Clarence Valley Council and Community Consultation

In December 2024 Clarence Valley Council changed the structure and operation of its community advisory committees with the number of committees reduced from ten to four. In the past a councillor chaired the advisory committee meetings and a council officer from middle management attended and managed the committee’s business.  The new committees are still chaired by a councillor but the council officer attending has been upgraded with the General Manager Laura Black now the council officer generally in charge of proceedings at all advisory committee meetings.

Community members were appointed to the four committees in mid-2025 with the first meetings being held in July.

Having been a long-term member of a pre-2025 advisory committee (Climate Change), I have been interested in the effectiveness of the new arrangement.  I have looked at the operation of the Environment and Sustainability Advisory (E&S) Committee, chaired by Councillor Novak.  

Five applicants were appointed to the E&S Committee with two resigning early in the piece.  Several further advertisements saw more applicants appointed.  There are now six members.    Two meetings were held in 2025.  In 2026 there have been three meetings – one of which went ahead despite the absence of a quorum. Two further meetings are scheduled for this year.  It seems council, which originally wanted only four two-hour meetings a year, has finally twigged to the scale of the matters it wants this committee to discuss.

Having attended all but the first meeting in July 2025, I have seen changes in the meeting process and the committee members’ participation.  Frustration about the timely provision of information prior to meetings saw members finally complaining – leading to this being improved. Another concern raised was the failure to present the Koala policy to the committee before it went to a council meeting and then on public exhibition. 

A major positive is the increasing assertiveness of committee members while a major negative is the Chair’s determination to end the meeting well before two hours.  Another problem is the proposed Working Groups. More on that another time.

-        Leonie Blain

Published in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent   24th  July, 2026 , under the title "Council and Community Consultation".

  

 Update: 

1)  There are now seven community members of the E&S Committee

2)  A further meeting was held on 1st September.  Another meeting is scheduled for November.

3)  Meetings are held in the Council Chambers in Prince St, Grafton.  Community members may attend these meetings as observers.

 

PARKS NOT SPEEDWAYS

With the creation of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP), a commitment was made to accommodate stakeholder groups that have traditionally used state forests for their activities, including 4-wheel driving and trail bike riding.

As these activities aren’t allowed in national parks, the state government is considering gazetting some of those forests as State Parks, which would allow these activities to occur.

 Historically, there has been little regulation of these activities with trail-bikers and 4-wheel drivers creating havoc with impunity.

We need to consider, should these pastimes be allowed to proceed without proper controls? Not only is the environment at risk, but also other members of the community. Why should tourists and others, out enjoying nature and hoping to spot a Koala, have to seek shelter off the trail to allow a troupe of trail bike riders to roar past, spraying gravel and dirt in all directions?

These reserves are being created to protect Koalas, and the thousands of other plants and animals, many of which are in decline and already facing extinction. Clearly, nature conservation and motor sports are completely incompatible.

Last week there was a very troubling discovery in Bagawa State Forest, southwest of Glenreagh, where a person, or persons, have cleared endangered rainforest understory, including several threatened shrubs, in the process of reopening an old forest track and creating several new side trails for the purpose of trail bike riding.

Those new trails even cross creeks, up and down banks, creating an erosion hazard, adding more mud to our already polluted waterways.

I wonder if those responsible realise that damaging a threatened ecological community, or species, can attract a $550,000 fine or 7 years imprisonment (more for a corporation).

Naturally, this incident is being investigated.

There is clearly a need to cater for these high-impact activities, but they must be properly controlled and not allowed to pose a physical risk to other forest users, negatively impact the natural environment, or pollute waterways. Remember, the majority of the forests making up the GKNP, lie within regional drinking water catchments.

    -        John Edwards 

Published in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent   31st  July, 2026 . 

 

 

PROGRESS ON CLIMATE IN AUSTRALIA

Renewable energy adoption around the world is playing an important part in the struggle to reduce the carbon emissions which are driving increasingly frequent disasters like weather extremes and bushfires.

Progress on renewable energy in Australia has been significant. More than one in three Australian households (around four million) have rooftop solar and thousands of households have bought home batteries.  Renewables now power over 44% of the electricity grid.  As the independent Climate Council has pointed out, clean energy is outperforming coal, electric vehicles are on the rise and the economics of renewables stack up and are what most Australians want.

While more can be done to extend our use of renewables and household and industrial-scale batteries, there are other steps that must be taken.  The most difficult thing – and something that is essential – is the phasing out of fossil fuels.  As the Climate Council points out, if the phasing out of coal, oil and gas was simple, it would have already been done.

Fossil fuels, it says, are held in place by a web of influence which includes existing contracts locking in decades of fossil fuel production, laws that were not designed to consider climate change, the economic benefit gained from exporting fossil fuels and Australia’s trading partners (many of whom have long-term contracts) relying on those exports.  While these web strands are certainly very powerful, there are individuals and groups working for change.

This has been an uphill battle where those benefitting from fossil fuel extraction and its enormous profits are experts at pushing back and influencing governments.  In a recent example of this, gas proponents called for more exploration following the Iran War fuel shock.  And that convinced the gullible NSW Premier to open up exploration for gas in the far west of the state.

Important in combatting these fossil fuel proponents is providing information to the community about what needs to be done and urging for the tightening of development laws.  Increasing pressure on governments to make the necessary changes will ensure they cannot ignore the climate issues.

-        Leonie Blain

Published in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent   10th July, 2026 under the title: "Progress on Climate".