Liberals’ Westbury Spin Comes Undone
Today in Parliament, the Government confirmed its decision to pursue the second site for the northern prison was made in a rush.
Today in Parliament, the Government confirmed its decision to pursue the second site for the northern prison was made in a rush.
The Government has mishandled the decision-making process around the choice of the northern prison from the very beginning.
We cannot support a motion that has clause (4) in it, which is that the House supports the Westbury prison site that has been chosen on Birralee Road.
The Westbury residents are clear that the Government has caved in to their community's strong backlash on the preferred site for the northern prison.
The Westbury reserve did not even make it on to the Government's list of initial sites.
We would like to understand why the Government chose a 70-hectare reserve with high conservation values as the new new northern prison site.
Labor's hand-wringing to the Westbury community is meaningless while they back in the Liberals' major projects legislation.
The Liberals continue to grubby their northern prison planning process with secrecy and bad faith community consultation.
Whatever we call it, this is a dog of a bill that is designed to take away the freedoms that Tasmanians have enjoyed to peacefully protest.
Let us put on the record that we have had this conversation a number of times about the northern prison.