Cairns Mayor welcomes further False Cape suspension

The Mayor of the Cairns Regional Council has welcomed the decision by the Federal Environment Minister to suspend the False Cape development for a further 12 months.

"Yes, it is great news," Mayor Schier told CairnsBlog soon after hearing the news this afternoon.

"We're very pleased it's been put on hold, again because it's quite clear that they [Reef Cove Ltd] have not fulfilled their obligations to look after the site and put in the sediment control measures."

Over the last year, Cairns Regional ratepayers forked out $150,000 for temporary remediation work on the now-vacant site, after Minister Garrett first suspended development one year ago.

Council plans to send staff over to the beleaguered site next week for an evaluation.

"They will see what additional work will need to be done, and then we'll have to decide who does it and if we do the same work we did last year. It will be a Council decision," Mayor Val Schier said.

Councillor Paul Gregory, whose Division encompasses the False Cape site, says some responsibility should rest with the Federal Government, in helping for ongoing remediation work.

"This [decision] means that it puts the onus back onto Council," Paul Gregory says. "Those works last year were only ever meant for one wet season. It was to put in slit traps were they were desperately needed, along with some grass and vegetation to try and hold things together. It needs more work now."

"My thoughts are with the Minister's declaration, perhaps they could give us a hand and give us a help financially," Councillor Paul Gregory says. "It's in limbo, nobody can do anything. Ratepayers of Cairns are going to have to carry the can again until someone owns that property so that we can charge and claim back. I think it will be something in the $150,000 order again if we are going to have to go back and do those temporary works again."

When asked if the development would ever proceed again, Councillor Gregory said that something has to be done.

"The site can't be left like it is. It's either going to have to be remediated or finished, or the owners of those properties take care of it. This would be much like Bayview Heights, which was a red soil farm when I was a young fella. When it was developed with residential houses on it, those rivers ran red for the first wet season, but now it's vegetated, those issues are gone. When you go into private ownership, those issues will be taken care of," Paul Gregory said.

Councillor Gregory didn't want to look back if the False Cape site should have ever been approved in the first place.

"It goes back a long, long way," Paul Gregory said. "In 2000 the Council had a chance to kill it off but that would have cost the ratepayers a lot of money in compensation, however we made the decision to continue and it was accessed under the CairnsPlan and there was changes in the design and all that sort of thing. I wished it have never happened in the first place, however the history is there, it's been going on for 25 years."

"I think the Federal Government have some responsibility [regarding the cost of remediation works], not because that we [Council] gave the approvals, as we only gave some approvals as directed by certain court cases, but nothing will now happen for two years therefore they should give some money," Gregory said.

"You'd want to have the remediation nailed down before our first wet in two months," Paul Gregory said.

Local environmentalist and landscape photographer, Steven Nowakowski says that it was the former Byrne-led Council, that Paul Gregory was a member of, supported in 2003 /04 sub-dividing the property from 58 lots to 155.

"They also approved to put in a dual road on the site. So it was actually the Byrne-Council that has left this legacy. We have got to stop blaming Joh Bjelke-Petersen and what happened in the mid-80's," Steve Nowakowski says.

"Yes, the land was re-zoned as special facilities in the mid-80's, but it was the Cairns City Council under Kevin Byrne that reconfigured that site to how it is today," Nowakowski says. "That decision went against the advice of his own Council planners at the time."

The tripling of the lots, with the addition of four unit complexes and a Resort, was a Byrne-Council decision.

"I think today's decision is great step forward, it's the right decision, however I'd like to see a complete revocation of the Federal Government's approval. Ultimately what we'd like to see is the government buying back that site, because at the moment it's worth nothing," Steven Nowakowski said.

"For anyone to take on this site, they would have to spend millions and millions of dollars in remediation before they even start. Firstly, it is Council's responsibility because the Kevin Byrne Council never got the $650,000 bond, they never got that bank guarantee from the developer, so yes, it is Council's responsibility, but it's also the Federal Government's responsibility, because it impacts on the Great Barrier Reef, " Steven Nowakowski says.

When asked who should pay, Nowakowski is defiant. "Kevin Byrne should pay out of his back pocket. He's the one that voted for it."

The Save False Cape campaigners have been seeking a government buy back of the land from the receivers, and then involve the Yarabarrah community to revegetate the site, hand the land back to their community," Steve says.

It's understood that Yarrabah Mayor Percy Neal, would like the site returned back to them. Although Community Development Employment Projects funding has ceased in July, discussions with cairns Senator Jan McLucas has indicated that there could be some Federal funding for employment available for locals revegetating the False Cape site.

The land was purchased by the current developer, John Ewens in 2001 for just over $2 million, then sort substantial changes for his Reef Cove resort. The land is now a liability with so much work needed to be done to fix the site up.

With 155 house blocks on the site, Steve Nowakowski estimates that the sale would conservatively generate around $60 million. The developer has probably spent between 20 to $25 million, and Ewens has indicated that he's spent $2 million a month.

It would cost $5 million to get water pumped in from Gordonvale, and the same again to get sewage pumped back to the treatment centre at Gordonvale, and many more millions to get the roads ready for sub-division, ready for houses, units and the resort.

"We estimate that the developer would have to have spent up to $60 million to get it ready for sale, and then only recoup that from sales. There was never ever going to be any money made.

We hear all about these shelf companies that raise a lot of money, spend a portion of the money, and the rest goes missing into the developer’s pocket, then he declares bankrupt or goes into receivership.

Maybe the False Cape fiasco was always designed to fall over from day one?

"Everyone has lost. The community have lost. The environment has lost. Dougie, the excavator driver lost his life. The developer has supposedly lost. Our visual amenity has been lost. The ratepayers have lost $150,000. No one has won out of this," Steve Nowakowski says.

The Save False Cape group will now consider pushing for an enquiry, led by the State or Federal Government about why this has happened.

We should have an enquiry about why the Byrne Council didn't require that $650,000 bank guarantee, why the Mayor ignored his own planners.

According to Yarrabah Councillors, the former Mayor was flown down to the Gold Coast on a number of occasions, put up in a hotel, reputedly paid for by the developer.

"In this day in age, why have we got this far? We may be up for a perpetual $150,000 every year," Nowakowski says.

Cairns Regional Council Mayor Val Schier says it's her belief that the development won't ever proceed.

"They do have approval for 134 lots, however this Council will not give them approval to treat their sewage on site, nor will we give them approval for a second stage of development."

"The $150,000 that Council have spent rehabilitating the site, would have to be repaid, even if the land is sold, so Council will get its money back," Val Schier said.

False Cape’s approval was first suspended in September last year over concerns that the developer’s failure to maintain the site posed a threat to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

The site was left un-managed after the developer closed it down due to financial difficulties.

“Under the national environment law, I can suspend approval for another 12 months if I am not satisfied that appropriate measures have been put in place to protect the nearby world heritage area,” Peter Garrett said.

“The company has failed to fix up the erosion and sediment problems at the site, so a suspension will remain on the development’s approval. This means that building cannot resume at the site until I am satisfied that proper measures will be taken to protect the world heritage area. If the site is sold to a new developer, the suspension will still apply and any new developer will need to satisfy me that the world heritage area can be protected," Garrett said today.

