Well, so say all of us Cr Allen.

At that very same meeting, councillors engaged in a lengthy discussion before deciding to keep doing what it had previously decided to do in respect of the Hotel Australasia: which is to pursue its sale with all due haste.

What should otherwise have been a relatively straight-forward issue for council to deal with was, yet again, turned into another failed rear-guard attempt to derail council’s plans to sell the hotel.

That the usual suspects chose to mount their attempt in the middle of the current approved process was a demonstration of how wilfully determined they are to disrupt council’s legitimate efforts to pursue the sale and to saddle ratepayers with a significant financial burden, without the benefit of a coherent rationale for doing so.

During this latest failed attempt, Cr Dodds argued passionately that she saw the retention of the Hotel Australasia by council as a great “opportunity” for the citizens of Eden and the Bega Valley.

She sought to justify her position by suggesting that council had previously taken risky decisions to acquire real estate assets and that those risks had “paid-off”.

The two examples that Cr Dodds chose to cite in support of her argument were the purchase by council of the former Tura Beach Tavern (now known as the Tura Marrang Library) and the AUSWIDE building in Merimbula.

The two great “success stories” that Cr Dodds cited as the justification for BVSC to retain the Hotel Australasia just happen to be two of the worst financial decisions made by council.

We are writing as some of those who are meeting peacefully at Corunna Forest, to bring to attention our concern about the logging of its trees. Anyone that drives past the forest would be deeply disturbed by what they see. 

We are anxious for those living in Mystery Bay, with summer ahead of us, and the potential of fires. The logged areas have remaining forest waste which a Forestry representative indicates will not be removed till next winter. 

Scientific research shows that opening the canopy increases the intensity of the fires and feeds into a crown fire. Once a native forest is disturbed it does not get its fire retardant ability back for at least 100 years. 

We write this as a mother and father, representing all parents who love their children and long to give them and their children a future – a future with fresh air and fresh water. 

We understand that various industries require logs, and plantations can provide those needs. We do not need to harvest native forests. 

We write this as counsellors, interested in the wellbeing of our communities. Without the trees our wellbeing is in jeopardy. Certainly for our grandchildren to come. 

At a fundamental level, our wellbeing relates to our breath. Without breath we do not exist. The trees are the lungs of our planet, and hold within them complex ecosystems that we depend on. Each of us is in relationship with trees in the oxygen-carbon dioxide cycle between us. Climate change is not a political issue. It is now about survival and the inheritance we wish to pass on to our children.

Corunna forest has had two compartments logged. The machines have already moved over to the shores of Corunna lake. 

We must hold hope that it is never too late! Let us take action, let us pursue the wellbeing of ourselves, our family, our community and for the inheritance we want to leave for our children and their children.