THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 31 #18 Wednesday, October 12, 2016
www.echo.net.au Phone 02 6684 1777 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
pp 16 – 17
CLOWN HOAX TRACED TO THE HALLS OF POWER IN CANBERRA
CAB AUDIT
Aspirati0ns for newbie councillors! – p4–5
Dustyesky – The Russian boy band – p30
Film Fest previews – p12
Parental Alienation Awareness Day – p14
Byron Bay Film Festival (BBFF) director, J’aimee Skippon-Volke, is having a little difficulty distinguishing between reality and virtual reality these days. After weeks of sifting through movies and some of the world’s most cutting-edge Virtual Reality and immersion technology, the appearance of Bunny Racket aka Andy Walker in her office had her questioning her reality. Bunny Racket’s hilarious A Chicken Is Not A Fruit is one of 23 local films to screen at this year’s BBFF. The festival will also include Ncube8 and some of the best Virtual Reality experiences you’ll see anywhere. Opening night at the Byron Community Centre is this Friday and other screenings are at the Community Centre, Pighouse Flicks, Brunswick Picture House and Murwillumbah’s Regent Cinema. Photo Jeff ‘Reality Is Just Virtual’ Dawson
Senior health officials secretly sacked by govt Several senior executives of the Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSW LHD) board have been secretly sacked by NSW health minister Jillian Skinner, sparking accusations by Labor and the Health Services Union that it is part of a push to privatise the NSW health sector. The NNSW LHD board comprises health professionals who oversee and manage the region’s
hospitals and health services. According to the minutes of a NNSW LHD board meeting held in Grafton on July 27, members expected that new board appointments were ‘to be advised in December 2016.’ But an announcement published in the NSW Government Gazette last Friday lists three local members as being ‘removed,’ effective October 7. Additionally, four members of the Far West Local Health District board were also ‘removed.’
www.echo.net.au/anti-vaxxers-arenthippies-survey-reveals/
Thursday outcomes
Virtual Reality on film
Hans Lovejoy
netdaily Anti-vaxxers aren’t all hippies, survey reveals
Online in
Among those who were absent from the July 27 NNSW LHD meeting and were sacked are Dr Sue Page and Professor Lesley Barclay; however, Dr Jean Collie was present. The minister’s office did not reply to The Echo as to whether the positions will be refilled or why the decision was not announced publicly. Instead, Ms Skinner’s statement reads in part, ‘All Local Health District Boards will undergo a refresh before the end of the year. I appreciate
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the contributions of all members of Local Health District boards; however it is important we have the right skills mix and experience to provide effective governance oversight.’ So what is the government’s idea of ‘effective governance oversight’? In the July 27 NNSW LHD meeting, the minutes say the board suggests that a refreshed NNSW LHD Board may ‘include members with accounting and economics skills continued on page 2
It took the new councillor class of 2016–20 just a breezy five and half hours to get through their agenda last Thursday, with many unanimous votes taken accompanied by plenty of rhetorical flourish and some good questions of staff and each other. Even the ideological odd man out – Cr Alan Hunter – appeared to get on board and voted for what he presumably wouldn’t have in the previous term (when he was in the majority). One of those unanimous votes included Greens mayor Simon Richardson’s request to speed up a meeting with NSW planning minister Rob Stokes regarding the recently submitted Coastal Zone Management Plan, Byron Bay Embayment (CZMP BBE). The contentious coastal policy was submitted with haste as the sun was setting on the previous council. The mayor’s request: ‘Can we have a meeting sooner and please don’t gazette the CZMP,’ was a change from the original motion, which was to withdraw it. No reason for the change was given. Next up was a proposal from Cr Paul Spooner (Country Labor), to hold a Byron Shire housing summit, which gained full support. It will be held prior to the adoption of the Byron Shire Residential Strategy, which is now on exhibition. Cr Basil Cameron (Our Sustainable Future) was successful in gaining support for a review of policy and procedures for advertising of proposed developments and approvals. Oh, and everyone voted to proceed with a ‘community consultation and awareness process’ for a ‘Proposed Special Rate Variation’.
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