Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Deputy Speaker, I rise to congratulate the community of Clarence for their strong and dogged defence of their beautiful natural parklands, Charles Hand Park and the Rosny Parklands area. These beautiful places are part of the essential public open space on the Eastern Shore, linking together an area which is to be the City Heart Project for the Clarence community that will provide a green belt around which medium and intensive housing developments will be situated, that will be a beautiful space designed by the community to have nature and wetlands and an opportunity for people to be outside. Were it not for these people, all of that was to be thrown under the bus.
It was pushed aside by the Clarence Council who were working with the Tasmanian government – pushed by the Tasmanian government to rush through a process of approving a high-performance centre for those two areas. It was such a disgrace that the community groups who are most involved with those two parklands had no opportunity at all to have a consultation about what was going to be planned for their parks and the skate ramp. The people of Rosny College, the students and the teachers there who abut the Charles Hand Park, the dog walkers who have always used that space, who are critical stakeholders – none of these groups were consulted. Instead, in just a short month, the council rammed through a decision to support the area for a high-performance centre. Good on the Greens councillors and the other independent councillors who voted against that, but they were overridden at that point. It was the community, the dog walkers, the Rosny Hill Friends, and the other people from the skate group, and so many people who banded together to make sure that the pressure was on council to provide an elector poll to tell the community, and to have a definitive view about their views about a high performance centre in the Clarence area. What was discovered was the overwhelming majority of people in Clarence did not want Charles Hand Park to be taken over by a high-performance centre. They want it to be a public open space, as it has been, and protected. It was utterly divided, an even split on the use of Rosny Parklands. What that said overwhelmingly to the Clarence Council was this community does not give you support to go ahead with this development.
It has been months. There has been a huge amount of anxiety amongst those groups. I want to congratulate them for staying the course, for doing the work of petitions, of talking to people in the community, of doing the leaflets, getting the elector poll up. It was a massive community effort. It shows the strength of the Eastern Shore community. They are really amazing, particularly the people around the Rosny area who would be especially affected.
I want to call out the mayor, Brendan Blomeley, who appears to be trying to rewrite history. His comment was that he accused the government of the horrible ‘division in our community … to see who is willing to sacrifice the most, and from my perspective, the aim seemed to be a race to the bottom’ – between Kingborough and Clarence. He said, ‘We were not willing [inaudible] to sell our soul, compromise our values and not get a fair deal for our community’.
No, Mayor Blomeley, you do not get to rewrite history. You were more than prepared to do that. It was only because of the community who rose up in defence of their parklands, in defence of their skating park, in defence of the City Heart Plan that the community had got behind, that at the end of the day meant that Kingston and Kingborough Council, got the high-performance centre. The Kingston community have got behind the high-performance centre. The Kingborough Council have been behind the high-performance centre. It is a lesson to the Tasmanian Government and to all councils, especially Clarence. You must consult. If you do not, the people of Tasmania will rise up.
I want to end by especially thanking Joanne and Victor Marsh who have been there every single day for months with their fantastic signs, greeting people and letting them know the importance of Charles Hand Park. Thank you.