If a new development is proposed for that site, it will need to be considered as a fresh proposal under national environment law and undergo a public assessment.

According to the Minister's statement, the Reef Cove development is the only project to have its approval suspended under the national environment law—the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

"Suspension is not as good as a revocation, but it is at least better than having the approval re-instated," Adam Millar, solicitor at the Environmental Defenders Office, said today.

"It would be a good idea to explore the buy-back options," Millar said.

Many questions remain however.

Local environmentalist, Terry Spackman says that any new developer will have to satisfy that the world heritage area can be protected.

"Will a new owner have to put effective erosion and sediment controls in place as part of the sale conditions?" he asked. "It appears the present owner failed to do this and escaped prosecution."

"Will the law be enforced more rigorously in the future? A recent inspection of the Reef Cove site showed the temporary remediation work ordered by Cairns Council was just that. Large areas of unprotected soil, evidence of recent erosion, slippage on batters and full or near full sediment traps," Spackman said.

"Most of the conditions that led to the suspension remain. Reef Cove remains a threat to the World Heritage Area. Will work be carried out to remove the threat, and who will pay for it?"

Roadmap for a sustainable Far North

CAFNEC (Cairns and Far North Environment Centre) has released its prescription for sustainable development in Far North Queensland.

"During this election CAFNEC urges voters and politicians alike to embrace the protection and better management of the Far North environment," Campaign Director, Steve Ryan says.

He says that good environmental management underpins economic prosperity and our way of life. "Urgent action on a range of areas is required to safeguard a sustainable future," says Ryan.

CAFNEC's roadmap has been collated from views and advice of a wide variety of community groups and individuals. Inappropriate development and its effects on our remaining habitat and wildlife remain a paramount concern, CAFNEC says, and also for many communities across the region.

"The disaster of False Cape and the current development frenzy in the Innisfail area threaten the coastal habitats of the endangered Cassowary, as well as our regional character and lifestyle," Steve Ryan says.

"For far too long successive State Governments have overseen a decline in our natural landscapes of the Far North. Long term Cairns residents can remember when Cassowaries could be seen on suburban rainforest trails. Now these great birds are gone from Cairns and we see Wallabies trapped by run-away development in the Northern and Southern suburbs of Cairns."

"Across the region we see Cassowaries dying on our roads and pushed out by ongoing development of their habitat. Until State Governments place habitat protection at the centre of sustainable development we will continue to lose precious wildlife that symbolise our region in the eyes of our communities and the world," says Ryan.

CAFNEC predicts that the Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef will suffer significant damage from climate change impacts, despite any measures able to be taken today.

"In order to secure a future for these two world-class pillars of our regional environment and economy we must ensure these systems remain healthy and can continue to sustain the region," Steve Ryan said.

Here's CAFNEC's policy document, and the key policy recommendations...

Climate change

• Commit to the inclusion of regional greenhouse gas reduction strategies and targets within an appropriate statutory instrument, such as amending the newly released FNQ Regional Plan 2009-2031 accordingly

Preserving ecological function and improving landscape scale resilience

• Provide dedicated statutory protection of wildlife corridors identified in the FNQ Regional Plan 2009-2031, triggered by development assessment and environmental planning processes.


• Implement appropriate conservation management arrangements for private land holders including conservation covenants, cooperative management and other agreements, land for wildlife, Nature Refuges.


• Local governments be proactively supported in providing rates-based incentives for voluntary conservation measures on freehold land


• A commitment to actively promote and fully resource voluntary conservation measures for all privately held tenures in the Wet Tropics, Gulf and Cape York.

Coastal protection

• Protecting local icons:
  Buy back and rehabilitate Ella Bay


• Support strong local government plans for coastal communities with high projected growth rates or where threatened species impacts are escalating - e.g. Daintree, Innisfail.


• Reform the Integrated Planning Act 1997:
  Cancel or sunset (after a fixed period not exceeding two years) all pre-IPA approvals, re-assess under current standards of environmental and coastal protection if there is a wish to proceed with the development.


• All new and uncommenced development proposals must be subject to the same current standards of regulatory controls and environmental protection, regardless of tenure, zoning or unused historic approvals.

Water

• No commitment to new dams in the FNQ Water Supply Strategy. In particular the proposed Nullinga Dam on the Walsh River.


• No dam on the Gilbert River, or other Gulf rivers.

Someone's watching

Someone was watching the story last week on CairnsBlog about the beach dumping.

After huge loads of vegetation waste was dumped in beach car parks, north of Palm Cove, I published photos of the illegal dumping. It undoubtedly had to be a commercial operation, given the size and amount of waste.

Paul from Palm Cove telephoned me today and reported that the entire lot has been removed. By whom, we don't know. Maybe Cairns Regional Councillor Rob Pyne took up the challenge and asked his road gang to deal with it. Whoever did, thank you. Next time, I hope someone catches and prosecutes these blighters.

And in other pleasing news, the Fearnley Street drain mess that Molly helped me publicise back in October, has also been attended to. "Fearnley Creek Drain is no longer a shame," Molly says. "It's all beautifully repaired, safe and ready for back to school. A very smooth ride now." Council has been back to the site on at least three occasions, cleaning up the city eyesore.

Finally, I'm very happy to report that after numerous reports and videos exposed on CairnsBlog, a number of measures have been installed to prevent or limit sediment run off at Phil Hartwig's massive steep development at the top of Foley Road, Palm Cove. I know Councillor Paul Gregory took a particular interest in this one, as did Councillor Julia Leu.

Along with the Fiona Tulip and the Combined Beaches Residents' Association, Terry Spackman and myself spent a great deal of time monitoring this site late last year. This development went under the Council and EPA radar for more than a year. Even though the Residents' Association wrote to the State Government and communicated it to the Federal False Cape inspection team, nothing was done. It was only after we filmed run-off in October, following a small rainfall, that the unfolding disaster got the attention. Channel 7 ran the footage, that was first aired on my YouTube channel.

Council has subsequently sent staff to the Foley Road site and now initiated a new fine regime for developers and land owners that cause sediment run off with no preventative measures in place.

Our land warriors celebrate

L-R: Denis Walls, Terry Spackman, Mark Buttrose, Steven Nowakowski, Steve Ryan, Brynn Matthews, Nev Ridley.

Some of Cairns most influential environmental warriors gathered for a quiet and reflective balcony drink recently at Cominos House, home to CAFNEC.

Mark Buttrose and Steven Nowakowski were there, lucky to be alive after their private chartered helicopter crashed on False Cape, during a photographic survey. They were attempting to expose environmental violations to the huge development site at the East of Trinity Bay. Their documenting, contributed to closing down of the site and intervention by Hon Peter Garret, the Federal Environment Minister. It followed an extensive five year battle to get the local Council and State Government to take action against serious runs off into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Steven Nowakowski has since opened a landscape photographic gallery at the Pier Shopping Centre.

Nev Ridley also contributed to the Save False Cape team, and was the very real gate-keeper to the scared development site.

Steve Ryan has for another year been the lead advocate for our region's unique environmental lobby group, CAFNEC. Steve shared his expertise with numerous causes and community groups during the year.

