Plans to dredge and reclaim Ramsar wetlands next to Toondah Harbour conflict with Labor Party policies.p's p

Labor Party policies conflict with Walker Group’s plans to dredge and reclaim Ramsar wetlands next to Toondah Harbour.

The proposed Toondah Harbour residential development project, for 3,600 apartments on dredged Ramsar listed wetlands, conflicts with policies set out in the Labor Party’s current policy platform.

Labor Party policies

Labor’s 2017 policy platform was approved at the Party’s conference in July. Hundreds of policy statements are set out in a 127 page booklet.

A number of Labor’s policy statements clearly preclude the Toondah Harbour project.

Labor says it will protect Ramsar-listed and other wetlands across Queensland and prohibit large-scale reclamation within marine parks and wetlands.

The Labor Party should clarify immediately if it means what it says, by stating categorically that it will no longer support the proposed Toondah Harbour project which so clearly conflicts with official party policy.

If the Labor Party doesn’t dump the Toondah Harbour project now, it begs the obvious question:

Can anything else in the Labor Party’s policy platform be taken seriously?

Toondah Harbour project and the Ramsar site

The Moreton Bay Ramsar site covers much of the Toondah Harbour Priority Development Area

The proposed Toondah Harbour project, originally conceived by the Redland City Council, involves large scale reclamation (and large scale dredging) in Ramsar listed wetlands which are part of the Moreton Bay Marine Park.

The 73 hectare Toondah Harbour project area includes 50 hectares of Ramsar wetlands. The preferred developer (Walker Group) is proposing 40 hectares of reclamation in the Moreton Bay Ramsar site.

When reviewing the proposed Toondah Harbour project, Federal Government bureaucrats reported to their Minister that it is likely to:

…result in substantially adverse impacts due to loss of areas of wetlands and impacts on the habitat and life cycle of a number of species including migratory shorebirds.

Federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg has said the proposed project would be likely to have significant impacts on the ecological character of the Moreton Bay Ramsar wetland, listed threatened species and communities and migratory species.

What Labor has said in its policies

The following words are extracted from the Labor Party’s State Platform 2017.

The policy statement prohibiting large-scale reclamation within marine parks and wetlands appears twice as items 5.87 and 5.88. Perhaps this was intended, for the avoidance of doubt.

World Heritage Listing and International Environmental Treaties

Labor will protect Ramsar-listed and other wetlands across Queensland by ensuring that nearby development does not cause adverse impacts to wetlands ecological and hydrological values. (5.48)

Coastal and Marine Management

Labor will ensure coastal development is managed sustainably, for current and future generations, by considering the social and environmental impacts in addition to the economic benefits. (5.83)

Labor will sustainably manage the coastal and marine zone for current and future generations by reviewing, strengthening and integrating coastal and marine management legislation, and integrating coastal management and marine planning and development assessment. (5.84)

Labor will protect coastal and marine zones by prohibiting large-scale reclamation within marine parks and wetlands. Reclamation outside marine parks and wetlands must meet strict environmental standards. (5.87)

Labor will protect coastal and marine zones by prohibiting large-scale reclamation within marine parks and wetlands. Reclamation outside marine parks and wetlands must meet strict environmental standards. (5.88)

Dredging and Disposal of Dredged Material

Labor remains committed to prohibiting the dumping of capital dredge spoil within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA). Labor will reduce the impacts to the GBRWH from the dumping of maintenance dredge spoil by establishing a maintenance dredging framework consistent with the Reef 2050 Plan. In other state marine waters Labor will ensure that development of new and the operation of existing ports meet world’s best environmental practices. (5.120)

 Stop the rort

Stradbroke Flyer “Calypso” in Toondah Harbour

The Labor Government announced its support for the Toondah Project in June 2015 claiming this would offset jobs lost from termination of sand mining on North Stradbroke Island.

We now know that sandmining employment numbers have been vastly overstated by local politicians and vested interests.

Claims that the proposed 3,600 apartment project will deliver community benefits through new infrastructure have been misleading. Most of the project infrastructure spending is to support private sector investment in a mega real estate development.

Straddie is getting on with its future as a tourism destination and this won’t be helped by turning its ferry terminal gateway into a  construction mess for 20 years, and destroying internationally significant wetlands.

Its time for the state Government  to develop a new plan to upgrade the ferry terminals and associated car parking areas at both Cleveland and Dunwich which avoids dredging or other environmental harm in the Moreton Bay Marine Park and Ramsar Site.

