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Ballina Shire Council
IMAGE: NBN News 19.06.23 |
Ballina
Shire Local Government Area
has
an estimated resident population of approx. 46,850 men, women &
children (.iD
Community:demographic
resources,
2022),
with a population density of 96.47 persons per square km across its
total area of 485.6 sq. km – give or take what the sea hasn’t
taken at
the last high tide.
It
is ‘managed’ by a Council comprised of nine councillors elected
to represent three wards and a
popularly elected mayor. Bringing
the mix of often competing interest to ten local politicians, as
well as
a
non-political council administration and staff running at around 336
permanent full time, part time and temporary staff (excluding casual
staff).
Ballina
Shire Council is blessed or bedevilled
by at least 11 standing committees, at least one reference group and.
sits on at
last glance 11
other regional organisations including Rous Water and the Northern
Rivers Joint Organisation.
That
works out to be one elected politician and administrative employee for every 135 Ballina residents/ratepayers,
operating
within an
annual budget that doesn’t appear to fudge its
numbers.
So,
in
2023 the shire should be running like a well-oiled machine. However
this is regional local government we are looking at and, it can be as
dysfunctional as the other two tiers of government.
The
Echo
online
newspaper discusses
Ballina Shire Council....
30
October 2023
Ballina’s
bouncing boundaries
Many
people assume that in a civilised country like Australia, electoral
boundaries are all taken care of by impartial officials, but in
Ballina, it turns out councillors have some say in deciding their own
ward boundaries within the shire.
As
the local population changes, this has led to an ongoing kerfuffle,
with the latest chapter occupying much of the latest Ballina Council
meeting.
Defying
staff suggestions, Cr Rod Bruem and his allies are continuing to push
for a new boundary adjustment which they say is based on common sense
geographical boundaries.
This
includes moving North Ballina to A Ward, moving Cumbalum to A Ward,
moving areas of Newrybar west of the motorway to C Ward, and moving
areas of East Ballina (north and north-east of the Richmond River) to
B Ward.
After
the latest period of public consultation, there were a grand total of
two submissions in support of this idea and 55 objections, for
reasons including; perceived councillor disadvantage, too many people
being impacted, little benefit, high cost, poor forward planning,
perceived political interference, and the fact that there is greater
variance between the population of wards under the Bruem approach
than via the original staff proposal (flying in the face of the whole
reason for boundary adjustments).
In
the meeting, Cr Bruem blamed the ‘green left Echo newspaper’ for
stoking misunderstandings about his proposal among the general
public.
He
said accusations from critics that his new boundaries amounted to
gerrymandering were ridiculous and unfounded, later claiming that he
was actually correcting earlier gerrymandering by the 2007 council.
He described the current ward division in Ballina as being like the
way Berlin was carved up during the Cold War.
Cr
Bruem said that residents had tried to have him thrown out of the
recent Cumbalum Residents Meeting (this is one of the main areas to
be affected by the proposed change) and he had to be rescued by Cr
Kiri Dicker.
Cr
Bruem claimed he was simply acting based on electoral commission
principles, and reducing confusion, by seeking to follow easy to
understand geographical boundaries in his proposed ward boundary
adjustments. If there were going to be unfortunate political
ramifications for his opponents, such as Cr Jeff Johnson (Cr Bruem
denied this), then that was nothing to do with him.
Cr
Johnson called on councillors to follow their previous unanimous
decision to accept staff-suggested ward boundaries back in February,
as had already been supported by the electoral commission. He said Cr
Bruem’s last minute change was ‘politically motivated’, and a
waste of council resources and ratepayers’ money.
New
low
He
said the recent majority decision to proceed with the Bruem changes
was ‘a new low for this council’ in his fifteen years there.
‘It
may seem trivial, but I believe that for a councillor or a group of
councillors to overturn a unanimous decision and to draw up a
different electoral boundary is not the precedent that we want to
set,’ said Cr Johnson.
‘It
compromises this council as a whole. That is not why we’re here.’