Besides jumping on the 100 year old Cairns Yacht Club roof and getting arrested, Terry Spackman was also celebrating after another year exposing dodgy developers and Council's inaction to prevent unlawful sediment runs off from building sites. There's no doubt that Terry forced the new Cairns Regional Council to act and monitor development sites. His CairnsBlog videos made it to local TV, and Council saw they similar had to act.

Yacht Club campaigner Bryan Law was also there. The camera-shy serial-non-violent protester, made a significant contribution during the year. Through a series of significant public and media-orchestrated events, Law highlighted the vile heritage destruction by the Queensland Labor government and the former Cairns City Council. Just a few weeks ago, Bryan under-went open heart surgery.

There was much to be happy about for these defenders of all things green, but the fight continues. It's a dirty world out there.

The rains are a coming

No Council or regional town could have a better public advocate for the environment than Terry Spackman.

Terry has a wealth of environmental management and community activism under his kaki belt.

In a scathing email to Val Schier, Terry reminds the Mayor the support he offered her, so long as she acted in the interests of the environment. However, like thousands of locals that supported Val Schier and a change of local Government in Cairns, they have yet to see much evidence of a 'greener' mayor leading this city.

"The last time we met was at a meeting of the Greens, Terry Spackman writes to the Mayor. "When we spoke, I gave you an undertaking that I would not publicly criticise Cairns Regional Council officers for failing to enforce development approval conditions."

Terry's public environmental scrutiny is well-respected and acknowledged around the region for many years. The 70-year-old campaigner has always been at the forefront of public debate and activism to expose poor development controls on building and excavation sites.

Spackman said to Schier that when he gives his word, he intends to keep it. However, he now questions the wisdom of giving the mayor the undertaking to not publicly criticise Council staff under her watch. Spackman believes Val Schier has had enough time to get her hands dirty at the job.

"Yesterday afternoon I saw Moody Creek carrying a heavy sediment load," Terry said. "Today, I found that the source of that sediment, was a development at Kanimbla Heights."

Photos show what a large area of soil is exposed to erosion. The sediment control devices are of a type that experience has shown to be totally useless. There are no erosion controls to be seen, nor a Storm Water Management Plan.

"This development would not comply with the most basic erosion and sediment control principles, Spackman told the Mayor. "I challenge anyone to show me otherwise."

This photo was taken at Kanimbla Heights three years ago. Nothing has changed as we face the next wet season head on.

"I, along with many others, supported you and your team because there was a promise of change," Terry Spackman said to Val Schier in the email. "Many of us are now thinking, there is too much 'business as usual' and not enough 'change'."

"Why shouldn't the public know that Cairns Regional Council officers are allowing developers to pollute the waterways, and ultimately the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park? Why shouldn't people know their rates are paying people not do their job properly?"

Spackman suggest that is Council officer Larry Maloy had done his job, we would not have to spend ratepayers money to fix the massive problems at False Cape. "There would be no problems at False Cape," Terry says. "I warned [former Councillor] Fran Lindsey and Larry of these problems long before I exposed them to the public."

"Until you can show me that Council officers are enforcing development approval conditions, I withdraw the undertaking I gave you," Spackman told the Mayor.

Three days after Terry sent the email to Mayor Val Schier, late on Sunday, she replied.

"I am just catching up with emails after a very busy week," Val wrote in haste. "I hope that you logged this in the Residents Response system at the time so that officers would have been aware."

This appears to be the regular reply from Councillors, and certainly Val, to address complaints about poor environmental management by the Council which she now heads. She told Terry in another email some months ago, to 'ensure he reports issues' to Council. This is a simple way to avoid the question at hand. Sure this is a big subject and one that can't be solved in five minutes, however it should be one of the top five issues pinned to her $160,000 mayoral office.

"I will pass on the information and ask for it to be investigated," Val said. "It is not possible for council officers to monitor all developments all the time so it is vital that people like you bring breaches to the attention of officers," The Mayor wrote.

"I am sorry if I am not able to implement the change that you want. As I said previously, I am one person who is doing my best to deal with a myriad of problems and issues."

And that was that. Implementing this change was not possible? What on earth does Val take us for? She campaigned for 8 months on the environmental ticket, this would have been one change that she could have made, hung her hat on and claimed a victory over her predecessor.

We've seen Val Schier vote against some the the very things she stood for in running for office. She endorsed and voted for GlenCorp's 500-apartment complex on the site of the old Woree movie drive-in site, although Councillors Pyne and Cooper voted against, citing among other concerns, the current roading infrastructure was totally inadequate. Val said at the time she voted in support because it was within the existing requirements of the CairnsPlan. She later recounted to the Cairns Post, that it was one decision that she didn't like the most in her first 100 days in office.

I recall Val saying that more sustainable and better building for our community was something high on her agenda if elected, yet her voting pattern is telling a different story.

Just last week, when approving a development near Palm Cove, where Hedley is ripping apart the Paradise Palms golf course - the 9th green actually - Val voted in support of this highly controversial development. She'd already had two meetings with the Combined Beaches Community Association, and been provided with substantial background material why this was a bad development. There were even compromises where some of the sensitive vegetation could have been retained.

Councillors Leu, Cochrane, Forsyth, Lesina and Pyne voting against the motion. If Schier, the only other 'environmental' Councillor on the Council, voted with them and supported the northern beaches community that largely got her elected, the motion would have been squarely defected.

Many are becoming increasing angry that the Mayor is far from green in her voting. Many commentors on CairnsBlog have voiced out-rage.

"Oh what a blunder. Our Mayor has just shot herself in the foot big time, and killed off all that hard won support on the Northern Beaches," said one.

"Her [Paradise Palms] decision, I hope she will learn to regret big time. Her position as Mayor is now untenable and no doubt short lived. We have a Mayor who did not support the Cairns Plan in a major rezoning approval that involves the destruction of part of one of the most premier golf courses in Australia and reduced protection for the significant conservation areas on the surrounding land. Instead, she rolled over, in favour of a developer whose proposal is worth $500 million dollars, that's right, $500 million," the Blog commenter said.

"To be honest, I'm gobsmacked," Terry Spackman said of Val Schier's response. In another anti-envirnoment move, the Mayor who loudly raised the discussion the joys in pre-election times of saving and protecting heritage, decided to not utter a single word about the historic Cairns Yacht Club.

However, what happened next is rather interesting. 48 hours after Val emailed this reply to Terry Spackman, a press release was issued. Now Val Schier made no reference to this at all in her email. It appears she was simply not across what was planned or this was a five minute 'pr reaction' stunt.

Council issued a statement saying that they would launch a new erosion and sediment control team, and they would issue on–the-spot-fines. Stunning. You'd have to argue that Schier was not informed of this, or it simply was not a strategic plan to launch such a team. If this new team was a serious attempt by Council, then it certainly could not of been planned overnight.

"A new team dedicated to enforcing erosion and sediment controls are out in force this week assessing individual building sites, new subdivisions and major development sites," the Council statement read. "The sub-unit of Cairns Regional Council’s Environmental Protection Unit has been established in response to an increasing number of complaints from the community related to erosion and sediment runoff from development sites."

If a breach of the Environmental Protection Act or the Integrated Planning Act is found, they would issue instant fines. Now, if this Council are serious, this process needs to be open and transparent. These breaches should be publicly identified. However, I doubt this grand new action team will be effective nor do what it claims, as much as we need such policing.