 

Redlands2030 – 31 October 2017

11 Comments

Dennis Tafe, Nov 05, 2017

If the Qld Independent, Peter Dowling, sticks to his word about “stopping the rort with the Toondah port” and there is no reason to doubt his intentions, he will be the first local politician to openly support the bulk of the residents on this issue. Such a 3,600-unit development over the Ramsar Protection Zone would be a disaster for our wildlife and everyone knows it. Labor and the LNP have been disappointing over the last 3 years and both just blame the other. Tim Nichols is about as convincing as he was when 14,000 people were sacked. One Nation do not believe in Climate Change and the Greens have some strange characters that appear to live in an ideal world. Both Federal sides of Government are bipartisan in not allowing boat people to come to Australia because we have seen what happens when our borders become porous. Yet just 3 weeks before the Qld State Election both Adam Bandt and Richard di Natale (the Greens leader) have come out with stupid statements. Richard wants to bring all asylum seekers into Australia and start up the whole people/boat trade again while Adam calls our Immigration Minister a terrorist. Good going lads! I’m sure your Party will thank you.

The lone haranguer, Nov 08, 2017

If all of the present residents of Cleveland knew of the likely impact of this development on their lifestyle, they would surely be up in arms about this project.
Some of the most likely impacts are: hundreds of trucks, everyday on roads that were built for light traffic, subsequent destabilisation of the foundations of the houses along those roads, airborne dust,major traffic hazards to pedestrians to name but a few.

Who will put what controls in place and, more importantly who will police them. And who will police the police?

And then there’s the wildlife………

Amy Glade, Nov 01, 2017

Labor is putting Queenslanders first…so we keep hearing in news reports on TV and radio by Premier Annastasia Palasczcuk as an election promise. If she means what she says, there will be NO dredging or filling in internationally recognized Ramsar site on Toondah Harbour in Cleveland, planned, (without community consultation), together with Walker Corp & RCC heavyweights, to transform the entire harbour area surrounds with apartment buildings consisting of 3600 units.
Redlands community at large have consistently asked for upgrading the ferry terminal and fixing the parking chaos around entry. The Moreton Bay Marine Park and Ramsar site must be protected and now is the time for our Labor Premier to reject the Walker Corp’s plan acting on behalf of we, the people of Redland City.

Lee Shung, Nov 01, 2017

Let it go ahead. Redland needs work. We would love the project to go ahead and start a restaurant there.

Tom, Nov 02, 2017

Too much chinese restaurants already everywhere.

Tom, Nov 02, 2017

Mr Lee, find your busines place in Cleveland Central!!!
Nature live and areas SHOULD STAY UNTOUCHED!

Lee Shung, Nov 02, 2017

No Australian Restaurant!

Baz, Oct 31, 2017

Jackie Trad should have stood up for ALP principles after “they” won Government in 2014. As it is she sold out on her promises about scrapping PDAs. Instead she increased the unit yield of Toondah by 450%….

Surely the ALP will see another breach of election commitments as an unacceptable breach of trust.

Unless Trad keeps true to ALP policies those local ALP candidates in the Redlands have no chance of being elected (and rightly so)…and they owe that to Ms Jackie Trad and of course the Premier.

Dennis Tafe, Oct 31, 2017

If Qld Labor is true to its policy document and refuses to support an environmentally destructive commercial development at Toondah Harbour it is likely to easily defeat the LNP, who continue to act and talk in an arrogant fashion. Voters are already realising that One Nation is not a good protest vote because their policy platform rejects Climate Change completely. That is like saying that our top Australian scientists are a bunch of knit wits. It is more likely that Malcolm Roberts and Tony Abbott are the knit wits.

Roger Holcroft, Oct 31, 2017

This is indeed a very serious matter and I am stunned by the lack of response from the Greens and the opposition and the local public in general. This should be a topic of importance to ACA , Four Corners and The Project to mention a few. We should all be letting our local members know that this action is totally illegal in light of Labor’s policy. Isn’t it amazing that politicians want to deliberately vandalise a listed protected area in the name of progress or job creation when jobs could be created just as easily in the non-invasive upgrading of terminals and parking facilities. It seems that money is far more important to this council than the presevation of the habitats of native species for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

Big Boy, Oct 31, 2017

Excellent call!
And all local candidates need to state their position and how they will uphold those policies.
Plus how they will remind Jacki Trad to dump the Toondah fiasco.
Like Adani it’s a statewide concern ,not just one electorate.

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