He
went on to say that far from simplifying things, the proposed changed
would lead to greater confusion, as well as increasing the population
differential between wards, from 4.85 per cent to 7.68 per cent,
meaning the whole issue would likely have to be revisited again in
the near future…..
In
the end, Mayor Cadwallader again used her casting vote to decide the
issue in Cr Bruem’s favour, with Crs Dicker, Johnson, Meehan, Chate
and Johnston voting against.
27
October 2023
Fireworks
over C Zone debate in Ballina
Yesterday’s
Ballina Shire Council meeting saw accusations and insults hurled
across the chamber as councillors split down the middle on the
contentious issue of conservation zones.
The
question boils down to whether rural landowners should be able to
decide for themselves if there are C zones on their properties,
(‘opting in’), or whether these areas should be identified in
collaboration with council staff on the basis of evidence and
negotiation, as part of the modernisation and integration of rural
zones.
Progressive
councillors brought on a rescission motion in an attempt to undo the
previous (very tight) decision to support opt in C zones, noting that
council staff and the Department of Planning and Environment have
expressed concerns about Ballina Council’s direction on the issue.
Conservation
or conservation zones?
There
was a surprising deputation from koala activist Maria Matthes, who
said, ‘I almost can’t believe that I am speaking against
conservation zones, but this is about conservation and not
conservation zones.’ She suggested that inconsistencies in the
application of conservation zones risked alienating landholders, with
potentially negative implications for wildlife corridors, especially
when weedy areas are identified as holding conservation value.
‘I
would like to see Ballina Council go back to where it should have
been 11 years ago, with the new biodiversity strategy in hand, and
bring landholders along for the biodiversity conservation journey,’
she said.
During
the following debate, Cr Jeff Johnson said he’d seen some bad
decisions on council over his last fifteen years, ‘but the proposal
to make a major decision on property zoning classifications before
the end of an extensive public consultation period, or reporting back
to council, has to be one of the worst.’
He
said the recent feedback from the state government indicated that the
new approach failed every test. ‘I’m shocked at the way this
final process has been hijacked; that proper process isn’t being
allowed to be followed.’
Cr
Johnson said council staff had already alleviated concerns about C
zones from Cr Eva Ramsey and others, when they made it clear ‘that
no existing farming practices or areas would be impacted, or would be
proposed to be impacted by the zoning review.’…..
Mayor
Cadwallader later defended her use of the casting vote [in favour
of opt-in C Zones],
declaring she was supporting the status quo and would ‘vote for
common sense every day of the week.’…..
26
October 2023
Country
mayors call for regional crime inquiry
Ballina
Mayor Sharon Cadwallader will use a mayoral minute in today’s
Ballina Shire Council meeting to call for a parliamentary inquiry
into crime, law and order in regional NSW, in line with a recent
report from the Country Mayors Association.
Supported
by the Police Association of NSW, the report also calls for an
increase in funding, to enhance front line policing in regional
communities in need….
Mayor
Sharon Cadwallader will this morning be asking her colleagues to
endorse the recommendations of the Country Mayors Association report,
and requesting member for Ballina Tamara Smith to consider supporting
the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry into rural crime….
Mayor
Sharon Cadwallader will this morning be asking her colleagues to
endorse the recommendations of the Country Mayors Association report,
and requesting member for Ballina Tamara Smith to consider supporting
the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry into rural crime.
The
first point of the
mayoral
motion
of
26.10.23 was
as follows:
That,
Council calls on all members of the NSW Parliament to commit to
bipartisan support to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into and
report on the rate of crime in all categories reported on by the
Bureau of Crime Statistical and Research (BOCSAR) in Regional, Rural
and Remote New South Wales, specifically focussing on the inequity
between Metro and Regional Local Government areas.
Happy
to provide busy work for the NSW Parliament in duplicating the
detailed crime demographics produced by BOSCAR up to June 2023
covering every local government area in the state at
both metro, regional and local level,
Ballina Shire councillors found something they could all agree on.
FOR
VOTE - All Councillors voted unanimously.
ABSENT.
DID NOT VOTE - Cr Rodney Bruem