It's odd that Val Schier claimed this couldn't be done, and just hours later a whole new team is announced and dispatched on the streets!

Schier is also quoted in the midnight press release. "The State Government has recently announced increased regulation of the farming sectors to protect the Barrier Reef, so it is important that Council ensures erosion risks from building sites are minimised."

The highly-criticised chief town planner and acting CEO Peter Tabulo says that breaching the Environmental Protection (Water) Policy could cost builders between $300 - $600. "Fines for non-compliance with the Integrated Planning Act range from $750 for an individual and $3750 for a corporation," he says.

In January penalties will 'increase dramatically' they tell us. Up from $75 to $100. “In addition to the increases in penalties, the new Regulation will further define what is considered to be contaminates to waterways, with an increase in the types of substance prohibited from entering Council's stormwater system,” Tabulo said.

The Erosion and Sediment Control Team will erect signs reminding builders and contractors to ensure sediment erosion controls, waste management and armoured entrances are applied on each building site. Whoopie. We'll need more than a few signs that will be washed downstream in the next rain Peter.

Two public meeting will be held at Council's reception room. One at 9am on the 15 December. This is for statutory compliance on subdivisions and aimed at builders, contractors and earth moving companies. The other will be at 5:30pm on 17 December to discuss roles and responsibilities of Council’s Environmental Protection unit. It will also talk about how the community can be report environmental incidents.

Like Terry, I'm cynical that this new policing will either be vigilant, effective or transparent. I hope they prove us wrong.

Is everything honky dorey at False Cape?

Even though it has not been raining much over the last few weeks, another tree has collapsed on the steep False Cape site, at East Trinity.

Although only a small tree, this is significant in that it displays movement and instability of the land.

False Cape has been subject to rigorous public scrutiny over the last two year. A strong environmental campaign was orchestrated by the Save False Cape group. They took aim at the former Cairns City Council and the Queensland State Government, both of whom failed to take action.

Following election of the new Cairns Regional Council in March this year, they presented a delegation to the Environment and Planning Committee, to seek support for a closure of the development.

It appears that Cairns construction giant CEC, who have been contracted to spend the $109,000 allocated by the Cairns Regional Council for remedial action, have already cleaned up the mile-long scarred hillslope. The False Cape development site was left abandoned eight months ago by dodgy developer John Ewens. Recently the Federal Environment Minister made a 13th hour intervention to stop anymore excavation on the land, and ordered a clean up. The Council did not access the much talked about $650,000 bond that is meant to be held for such purpose, instead voting to levy the land holder on his rate bill.

Last Thursday Hydromulch was sprayed across the property, and the remaining machinery moved off the False Cape site yesterday.

CEC start False Cape work

After over a year of political Council and State government wrangling; three years of severe damage to what was a pristine coastline view from Cairns; a Federal Minister's intervention; much Cairns City Council's mis-management and negligence, False Cape is about to get some urgent pre-wet season surgery.

Yesterday, Cairns construction company CEC rolled back onto the work site, that has been abandoned for months.

Never explained properly to the public, the Council have not invoked their $650,000 bond that they should be holding for this use, to spend towards clean up the 2 klm long False Cape site. Instead, as a act of mad local politics, they're paying for it themselves, out of Ratepayer money, and added it to developer John Ewens rate's bill.

CEC moved a large excavator onto the site, presumably to start remedial work. You have to wonder how an excavator will stabilise the now scarred hillslopes.

Over the last two wet seasons, substantial sediment run off was recorded. Save False Cape campaigners have been fighting for action for nearly three years. You can see the damage to False Cape from these amazing photos taken onboard the Buttrose Nowakowski death-defying helicopter ride, that I'm assured will not be an attraction at next year's Cairns Show.

Is Phil Hartwig waking up?

CairnsBlog readers will be well aware of the expose I've done on the debacle unfolding up near Palm Cove at Foley Road.

It is all about uncontrolled sediment run, just like False Cape. You know, the development at East Trinity that Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett closed down pending a clean-up by Cairns Regional Council. Interestingly enough, Council in their wisdom have decided to use ratepayers money to fund the clean up exercise at False Cape, and bill the owner, one John Ewens. Why they simply didn't dip in and use the $650,000 bond that they are meant to be holding, is beyond me. The Safe False Cape folk are still ever vigilant about this project and I doubt we've seen or heard the end of this rogue developer.

Meanwhile, back to Sediment Run-Off Criminal Number 2. Mr Hartwig.

The Combined Beaches Community Association first bought this site to the attention of the Government and Council a long while ago. At first they were exchanging information, then Federal inspectors visited the site at the same as the False Cape white coats were in town.

The wall of silence came from the EPA office, so the Beaches Association took me for a look at the site three months ago. Of course, I was shocked at was unveiling at this steep development site, and it was all being done by one man and his big yellow bulldozer.

Now I'm no expert on sediment controls or run offs, but this is 101 environment protection science. Community environmentalist and water watchdog, 71-year-old Terry Spackman, has been policing building and development sites for more than 10 years now, bringing his 'WaterWatch' results to the attention of Council officers. Just a couple of months ago, he shouted himself a nice Sony Handicam, and it's proved an invaluable tool in exposing rouge developers like Phil Hartwig at Foley Road and John Ewens at False Cape. Here's the video Terry and I filmed last month. This embarrassed Council and showed them up. Our objective it's not to be high and mighty, it's simply to get some action and make sure they're doing their job. We want Council officers to wake up to what's going on under their nose.

Last week an email was received from Lana Gishkariany about Foyley Road. Lana is the assistant policy advisor for the Office of the Minister for Sustainability. She said that the Environmental Protection Agency had received complaints from local community groups about sediment runoff on a property at Foley Road. Serious?! This is finally an admission that there is a problem, and just weeks before our wet season is about to take most of the Foley Road dirt into every river and creek below it, then the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park will cop the rest.

There were a couple of statements in Lana's email, including:

• ‘Please note that the EPA is not a concurrence agency for this proposal and hence has no role in the approval and conditioning of the project’.

This is very interesting because although this development has been under construction for about two years, and was passed by Council under the non-transparent process of Delegate Authority. The EPA were not a concurrent agency at this time. Serious questions need to be asked why not, given the significant hillslope area and proximity being adjacent to the Wet Tropics Management Area, vegetation codes and waterway category of Sweet Creek.

This issue was later rectified when another subdivision went before Cairns Regional Council earlier this year (July 2008 – Lot 2RP808351) involving 19 Lots in a parcel of land situated below Mr Hartwig’s property. If you drive up Foley Road, on the left of Captain Cook highway heading north, this new approved sub-division is at the end of the road on the right.

Council’s recommendation in this approval was that lots 13-18 (6 Lots) did not comply with Hillslope, Vegetation and Conservation, and Waterways Significance Codes. Both Department of Natural Resources and the EPA were concurrent agencies in this approval.

• Hence, ‘the EPA advised Cairns Regional Council that they will not be investigating this matter at this stage, as CRC has the jurisdiction and necessary tools under the Integrated Planning Act 1997 and Environmental Protection Act 1994 to investigate and deal with sediment runoff concerns.’

