Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I rise to talk about Kunanyi/Mt Wellington following publication of the government’s Action Plan, an outcome of the Abetz-announced review process that we and many in the community feared was little more than an expensive way to pave the way for approval of a cable car. Sadly, these fears appear confirmed through an opaque suite of changes aimed to remove council land ownership, and so landowner consent; rewrite the management plan, and so diminish protection for natural, cultural and community values; and juggle deck chairs on a statutory management authority to facilitate appointment of cable car‑friendly faces.
Before anyone claims conspiracy and pooh-poohs fears of Machiavellian moves to remove management plan protections and approve destructive and unpopular private tourism development proposals, think no further than this government’s rewriting of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area Management Plan. In 2016, it did so to allow odious and damaging tourism developments like chopper access, luxury huts at Lake Malbena, huts on the south-west coast and more. Thanks largely to community and Greens opposition, these proposals remain just plans.
This is a government that’s demonstrated willingness to rewrite park rules to remove longstanding protections for the very values that saw the park declared in the first place so development can occur. This is a premier who, in the wake of an independent planning tribunal rejection of the cable car, because of its negative impact on park values, both wrote to the cable car proponent, and voiced in his state of the state address, a pledge to find a way forward to see the project approved. As expected, this action plan looks like that way forward.
I acknowledge the Muwinina people as the original owners of Kunanyi and a nation that did not survive invasion and dispossession, but their rights, hopes and claims live on through today’s Palawa community. So too does their knowledge, connection and reverence of Kunanyi, a living cultural landscape of immense significance. Palawa people have been loud and proud in their defence of Kunanyi, be it from the cable car or a zip-line. Just a few months ago, I witnessed the joy and excitement of Palawa people gathering to celebrate the return of a small freehold block of land on the park boundary at Myrtle Forest near Collinsvale.
Aside a seat on the new management authority, fee-free licensing of Palawa businesses and cultural heritage training for other businesses, it’s difficult to see anything new for Aboriginal people in this action plan. The existing management trust was already working towards some of these outcomes. All of this in the context of a 2021 truth‑telling and treaty report commissioned by government that recommended the government consider the return of Kunanyi as an Aboriginal-owned, protected area. Was this addressed in yesterday’s Action Plan? Of course, it was not.
Kunanyi is a true treasure, a backdrop to the city that sets it apart from just about every other city in the world. It’s loved by many, such that a cable car, a pipedream for over 100 years, has been opposed by Hobartians every time it raises its ugly head. The Historical Notes of Wellington Park, published by the Wellington Park Trust, tells the story of Kunanyi and its sorry history of serial proposals for a cable car, and I quote:
1905: First application made for an aerial tramway from Cascades to the summit (in the following hundred years at least seven applications for a similar cable car concept would be made, all strongly protested by citizens of Hobart).
With the formal planning defeat of the latest cable car proposal in 2022, make that eight applications, all strongly protested by citizens of Hobart. And so it continues.
Hobartians will never accept a cable car at Kunanyi. It’s no transport solution, but part of a privatisation agenda. Mass tourism delivery to a private commercial development on the summit that would include a cafe, bar, convention centre and more. Taking from the commons and profiting the privileged. Hobartians will consistently oppose this kind of development and I’ll pay tribute to the people working to protect Kunanyi’s precious values. The Palawa, Residents Opposed to the Cable Car, Respect the Mountain, Keep Tassie Wild, the Tasmanian National Parks Association, and, of course, photographers like Rob Blakers, Charles Chadwick, Nick Monk, and more.
The mere proposal of a cable car has consistently proven to stymie genuine progress on addressing some of the challenges facing the mountain. A much loved landscape, underfunded by this government and at risk of being loved to death. Because in a world of concrete and screens, wild beauty and cultural landscape right on our doorstep is both a blessing and a tonic that so many of us need to stay sane, stay connected and grounded.
