The Byron Shire Echo – Issue 36.19 – October 20, 2021

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FOR PROPER VIEWING TAKE RED PILL NOW The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 36 #19 • October 20, 2021 • www.echo.net.au

After a long, arduous and uninformed debate…

Biz smashed by new COVID-19 regime

Saddle Road DA approved Hans Lovejoy

Jay Aarts from Blade Barbers in Byron Bay said he estimated that the shop had experienced a 40 to 50 per cent fall in customers since the new COVID-19 rules came in which, in part, require customes to prove their vaccination status. Photo Jeff ‘Dropping Blades Since 1986’ Dawson Paul Bibby It was proudly trumpeted as ‘Freedom Day’ by the State Government. But for much of the local business community in the region, October 11 was anything but. Far from bringing patrons back to pubs, cafes and shopping precincts, the new rules giving greater freedoms exclusively to the double-dose vaccinated have seen revenues plunge across the Shire. Many businesses and community organisations have, in

Not Our Business campaign attracts local biz ▶ p4

fact, elected to close their doors completely, until at least December 1, choosing to bunker down rather than act as policemen for the government’s new regime. ‘You probably couldn’t have done a worse thing to Byron,’ President of the Byron Business Chamber, Mark Ryan, said. ‘We don’t have the high rate of double dose vaccination in our community that they have in somewhere like Sydney, essentially because the vaccine wasn’t available. ‘Now with these new restrictions,

What’s the COVID-19 plan by health authorities? ▶ p5

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we’re basically being punished for our lower vaccination rate.’

Revenue down 70% With sales for local businesses down by as much as 70 per cent, the Chamber is calling on the State Government to amend the rules, so that locals with one dose under their belts can return to nonessential shops and venues. The government recently amended the rules so that staff with a single dose could return to work. But without any customers to serve,

this has simply resulted in additional staffing costs for business. ‘The current vaccination level in the Byron LGA is now over 75 per cent of eligible people having had their single dose’, Mr Ryan said. ‘Without the ability of these vaccinated people to enter the marketplace, it will mean that local businesses will not have customers to serve, and may be forced to close their doors once again’. In fact, the roller shutters are already going down. ▶ Continued on page 3

Critical reasoning conversation Oct 26 ▶ p7

Health & Healing feature ▶ p16

Councillors finally ‘got there in the end’, interim Mayor, Michael Lyon, told an exhausted audience after many hours of confused meandering at last Thursday’s Council meeting. A DA for six farmstay cabins and a central facility at the southern end of Saddle Road was approved, as per staff recommendation and conditions, yet the bulk of debate centred around road access to either Gulgan Road, near Uncle Tom’s, or Saddle Road itself, which has a dangerous intersection on the crest of Mullumbi Road. The DA is associated with Greens Council candidate and keen Council watcher, Matthew O’Reilly. His family business, Koresoft Pty Ltd, has been pushing through numerous DAs at 219 Saddle Road, which are all yet to be built. They include farming, a dual occupancy dwelling, a garden centre (including landscape and nursery supplies), an agricultural processing shed, and a roadside stall. Mr O’Reilly told The Echo the DA for the cabins was the last of the planned DAs by Koresoft, and works will commence once Gulgan Road has been upgraded, as per RMS approvals.

Previously deferred Councillors had previously deferred the decision to ‘investigate traffic and access issues on the site’. Yet during debate, it became clear that the advice was either deficient, ▶ Continued on page 2

Lismore – the heart of the Northern Rivers ▶ p19

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