PAYING MORE TAX THAN MURDOCH’S NEWSCORP EMPIRE, SINCE 1986 The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 35 #37 • Wednesday, February 24, 2021 • www.echo.net.au
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new sign has been installed at Main Beach, Byron Bay, calling for increased awareness and collective action on the issue of marine debris and pollution. The sign, which is solar powered, also aims to raise awareness about Arakwal custodianship of the Cavanbah region, and is also a memorial to Ian Harrison, the local designer behind the sign’s concept. Ian died surfing The Wreck on the day that councillors approved the sign to go ahead. Locally-founded NGO, Positive Change for Marine Life (PCFML), with support from Byron Shire Council and the Arakwal Corporation, funded the new art installation and educational sign, which was unveiled at Apex Park on Friday. PCFML’s Dane Marx says the sign features artwork by Bundjalung woman Kaitlyn Clark. He said, ‘Considering that by 2050, the amount of plastic in the sea is believed to outweigh that of fish, this could not be a more pertinent call to action for our ocean’. Q For more information on
Positive Change for Marine Life, visit www.pcfml.org.au.
A call to protect oceans
Mia Armitage
From left are Monique and Tezu Harrison, wife and son of Ian, who died surfing the Wreck the day his idea for the cultural and environmental awareness sign was passed in Council. Pictured also is Dane Marx from Positive Change For Marine Life, Bundjalung woman Delta Kay and the sign’s designer, Kaitlyn Clark. Photo Jeff Dawson
A closer look at Council’s fossil fuel investments Paul Bibby Is Byron Council putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to reducing carbon emissions? Council has proudly declared its intention to achieve net zero emissions from its operations by 2025, and has launched a series of projects in a bid to achieve that. But a glance at the body’s $70 million investment portfolio raises questions about just how serious it is about saving the planet.
Put simply, a big chunk of Council’s cash is indirectly funding industries that are heavily reliant on fossil fuels. The register of investments published in the agenda to this week’s meeting shows that Council has about $48 million invested with financial institutions that are, in turn, investing in fossil fuelrelated industries. That’s nearly 70 per cent of Council’s total investments. This is despite the fact that
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the body has a policy of giving preference to financial institutions that invest in, or finance, environmentally and socially responsible investments.
Restricted by NSW govt Council’s Manager of Finance, James Brickley, said it was impossible for Council not to invest with financial institutions exposed to fossil fuels, owing to conditions and restrictions imposed on it by the state government.
Under the Local Government Act and the NSW Government Minister’s Investment Order, Council was essentially only permitted to invest in large Author Deposit Institutions and was prohibited from investing in shares, he said. ‘In recent years, Council has [also] taken out low interest loans with the NSW Treasury Corporation to minimise borrowing costs as much as possible for infrastructure works,’ Mr Brickley said. ▶ Continued on page 2
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A police officer accused of assaulting a 16-year-old in Byron Bay more than three years ago is to continue facing trial this week. Senior Constable Michial Luke Greenhalgh is alleged to have assaulted the teenage boy in Lateen Lane, sometime between two and three o’clock in the morning on January 11, 2018, after responding to reports of him wandering half-naked and calling out. Holiday-makers, a Byron resident and a backpackers’ hostel manager all saw or heard parts of the interaction between the youth and the four police officers on-scene. One witness took video footage that quickly made national headlines and was later used as evidence in a Law Enforcement Conduct Commission [LECC] inquiry examining the actions of all four policemen featured. The LECC recommended the Department of Public Prosecutions [DPP] consider charging one officer, later revealed as Sen-Constable Michial Greenhalgh, with assault.
Boy not charged No charges were ever laid against the boy, and Sen-Constable Greenhalgh was transferred from Byron Bay police station to Lismore. While the LECC found police hit the youth 19 times with a baton, it’s the final six blows that are under scrutiny in the trial. The DPP must prove those blows constituted unreasonable force, ▶ Continued on page 2
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Jonson Street, Byron Bay • 02 6685 6878 • www.byronbayservicesclub.com.au