Backlash CALL FOR A FREE SITE ASSESSMENT
Given he wants to be the elected representative, locally-based NSW National Party MLC Ben Franklin was surprisingly silent on the appallingly low rate of pay Byron councillors receive. It appears he is fine with receiving a base salary of $200,000 pa, or $3,846 per week. And then on top of that, Franklin recieves an allowance of between $60-80,000 pa! By contrast, Byron councillors are paid just above the Newstart rate at $20,280pa, or $390 per week. See page 2 story. Q Q Q Q
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The NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) has announced that six NSW Local Government Areas (LGAs) will commence the Bush Fire Danger Period (BFDP) from August 1, owing to prevailing conditions. They are Armidale Regional, Walcha, Uralla, Glen Innes, Severn, Inverell and Tenterfield. ‘Grass growth owing to recent rains could prove problematic over coming weeks and months,’ said Commissioner Rob Rogers. Q Q Q Q
Who will take out the 2020 award for most persecuted victim in the local public arena? Greens Mayor, Simon Richardson, said publicly last week that he plans to censor what Council critic John Anderson, aka Fast Buck$, says in public access in future. Staff read aloud his latest submission during public access at last Thursday’s meeting regarding Council executive staff’s proposal to borrow $27m for the budget, which came without much detail attached (see page 1). Buck$ said, ‘Clearly the staff consider you [councillors] a ship of fools and undoubtedly you will prove them right’. Staff have also moved to prevent him from making submissions in person – see page 5. An ad placed by Buck$ is on page 13. Q Q Q Q
Former resident, writer and activist Harsha Prabhu has penned Love, Death and Revolution in a time of Covid-19 on New Matilda. He contrasts experiences in India’s Goa to Byron. See https://bit.ly/33jJKCj. Q Q Q Q
Apart from the mining sector, the most powerful influence on Australia is the hard rightwing Rupert Murdoch media dynasty (News Corp). Last week, the youngest son, James, left the company over ‘editorial and strategic disagreements’. It’s likely code for James accepting climate change exists and that it is unconscionable to support an insane US president man-baby clown. Unfortunately, older brother Lachlan is known to be just as politically unhinged as the 89-year-old senior Rupert. Or as satrical news site The Chaser put it, ‘James Murdoch resigns to spend less time with family’. The Echo, btw, is 100 per cent locally owned and operated, and remains one of the few printed newspapers in the region after Murdoch withdrew his printed mastheads across the nation. Q Q Q Q
Here’s a thought for the times, by activist Sonya Renee Taylor: ‘We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our precorona existence was not normal other than we normalised greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature’.
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