Letters Another disco dong? Byron Council’s latest public sculpture process continues to descend into farce. While I have not read the minutes from the recent 20/8 Public Art Panel meeting, the agenda to that meeting documents the meandering process of maladministration and local cultural dispossession that has characterised this latest foray. The process to date was an Expression of Interest (EOI) process where all proposals were first given to Council’s Murwillumbah contractor Dan Plummer, who passed on a number of proposals to the Council Public Art Panel, including the winning design from his Queensland business associates, Urban Art Projects. Somehow, a year after Plummer’s Queensland associates won the $80,000 EOI design process for a chest high metal stem with petals, the design has been changed to a metal geometrical rhombic structure, with no review of the other original EOI design proposals. But who knows what the eventual sculpture will look like. As the Public Art Panel’s Agenda stated, ‘a negative variation to the contract will be required in order to allow sufficient budget to be retained by Council for future installation of the artwork’. This means that the final design and material is now subject to a budget cut. And site relationship consideration? Is the Public Art Panel bothering with that? The site has gone from Railway Park, to the Rail Track area, to the latest proposed site of a garden bed outside of the railway station, with this new modernist geometrical structure allegedly having no impact on the State-listed heritage railway station and yard. This failed process disenfranchises all the original
Cartoon by Holly English www.hollyenglish.com artists’ proposals, disenfranchises the community from access to our cultural wealth of local artists, and fails to meet any standard of identifying a public art piece design or its potential relationship to a site, and now with any final design subject to budgetary cuts. This is the second public art failure of process under Cr Sarah Ndiaye as Chair of the Public Art Panel. I raised these issues with Council. Cr Michael Lyon replied, ‘It’s pretty clear to me that no-one is listening to you John. You should give up the ghost mate, for your own sake more than anything. To put it into perspective for you, you are less relevant than Fast Buck$’. This identifies why he and his associates want corruption-busting Fast Buck$ out of the way. John Lazarus Byron Bay
Go cabaret After reading the article ‘“Raucous Cabaret” gets council go-ahead,’ I am compelled to write and express my absolute relief that Council supported the renovations of the Brunswick Picture House (BPH). The BPH gives to everyone a unique and connected experience because of the qualities of its owners, Chris and Brett. It is because of their stewardship, resilience and talents that we have a place in the Shire that enriches, entertains and builds upon
a strong, connected and diverse community. Jo Hoy Durrumbul
Paid parking Paid parking is likely to have a profound impact on Brunswick’s business environment. This week, the Green Byron councillors are again forcing paid parking on our Simple Pleasures, in Brunswick Heads. Last meeting, Council agreed to revisit the issue in August 2021 when we will be much better informed about what effect the pandemic is having on the town. Since then, three councillors have signed a rescission motion to instead have this Greens-dominated council revisit the decision in two months, not twelve. There is no parking justification to implement paid parking in Bruns; it is simply a dash for cash to help fund and protect Council’s wasteful and blatant political decisions from a shrinking and uncertain tourist economy, and the reports have been written to justify the decision already determined. There are now officially more than one million Australians out of work – and that’s before the Victorian lockdown is counted. Workers have suffered across a range of industries, most of which will impact on our visitor economy. Airlines are in deep trouble! Governments have
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pumped $130 billion into keeping airlines afloat, but many have already collapsed, and more will follow, with big consequences for the cheap overseas travel we’ve all become used to. The retail trade sector is one of the biggest employers in Australia and was already under significant stress before the pandemic, with brands like Colette, Harris Scarfe, JeansWest, Bardot and G-Star Raw all entering administration in 2020. Many retailers were forced to stand down thousands of employees due to COVID safety restrictions, and in places are refusing to pay their shopping centre rental fees, causing many flow-on issues. In June the ABC announced 250 staff would be made redundant with an $84 million cut to their budget. The broadcaster announced around 70 staff would be lost from the news division, 53 from the entertainment and specialist division and 19 people from the regional and local team. Given all this, it is disappointing Council is prepared ▶ Continued on page 11
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