This statement is interesting because it clearly identifies the Cairns Regional Council as having responsibility for all future run-off and sedimentation problems on the Foley Road site. Now are we shocked or surprised by this admission? What should surprise us is that Council are lame in the extreme at policing and ensuring controls are in place of approved Development Approvals. You'd think that's why us ratepayers pay them.

During a visit to Foley Road yesterday, it appears the developer has been made to stabilize the benched blocks with some sort of white material with planted grass being seen to be growing out of this material. Has Council made this rogue developer do something to stabilize the site?

Let's hope that this is enough to stop the whole slope from coming down over the next few weeks as our annual wet season kicks in so that further runoff from this site is prevented.

Restful weekend

Well, I had a rather restful weekend, away from historic roofs and serial activists.

I did some law-abiding gardening and work around the property. Long overdue.

I have a list of pre-wet-season things to do, however my tasks pails into insignificance when you look at what Council has to deal with at False Cape in the next three weeks.

Then there's Foley Road up near Palm Cove. What a disgrace that place is, yet Council's mud police couldn't see a thing wrong when they went for a drive by in the air con inspection vehicles. I think they have a sediment trap outside the door of the planning department.

Terry Spackman and I have our Blog camera pointed at some other environmental time bombs for all to see.

If you spot some dodgy development in your neighbourhood, drop me a line and this new Citizen's Watch army will allow everyone to see what's going on.

Stairway to hell

If you go down in the woods today, you're bound to get a big surprise.

If you go down in the woods today, near Clifton Beach, you're bound to be bloody angry.

Northern Beaches Warrior reports that more vegetation clearing has occurred by the Argentea developer. They are and interfering in a protected mangrove waterway. And for what reason, you may ask?
Well, the original Development Approval (or DA, as Council refers to it as, Drunk and Assisted maybe) was taken out for Argentea, requested four 4 meter wide boardwalks.

Photo: 4m swathe cut through riparian corridor of Delaney’s Creek, running parallel to the creek.

However, the then Cairns City Council, gave permission for only two.

The first has already been constructed just up from the exclusive gated-community. The original bridge that the developer constructed over Delaney’s Creek was chopped into two pieces, by persons unknown, as an act of protest. However, it was rebuilt.

Now, a wide swathe of vegetation has been cut through the riparian zone of Delaney’s Creek, running parallel to the creek.


PHOTO: They even display a sign these days, showing that they have permission for the destruction of this marine environment.


These pictures show yet another section that is being cleared for yet another bridge.


This one is less than 100m from the first bridge. Apparently, the silvertail holiday makers who may be staying in the exclusive resort complex, now designated as being at Palm Cove (and not Clifton Beach), cannot walk, or waddle, depending on how many lattes, cocktails and fatty al la carte meals they have consumed, any great distance to get to the beach.

Photo: Vegetation is cleared to creek edge to allow for second bridge to cross Delaney’s Creek for beach access, less than 100m from the first bridge.

So at the developer’s request, Council agreed to make it easy for these fat cats and destroy a riparian corridor, a melaleucca wetland, a mangrove creek environment, and an erosion-prone area, which is essentially the coastal dune, so that these poor darlings don’t exhaust themselves too much.


Photo: 4 m swathe for boardwalk continues till it meets the Sea Temple at Palm Cove (in the background of the photo).

Take a walk down to the Clifton Beach beachfront today and see for yourself. The damage the Council’s GM for the Destruction of the Environment has sanctioned.

Unfortunately, it seems that only Mother Nature will be able to stop this insanity, and there is nothing surer in this world, that she will do exactly that. It is just a question of when?

Photo:
Crossroads for boardwalks - one way across creek to beach, one way to Sea Temple and Palm Cove, one way towards Clifton Beach, and one way to the rest of the Argentea complex.

What a disgrace. How can anyone be allowed to develop and excavate right on the beach front sand dune and surrounding vegetation?

Beach-edge bushland and corridors like this, form a vital purpose to protect erosion and the foreshore. From Foley Road, to False Cape, and now the beach at Clifton and Palm Cove are allowed to be ripped apart and ruined, right in front of us all.

Foley Road makes it to TV

Last evening, Channel 7 TV covered our Foley Road sediment disaster story, that we've been pushing for the last two months.

This is the first 'mainstream' media to report of this unfolding mess, and hold land owner Phil Hartwig to account.

Yesterday morning, Cairns Regional Council's town planner Peter Tabulo and Mayor Val Schier were on ABC Far North's radio. The new Pat Morrish, Fiona Sewell, interviewed these two influential players, with one of the softest line of questioning I've ever heard on ABC. Now I like Fiona, and she's a great temp replacement for Pat, but on this occasion, she let these guys off the hook. Tabulo is a skilled operator and handles the media well. He's a better politician that the elected ones.

On the other hand, Val talked in soft touchy feely sentences and platitudes that didn't invigorate or make me feel she was there for a total change in the way Council will to do business with developers. Lack of controls by developers and policing is a massive subject on the local agenda presently. Just weeks ago we've had the Federal Environment Minister intervene in what can only be described as one of Queensland's worst and most poorly managed Council-approved developments. The False Cape debacle should have sent shock waves right through the core of Council's planning department. But you read Peter Tabulo's response for my call to investigate Foley Road the other day, and you'll see that Council are confused about their role and ability to take this role bestowed with great seriousness.

When False Cape was raised on ABC Far North, both Schier and Tabulo were not put on the spot to give specific answers about what is happening across the harbour at East Trinity. Not one bit of work has actually started to prepare and protect the vastly exposed land on the False Cape site. The Wet Season has already sent a few early warning sign, as Terry Spackman and myself witnessed at Palm Cove's Foley Road 6 days ago.

The story on Channel 7, by contrast to ABC, explained the serious problem that I've documented, and also included the video I filmed of Terry Spackman, who is now referred to as an "environmentalist". Last week he was an "activist", after sitting on some old roof all morning. I'm just pleased to be part of a unique Odd Couple.

If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favour and watch the video we shot last Saturday morning. It's direct and sends a powerful message for Council to act. Compare it to the first video I filmed four weeks prior, then ask you why Council staff couldn't see any problem when they 'visited' the area on Monday.

There is also a groundswell forming to lobby Council to not spend a cent of ratepayer's money to fix up the False Cape problem. We want the developer who created this mess, John Ewens, to undertake and put up the money, or lose the land.

As a footnote, it looks as if the False Cape contractor CEC, will have to come up with $80 million dollars by the end of the month if they are to remain solvent. Not very likely.

Their heads are stuck in a sediment trap

I nearly choked on my cornflakes (with appologies to KB).

It appears that the Cairns Regional Council sent a few officers to have a look yesterday at the Foley Road developement.

Chief town planner Peter Tabulo says his officer's claim that they found 'no evidence of any erosion, sedimentation or siltation of creeks or waterways.'

Now, just in case you missed that, I'll repeat what Council officers said. They found no evidence of any erosion, sedimentation or siltation of creeks or waterways.

Right. Peter Tabulo, you also couldn't see the sediment for the trees at False Cape for three years, so it's hardly surprising that your staff are wearing mud-coloured glasses when they get within 100 meters of a development that they approved.

