Cartoons of the Week

 

Mark David

Jon Kudelka

Quote of the Week

 

“A new paper from the Australia Institute shows 93% of the benefits of economic growth between 2009 and 2019 went to the top 10%, while the bottom 90% received just 7%. The paper shows the share of economic growth going to the top 10% over that period was far higher in Australia than in other developed countries, including the US and Canada.”

[Political reporter Amy Remeikis, writing in The Guardian, 11 April 2023]

Phrase of the Week

 

digital euthanasia: the use of a block button to terminate the presence of a troll in your social media timeline. [Simon Homes à Court, 2023]

 

Case for NO INCINERATOR AT CASINO

No Thermal Incinerator for Casino by clarencegirl on Scribd

ANU background paper answers many of the common questions concerning the proposed formal recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Australian Constitution and the creation of the Voice to Parliament

 

 This background paper answers many of the common questions concerning the proposed formal recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Australian Constitution and the creation of the Voice to Parliament.

I hope it assists North Coast Voices readers ahead of any decision they make at the national referendum later this year.

 

"Responding to Common ... by clarencegirl

 

Destroy The Joint: Counting Dead Women In 2023

 

@DeadWomenAus

Fourteen weeks into 2023 and the count of women who died violently at the hands of partners, family members, friends or acquaintances now stands at ten.

On average one woman's violent death has been reported in the Australian media every two weeks so far this year.

Destroy The Joint counted three such deaths in January, three in 

February, two in March and two deaths so far in April 2023.

Ongoing concerns about sustainable water supply and environmental risk, Mullum NSW

Laverty's Gap Weir
IMAGE: Echo, September 2017

Byron Echo, Letters, 5 April 2023:

It seems our elected councillors are at odds with non-elected Council staff over the future of Mullum’s water supply.

My concern is that there is no consideration in the current arrangements for environmental flow in the Wilsons Creek/River below Lavertys Gap weir. This obviously didn’t seem like a big issue when the agreement was drawn up several decades ago and the population of the area was a fraction of what it is today.

However, our population is growing and every new house has flush toilets, showers and gardens to water. Might these houses be required to at least have water tanks as every roof is a perfect water catchment?

In the last drought (2019–20) the area downstream of the weir was almost stagnant. This is a vital habitat for platypus and many other native species. Local residents also rely on the creek to water food gardens.

It is crucial that we consider the long-term health of this important waterway and the survival of both native and human inhabitants.

We need to act now for the future and put in place a requirement for realistic environmental flow.

Please speak up for the river by contacting Council: council@byron.nsw.gov.au

Linda Grace, Wilsons Creek

 

The weir at Laverty's Gap supplies water to Mullumbimby. It is a Heritage-listed ageing structure in need of repair, which appears to block fish passage in that section of the Wilsons River and operates under a licence that does not require release of environmental flows to water the downstream environment. 

There is community concern that weir capacity only meets current population demand as the weir water supply currently services est. 1,890 residential and non-residential properties and, will not be able to meet need in future droughts given access to emergency water supply is limited to only part of the town. 

Water restrictions were imposed in Mullumbimby during the droughts of 2002/03, 2006/07 and 2019/20 and, there is community concern about the degree to which climate change will exacerbate future droughts.