Telstra staff and the police’. In a statement on social media she said Telstra had advised her that, under federal telecommunications laws, it did not need permission from ▶ Continued on page 3
Lots of love for our mums! ▶ p19
Lots of local tradies still hard at work ▶ p27