He's also called into question the video we filmed, and the dates of them. Well, the CairnsBlog film department has no elaborate special effects department. Tabulo said the creek was not flowing and looked as if it had not flowed significantly recently. Well, it was on the weekend. Here's the first lot of videos, and four weeks later, almost to the day, we filmed this. Notice the difference?

"No creeks in the vicinity of Argentea have water in any case, besides the frontal dune area where there is a reasonably large body of salt water not unlike Palm Cove's Creek, which occasionally rises on spring tide inundation," Peter Tabulo said late yesterday.

He doesn't seem to think there was a big enough problem to take action and that the site managers (read Phil Hartwig and his big FO bulldozer) "managed the run-off effectively over the weekend."

Tabulo has also questioned the footage and when it was taken. "The creek was not flowing and looked as if it had not flowed significantly recently," Tabulo said.

Can someone please pop in a street map of the region into Council today, as it's reasonably obvious that they were looking up a different creek without a paddle.

"The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has not raised any concerns," Peter Tabulo went on to say. Well, they haven't got out from behind their desks, have.

Steve Ryan of CAFNEC (Cairns and Far North Environment Centre) is surprised by the answers.

The latest film footage was taken around 11:30am on Saturday 4th October. The creek is called Sweet Creek and if you look carefully, clearly it runs through and below Phil Hartwig's property, you can see and hear it flowing.

Terry Spackman, who has been reporting on dodgy developments for ten years, says you will never get a Council officer to admit there is a problem with Erosion Sediment Control on any development. "I have tried for years," he says.

"Going back to the days when I was a member of Water Watch, that was run by the Department of Natural Resources, we realised that sediment run-off from property developments, was a serious problem," Terry Spackman says. "A group of us set up Sediment Watch. Among our group was Mike Frankcombe, who was president of the International Erosion an Sediment Control Professionals Association.

Frankcombe is now director of IECA (Australasia), chair Australasian CPESC Committee.

"Although it is a volunteer-based group, there were others that had relevant professional qualifications and expertise," Terry says. "We and DNR people, met with Council's Bryan Smyth, and agreed to a format for reporting sedimentation problems."

"Exact location, time, date, weather conditions, photographs, water samples, and readings from a brand new state-of-the-art turbitity meter, was undertaken," Spackman says. "We submitted report after report, in exactly the format requested, and I have submitted reports that must run into three figures in numbers since."

Terry says that not one of those reports led to a fine or prosecution.

For Cairns Regional Council staff to admit that there is a problem with sediment run-off, is for them to admit that they have not been doing there job in the first place.

If Council officers made sure the Contractors Stormwater Management plan was put in place, and work was carried out in compliance with FNQ ROC, there would be no sediment problem.

As for Peter Tabulo's comments, it's worth remembering that in a reply to Steven Nowakowski's enquiries, he said, the contractor at False Cape had left the site in an 'acceptable condition from an Erosion Sediment Control perspective' and we all know about False Cape, don't we?

Anyone who has seen the photos and video footage taken at False Cape can see what a mess it is to this day. In fact it's far worse than the photos and videos show. Independent ESC experts, RNA, who did a report on False Cape, believe it's a mess and have recommended work to "fix it up."

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garret called a halt to it because it's a threat to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. However Peter Tabulo thinks it's acceptable, it seems.

"You can throw as much evidence as you like, from now until kingdom come, but you will never have them admit there is a sedimentation problem at a development in their area, like Foley Road," says Terry Spackman.

The big question is why?

Councillor calls for formal report of Foley Road

Following my three reports and a number of video filmed over the last month at the Foley Road, Palm Cove development site, Councillor Julia Leu has now ordered an urgent report.

"This morning I received an email about sediment plume at Palm Cove and possible connection to Foley Road," Councillor Julia Leu told CairnsBlog.

"At 7.54am yesterday, I requested a full report about this situation from Council staff as a matter of urgency."

I have to record that a big part of the problem in this development, like False Cape, is the Council officials themselves. They are not policing developments and ensuring controls are being adhered to. This Foley Road mess has been going on for months. The drive from Council's plush planning offices in Spence Street is a mere 20 minutes to Palm Cove. Why don't they get off their arses, put some waist-high fishing waterproof trousers on, and march on up Hartwig's hill.

The debacle unfolding at the top of Foley Road, mirrors that of False Cape. It wasn't until the Federal Minister got involved that there was a resolution. However, to date the State Government haven't done a thing about False Cape, following the directive and intervention from the Federal Environment Minister.

Mark Buttrose, who led the campaign for the cessation of work at False Cape, believes that the Cairns Regional Council is still in denial. "This excavation at Foley Road is a major breach, it is on a huge scale and so potentially damaging," he says.

"I challenge the Council to produce the Erosion Sediment Control Plan for this development. Does it exist?" Mark Buttrose asks.

A strong advocate for proper hill slope protection, Buttrose says that every development must have a Erosion plan. "They need to produce this and satisfy the community why such standards are clearly not being upheld at this massive excavation [at Palm Cove]."

"This is False Cape all over again," he says. "Same thing, but now they don't have [Kevin] Byrne to hide behind."

Meanwhile, the Combined Beaches Community Association, who have been corresponding with the EPA for months over this development, have today written to State member for Cook, Jason O’Brien. They have requested a full investigation into the sediment run off into the creek system at Foley Road. O'Brien has been asked to get the EPA to investigate this development, maybe he might wake them up?

In a footnote to this story, a week ago a local Clifton resident was caught red-handed by the developer Phil Hartwig at the bottom of his property taking photos.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Hartwig bellowed. "I'm recording the mess on this land. Do you know the damage you're doing?"

The resident was told to mind his own business. "Don't you mind, I'll look after this. Why don't you leave," Phil Hartwig said in an aggressive tone.

I strongly encourage any concerned resident to go for a drive, and have a look. Foley Road is on the left hand side of the Captain Cook highway heading north. Park your car at the top, near the new sub-division on the right, and walk up the hill. You'll be shocked at the sight. Don't be to perturbed if Hartwig has his red and white plastic 'safety' tape across the road, as it's public road up to the newly constructed bridge culvert around the corner. There you will get a bird's eye view of the total devastation going on.

You would think, that in the wake of the False Cape decision to halt works for a year and stabilise the site before the wet season, Council would be all over rogue developers like Phil Hartwig. When are they going to take some action?

We told you so

Exactly one month ago, rooftop rebel and False Cape crusader - way smarter that the fictitious and silly Cairns 'Caped Crusader', Terry Spackman and I re-visited the appalling Foley Road development.

I called it our next False Cape, in honour of the environmental disaster that took the local Council and the Federal Government over four years to react. It took action and much pressure from public lobbyists like Save our Slopes, Mark Buttrose, Steven Nowakowski and Terry Spackman to name but three, for anyone to take the issue seriously. In the meantime, a huge amount of damaging sediment run-off has occurred at East Trinity from the False Cape site.

The folk from the Combined Beaches Residents Association, who have pursued the ill-conceived Glen Corp developments at Clifton Beach and Hedley's work at Paradise Palms golf course, alerted me to Phil Hartwig, a rouge developer who is excavating vast amounts of his land at the top of Foley Road, Palm Cove.

