by bogholesbuckethats » Mon 04 Nov, 2019 8:05 pm
The following was posted by Greg French on the FlyLife Forum
A COMMUNITY VISIT TO MALBENA IS BEING ORGANISED FOR THE WEEKEND OF SATURDAY 7 DECEMBER AND SUNDAY 8 DECEMBER. IT IS TIMED TO COINCIDE WITH AN OCCUPY HALLS ISLAND PROTEST.
To facilitate this event, the Aboriginal custodians of Gowan Brae have graciously allowed access through their property, so we will be walking the historic route from the WHA boundary via Olive Lagoon, Mary Tarn and Lake Loretta, a distance of about 11 km each way (3–4.5 hours depending upon fitness).
A Direct Action protest is needed straight away because the government is quickly removing your Right to Know, your Right to be Heard and your Rights of Legal Appeal.
The heart of the matter is the way helicopter fly-outs and luxury lodges are being championed by the government despite overwhelming public opposition, but it’s worth summarising the corruption of democracy that got us to this point:
OWNERSHIP OF ISLAND
The owner almost accidentally acquired a historic lease to the hut, and was shocked to find that it applied only to hut’s tiny footprint, a mere 40 m2 of land. So he ingratiated himself with Liberal Party and TICT. It suited the Liberal Party to have what it thought was a tiny uncontroversial project flying under the radar to pave the way for its secretive EOI process, which itself is designed to feather the nests of mates. So the minister decided to gift the developer an entire 10 ha island – our land, not his.
How many of us could hope to be given, free of charge, an entire private island in the middle of a World Heritage national park? What is the monetary value of that gift? How much is an island like that worth on the free market? We’ll never know: by law we’re not allowed to know.
The government was well aware that gifting a large tract of extremely valuable public land to a ‘mate’ would not withstand scrutiny, so it didn’t notify anyone about what it was doing. No public notification. No tendering process. No assessment of any kind.
Such subversion of due process has no place in a functional democracy. It’s corruption, pure and simple.
DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION
The proponent applied for the right to develop the island under the community-endorsed, legally binding plan, and the development was comprehensively rejected.
So the government unilaterally changed the management plan, including its zoning provisions.
The government knew this wouldn’t withstand public scrutiny either, so it tweaked the law such that the only relevant process for assessing the development, the RAA, did not involve public submissions and excluded the right of legal appeal, even when the development violated rules and provisions of the new (supposedly still legally binding) management plan.
The federal assessment process under the EPBC deferred to the RAA, so the submissions it received were effectively dismissed before they were opened. The Development Application (DA) run by the Central Highlands Council resulted in 1343 submissions against the proposal and 3 in favour. Responding to concerns raised in the submissions, the council rejected the DA. The government didn’t like the result, so it appealed the decision, arguing that public consultation shouldn’t have counted for anything because the development had already been approved in the RAA process. Based on legal technicalities (not the merits or otherwise of the proposal) RMPAT more or less agreed. As is stands, the 1343 submissions you wrote against the proposal count for nothing. Legally speaking, you may as well not have written them.
It not an exaggeration to say that our democracy is under threat like never before.
THE FUTURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
As of next year, all development on public land (including all of the Western Lakes, all national parks, all of the WHA) will be assessed under the Statewide Planning Scheme, and solely via the RAA process.
If the Malbena decision stands, the government can gift part or all of any national park to its mates without notifying the public, with no free-market tendering process and with no legal avenue for appeal, just as it is doing with Halls Island.
Honestly, if this doesn’t scare you to death, you probably don’t really understand what’s at stake.
DIRECT ACTION
The legal fight is still very much a live issue. Still, since the government is hell-bent on removing our Right to Know, our Right to be Heard and our Right of Legal Appeal, we are opting for an early Direct Action ‘taster’.
The idea is to prove to the government that we will not be denied access to our own land, and especially not through corrupt processes designed by a corrupt government simply to feather the nests of it corruptible mates.
Notes on access, camping and etiquette for the Community Visit and Occupy Halls Island protests will posted over the next few days on the FlyLife Forum, the TNPA website, the Wilderness Society website and the FAWAHA Facebook page.
I hope to see you all there.
Let’s give the government and the developer something to think about: a taste of what is to come if the corruption isn’t acknowledged and the island not returned to us.
That looks like a pad.