Hans Lovejoy
  • Home
  • Music
  • Journalism
  • Editorials
  • Consultancy
  • Contact

Clubbing the natives 

22/8/2011

0 Comments

 
There is a great scene in the movie Fight Club, where the main character talks to a fellow airline passenger about his job. 

He explains that his company weighs up the cost of recalling badly designed vehicles against its profit margin. Applying the Fight Club formula, Optus is erecting a phone tower in the middle of a cluster of houses in Lennox Head.

The most revealing part of Simeon Michaels’s page one story is the ‘balance’ that Optus applies when deciding to proceed or not with building a tower in a residential area.

Optus has carefully weighed up the negative media coverage this will generate against improved phone reception and profits. And profits are up: last year the Singapore-owned telco posted a 16 per cent increase in annual net profit to $676 million, according to ABC’s Lateline.  Sadly the residents of Basalt Court just weren’t vocal enough with 135 letters against and a 300+ petition.

Optus claims it has ten letters of support, but that figure is meaningless – not because they refused to disclose who the letter writers are to The Echo, but because Ballina Shire Council allowed this to happen.

If Council chose to bravely deny Optus its wishes, both entities would again weigh up the cost of litigation and outcome, à la Fight Club.

But these residents aren’t alone – it’s happening all over the country and others are winning. The Hobart Mercury reported last month that ‘People power topples tower,’ while in the Sellicks Beach area of South Australia, a inventive man demonstrated to his community what a tower proposal would look like. According to www.mathaba.net, he spent around $600 on renting a 35 metre crane for a couple of hours.

This decision should clearly be reversed. Hopefully next time Ballina Shire Council will represent the wishes of its ratepayers instead of a 


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010

    Categories

    All
    Banglaow
    Brunswick Heads
    Byron Bay
    Byron Shire Council
    Capitalism
    Civilisation
    Class Warfare
    Climate Change
    Community Markets
    Conservative Intellectuals
    Corporations
    Counter Culture
    Crime
    Development
    Drugs
    Elections
    Environment
    Federal Coalition
    Federal Government
    Federal Labor
    Festivals
    Finance
    Food
    Health
    Hemp
    History – Australia
    Holiday Letting
    Human Rights
    International
    Journalism
    Language Usage
    Lobbyists
    Mardigrass Festival
    Media
    Mining
    Mullumbimby
    Nationals Party Nsw
    Nsw Government
    Piracy
    Police
    Religion
    Renewable Energy
    Social Contract
    Sovereignty
    State Coalition Party
    Technology
    The Greens
    Transport
    West Byron

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Music
  • Journalism
  • Editorials
  • Consultancy
  • Contact