When Terry and I visited and filmed the site four weeks ago, it was dry. We predicted, come the wet season, this whole hillside will wash downstream.

Saturday morning, the rains came, and I got a 6am telephone call, and we were off with cameras in hand to capture the evidence. The drive to the once lovely neigbourhood of Palm Cove, is now scarred by what is happening at the top of Foley Road, on the Western side of the Captain Cook Highway. We really know Palm Cove as the community alongside the sea, but developers have a way of stealing names and stretching boundaries for marketing real estate.

When we posted the first lot of footage on CairnsBlog a month ago, only Councillor Paul Gregory and Robert Pyne responded. Gregory, whose Division one encompasses False Cape, knows all to well about poor development controls. He's probably the most experienced Councillor in regards to sediment controls. You would have expected Councillor Sno Bonneau, who used to look after this area, to be at the forefront of this development. But he's no where to be seen. You have to ask why and what part he played in representing the approval for Phil Hartwig.

It's important to note that Councillor Gregory is also chairman of Council's Works and Water committees, and is also the Local Government director of Terrain Natural Resource Management, although the website hasn't been updated. Terrain claims to support the Wet Tropics region to "develop local projects and solutions that make sense not only for our environment but also for our community and economy." Well, they need to be very aware of what this rogue developer Phil Hartwig is getting away with at Foley Road, Palm Cove.

Here's some footage that we filmed over the weekend, after a small amount of rain. The results are shocking.



According to the Cairns Plan, waterways are all protected and have to have minimum setbacks. These are called riparian corridors. The developer behind Foley Road, Phil Hartwig has clearly breached this.

Why aren't Council planning officials enforcing these controls?

If you went into a shop, took something off the shelf and walked out without paying for it, the store security and police would be onto you within minutes. Why is it when you deliberately breach local bylaws, with such devastating effects, no one says a thing? There has to be months and sometimes years of protests from the public before any action takes place.

The ongoing saga at Foley Road, comes just weeks after chief Council Planner, Peter Tabulo said that a majority of building sites failed to meet the minimum industry standard to ensure control on development sites. He and his department have held a series of forums with builders and developers on this very issue in the last eight weeks.

“The implementation and maintenance of these basic environmental protection measures ultimately promotes healthier waterways,” Tabulo says. “Healthy waterways lead to healthier estuaries and a healthier Marine Park which we all like to be able to enjoy whether it’s better fishing, diving or just cleaner beaches.”

Well, what we witnessed over the weekend at Foley Road is in direct contravention to this.

Such activities give us little confidence in our senior public servants to manage our environment and our civic affairs, when these developments go unchecked and un-policed.

A shocking footnote to this sorry saga, is that the Combined Beaches Community Association alerted Drew McLean, at the Federal Environment Ministry a year ago, with a number of letters, and have never had one reply.

Terry Spackman has asked Councillor Diane Forsyth to put forward a motion at the next Environment and Planning meeting to mandate Council officials to uphold and police the conditions of Development Approvals. Sounds bizarre that you'd even have to put up such a motion.

What are you doing about this Cairns Regional Council?

35 police stop action

"This is so very easy for the Government to do," Bryan Law told a packed media gathering yesterday afternoon.

In what could only be described as the largest police presence at a single event in recent Cairns history, yesterday afternoon around 35 police turned up to stop protesters entering the Cairns Yacht Club site, under orders from the Cairns Port Authority and the State Labor Government.

The Queensland Police Service even had officers stationed in a boat in the harbour, just in case there was a breach from the seaward entry.

Just days after we learn that the Police are underfunded and have insufficient staff to look after our streets, with horrific violence on the cover of the Cairns Post every other day, they seemed to find a massive line up of boys and girls in blue to encircle the entire Cairns Yacht Club building Tuesday afternoon.

Legendary community campaigner Bryan Law, and a number of local supporters gathered at the site in an attempt to scale the perimeter fence to stop demolition work.

"We are here to hold this Labor government to account for the utter destruction they are undertaking right before our eyes," he told a packed media circus. Even the Cairns Post turned out, surprising when there was a crocodile attack just a few hundred kilometers away at the same time.

A vote of those gathered was undertaken, as a precursor to next year's State election. "This is to show the Premier what the people of Cairns will do at the ballot box next year."

Byran Law, dressed as conservative local Judge Peter White, took his cutters to the fence and was warned to cease, otherwise he would be arrested under the Breach of Peace detention. He ignored their caution, and was subsequently placed in the back of a paddy wagon and delivered to the Sheridan Street Police Station. However, minutes later was released, without charge or conditions.

It's obvious the Government doesn't want more attention given to this biting community issue. The Cairns Port Authority have also given their weight to ensure as little action is given to the protesters as possible. However, they appear to have failed in this so far. Premier Bligh is however remaining silent on the issue and will not comment publicly anymore.

Another local campaigner, Sharon, also attempted to scale the fence as was cautioned and removed by Police.

Over 20 media outlets around the region and throughout the State took an active interest in the protest action.

"I don’t think we could have asked for a better media return on our efforts today. They really can’t resist direct action, Bryan said.

However, this is not the end of it. Further direct action will be undertaken at the site during the rest of the week, however, unlike yesterday's protest, there will not be advance notice to Police. The aim will be to stop demolition work.

One of Cairns' leading city architects, Mark Buttrose was also present and show his support for the protest action. Buttrose is a veteran of his work to stop development on False Cape. He says that the city's heritage should be saved and integrated into modern development. "Our history is being destroyed, and yet it's very easy to incorporate this into the City Port plan," he said. Buttrose is understood to be in discussions with officials in the Premier's department to demand a total rethink of the Port Authority's plans to redevelop the Trinity Inlet waterfront.

This is not the attention that local MPs want. It is not the attention that the Premier wants. However, after nearly 5 years, the Labor State Government, supported by the former Byrne-led Council, and even the regional tourism body, failed to support the retention of this historically significant building.

Cairns Regional Councillor Diane Forsyth is off to Brisbane today and will try to seek a meeting with Anna Bligh. "I will sit outside her office and ask to be heard," she said. "I'm also asking again for our CEO to demand a formal response from Bligh to Council's request for a meeting."

Dianne Forsyth also acknowledged that Mayor Val Schier should make a public statement about what is going on. Val is the primary spokesperson for our community, she supported two motions to engage in talks with the Cairns Ports and the Premier. The Mayor of our city and region, needs to speak up and be heard.

"We have not lost yet. The next week or two will tell another chapter in this long story to save this beloved part of Cairns' history," Bryan Law said.

Hillslope and habitat protection sought

Cairns' regional environmental watchdog Cafnec, is asking residents to lobby their local councillor to support the hillslope and habitat protection proposal that is currently before the Cairns Regional Council.

You can download this letter and send it to your local councillor. If you still think your Councillor is Kathy Plath or Paul Freebody, or even Terry James, then I suggest you check to find out who your local cop is.

Save Our Slopes and the Whitfield Hill Community Action Group will present a report outlining 25 proposals dealing with around 60 areas of hillslope and vegetation rezoning. This includes the slopes of False Cape. Cafnec says they deal with zonings within the Cairns Plan that are in conflict with it’s own Desired Environmental Outcomes and asks that these areas be designated ‘Conservation’.

"This would entitle private landowners to build a house and caretakers residence but prohibit allotments from being subdivided," says Cafnec's Steve Ryan.

"This years’ Local Government Elections saw several sitting councillors elected on a platform of hillslopes and habitat protection, Ryan says.

"Now is the time for this Council to deliver on these promises. Action today will not only help preserve the nature and character of our region, but will also allow future decisions to be made without having to be defended through expensive legal action," Steve Ryan says.

The ghost of Tom

Chief word nana at the Cairns Post, Gavin King is holier than thou when it comes to telling us what is right and what is wrong.

The Chief of Misogynist Attitudes, and all round woman-power hater, Gavin King was a bit perturbed when he got a joke email doing the rounds, from Councillor Robert Pyne.

King poses an ethical question if it's right for a Councillor to send around, or forward dodgy [joke] emails.

He cites the Councillor's Code of Conduct where it states, that they must "conduct themselves in a way that promotes and maintains the public's trust and confidence."

Now remember that this reminder is coming from someone who likes a great titty laugh like the next un-pc guy in the street. It's a bit rich days after King found it rather amusing having a good perv at the revealing photos on the Dick Smith mobile phone that ended up on the editorial desk. "Yeah, most of us were rather amused by the photos. We showed it all around the office," King said.

Now everyone who knows Robert Pyne, knows he's probably the last man standing, I mean sitting, in Council to have a healthy sense of humour. To me, it shows us he's human.

This all hit home for me this week as I was one of guests at a luncheon to launch Disability Awareness Week celebrations. Robert, despite his physical obstacles, is a lively, passionate, funny, educated and opinionated contributor to his community. He's action orientated and outcome focused. Gosh, I'm sounding like a doctor of spin already.

However, I listened to Robert's address on Wednesday, and I've also heard him address numerous political and community meetings over the last year. There's always something missing. Not once does he talk about his physical disability. He's a quadriplegic and has been confined to a wheelchair for a number of years following a tragic boating accident, yet he rarely ever tells his story. This is a testament to a truly remarkable individual. I look up to and applaud individuals in society that stand up and advocate for the greater community. In Robert's case it's even more amazing that he simply wants to get on and effect positive change for his community in the face of such adversity that us 'normal' folk would find confronting and monumental. He doesn't seek sympathy.

I've only known Robert for a couple of years, but you quickly form opinions about people that engage, impress, invigorate and are genuine about working with their local community. Sure I'd easily win Pyne's chief of publicity role hands down, but I know he's a true blue. His spirit is infectious, and he's fiercely independent.

Now I guess I should declare up front that that the email at the centre of this drama was sent by me. That's right. I often include Robert in some lighter emails. Anyone who spends too much time online, instead of out committing street crime, you tend to get a lot of trashy emails. Some amusing. Some for another penis enlargement, I send those ones onto KB.

My office email in town also gets it's fair amount too. One of our managers in South East Queensland sends around some rather risque stuff, but I just delete it if it's not that funny. Like the junk I get in my street letterbox, if I don't want it, I throw it in the bin. I mean, the marketing manager at Woolworths doesn't know want I want, so they send it to everyone in my neighbourhood. No harm done really, besides that waste of paper. Anyway, I'd rather get my veges from Rusty's, with respects to Robert.

In another double booby today, the Cairns Post fails to realise that Tom Pyne, Robert's father and former Mayor of Mulgrave from 1979 to 1995, and Mayor of Cairns until 2000, is no longer around the Council table.

King prints Tom's name below the photo of Robert.

Post writer Roger Dickson, along with myself, was a guest of Robert's at the disability lunch this week. Like Gavin, who Pyne often treats like a minor King, probably naively treats these guys at the Post as his friends. "I thought they were both becoming mates at a social level," Robert told me. Oh, rule number one, never trust the media to be balanced and fair Robert!

Now we all err past the boundary at times. Pub jokes should stay in the pub, however some spill out, and with the ease and immediacy of email communication, we forward on all raft of things, usually not our original material, but simply to spread the love and happiness. It makes the world go round.

However, was this behaviour fit for a Regional Councillor to be party too? That is the question my fellow comrades. And Gavin King is right to question this. It is one of the more pressing issues facing our city in this time of record local crime; poorly conceived development; sediment runs off at False Cape and Foley Road; a Council that is not communicating much better than the last one; poor tourism products; service around town questionable, the list goes on and on, worst than having diarrhea in the middle of your favourite footy game.

Roger Dickson, who is slightly taller than your average Hobbit, posed a number of questions after receiving the risque email from Robert Pyne, I mean Councillor Robert Pyne. At first his blood pressure rose quicker than you could say Cairns Post Online Bikini Gallery, and he confronted Robert at a function, plunged a recorder in his face and demanded the down-sitting Councillor explain his walk on the booby side.

"Why did you do it? What were you thinking?" Dickson exclaimed demanding answers. "Roger, send me an email with your questions, OK?"

Here's Robert's reply unedited, unlike the King's spin in today's Post...

• Is the address you sent it from paid for by council or any other organsiation [sic]?
  No, it is paid for by me.
  
  Do you regret using an address that gave the appearance of it coming from council? Why?
  Not really, I pay for the connection and the email only went to a quite small group of adults who I knew would not be offended. I did send it from home and it didn’t go to Germain Greer or the clergy.
  
  Are you in the habit of sending risqué emails to friends?
  Only if the material is genuinely amusing. Most material of this nature that I receive I delete, as it fails to be funny enough to forward.
  
  What do you think your constituents would think of the content and that is linked to Division3 address?
  I don’t really know, perhaps the Cairns Post should run a poll? Personally I think my constituents are well and truly sick of self appointed judges of what is and what is not politically correct. In any event, I did say that I did not necessary approve of the content, but I did think the ones I opened were funny.
  
  How many people did you send it to?
  I think it went to 7 people.
  
  Do you think sending these emails on is demeaning to women?
  Not really, but I am all for equality when it comes to demeaning people, whether on the basis of sex, race or physical impairment. Heard any good Irish jokes lately?
  
  Do you regret sending the email and if you had time over would you not do it?
  I would still do it, but I would leave Roger Dickson and Gavin King off the list. I thought they were both becoming mates at a social level.
  
  Do you apologise?
  Only to any unintended recipient, but I do exercise a fair degree of care in vetting who I send these funny emails to. I don’t think there is anyone for me to apologise to. I did say that I did not necessary approve of the content, but I did think the ones I opened were funny.

They say to keep your friends close to you and your enemies even closer. In the case of the Cairns Post, maybe Robert should reverse this theory. I think that King's column today makes him look lit a right tit.

So what happened to the rest of those titty photos? Well, in a breach of my own code of conduct, and this grates against my questionable journalist ethics, I bring you the 'offending' photos. Now before you jump up on you high moral horse and remind me the numerous times I've lambasted the Cairns Post for printing scantily-clad bikini bimbos and presenting it as 'news'... let me remind you, oh what the hell, I have no argument for this.

Here's some gratuitous titties, for those of my readers that are into titties. For those who are not, have a great laugh anyway, and while you're at it, how about sending Councillor Robert an email telling him what you think. Personally I like the Michael Jackson t-shirt the best. You're welcome to rate yours here.