Residents write about the Australian Government’s efforts to protect Australia’s shorebirds when they stopover in China, and the upcoming opportunity to send a strong Adani style signal to Queensland’s Labor Government.
Adani backflip inspires Toondah thinking
On Monday May 20 it became very clear to our State Government that they would face electoral annihilation in 2020 unless they moved very quickly to secure the formal approval for the Adani mine in Central Queensland. Within a few weeks, years of red (and green ) tape were cut and decisions suddenly fast tracked.
The catalyst was, of course, the Federal Election impact on Queensland seats which saw Labor holding only one seat north of the Brisbane River.
I am and never have been a fan of what is proposed for Adani and I continue to have doubts that it will eventually complete.
I found it quite amazing, however, that a State Government could move so quickly when faced with the realisation that the people of North and Central Queensland were sending a strong signal to act or be damned.
Which brings me to what’s happening here, closer to home in the Redlands.
It’s not just Toondah. It’s the pace of over development throughout the Redlands. It’s the refusal to talk with, and listen to the local constituents. It’s the sheer arrogance of Councillors and Mayor pushing ahead with the approval of further development without consideration of proper infrastructure and of the environmental consequences.
So I have a proposal for the good folk of the Redlands.
At the March 2020 Council elections, let’s try a Reverse Adani Manoeuvre.
Here is an opportunity to send a powerful message. If we can get rid of most, if not all Councillors (and our precious Mayor) we will be sending a message to the State Government in time for them to act before their own election in October 2020.
Let’s tell the State Government to rescind the obnoxious Priority Development Areas once and for all. Forget about Toondah. Fix the Port and fix Weinam Creek.
March 2020. Its an opportunity to get the Redlands back on a balanced track. Put the date in your calendar with a note to remind you to flick the lot of them.
PH
Cleveland
Yellow Sea kudos for Australian Government
Recently I read with interest and pride how the Australian Government played a significant leadership role in ensuring UNESCO’s World Heritage listing of sites along the Chinese coast of the Yellow Sea. I understand that the mudflats of the Yellow Sea are vitally important to the survival of a number of species of globally threatened migratory birds being at the centre of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. I have congratulated the Government for considering the global environment and seeking to protect it for future generations.
However, I have difficulty in reconciling the Government’s eminently sensible and, indeed, noble action, while at the same time allowing the Walker Group’s Proposal for the development of Toondah Harbour to continue to an Environmental Impact Statement. This decision was taken by the then Minister for the Environment notwithstanding substantial science and advice from his Department that the Proposal should be “clearly unacceptable” as it would “result in permanent and irreversible damage to the ecological character of the Moreton Bay Ramsar wetland”.
In the circumstances, I have asked new Minister for the Environment to kindly explain how the Walker Group’s Proposal can be permitted to continue? After all, the Proposal, if permitted to go ahead, will destroy 42 hectares of international Ramsar site which is part of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, the roosting and feeding habitats for the migratory shorebirds from the Yellow Sea. The Proposal certainly does not satisfy the “urgent national interest” criterion of the Ramsar Convention and is primarily in the interests of the developer.
I now await a response from the Minister for the Environment and hope the Redlands’ Federal MP is also asking the same question.
JB
Cleveland
Letters to the editor
Letters to the editor can be emailed to theeditor@redlands2030.net
Here’s a link to more letters published by Redlands2030, on 29 July 2019.
Published by Redlands2030 – 18 August 2019
Please note: Offensive or off-topic comments will be deleted. If offended by any published comment please email thereporter@redlands2030.net
4 Comments
Replying to Brian, my favourite shopping centre is Carindale & living in Capalaba, have no incentive to visit Cleveland to shop as we are surrounded by shopping centres in Capalaba, liquor outlets, fast food, etc. with no need to venture further afield.
As for Dr Tafe asking Mayor, MP Don Brown and Member Andrew Laming to wake up, why…when development of new estates bringing in rates, rates, rates, is a priority in Redland City with Mayor travelling back & forth…is it to China & elsewhere? to sell Redlands as a desirable place to live, work and play. State Govt is finally clamping down on private certifiers who can cause harm to local communities, but advised development in stages, is taking place for low income families in Alexandra Hills… of concern to locals in the area, who have not been notified by Council on how planning of the area will affect their lifestyle and sense of community…when Alexandra Hills and Capalaba have a high rate of drug addiction and increasing crime rate.
These politicians do not see, blinded with blinkers on, traffic chaos on our suburban roads, driving through broken glass from frequent collisions, recent death of pedestrian in Capalaba, + crash on Finucane Rd I did not hear reported on news programs.
How important to pollies is Community Health? It’s well known diesel fuel is carcinogenic and most vehicles on our Redland roads are trucks, utes (a favourite) 4WDs, many spewing black/grey smoke out of exhaust pipes into the atmosphere where there is no requirement for pollution barriers on roadsides to protect health of local inhabitants. No need in Q’ld for emissions checks of motor vehicles, okay to drive any polluting vehicle no problem, felt sick following two trucks on Finucane Rd near Alex Hills this week billowing smoke from tail pipes. Traffic build up increases as new completed estates are occupied, with most commuters being car dependent to reach work destinations. Informed of new case of lung cancer sufferer who never smoked. Friend recently admitted into nursing home with dementia now (re CM article ‘New link to dementia’) linked to Air Pollution developing in later life Australian researchers have found. Rates of dementia were more likely when people were exposed over long period of time to two air pollutants which are: ‘particulate matter 2.5″& ‘nitrous oxide’ both found in cities around the world. Dementia is second most leading cause of death of Australians with 450,000 people living with the condition”.
We need leadership where health of citizens matters…It’s not good enough for Q’ld Premier to say she is working hard for Queenslanders every day if she doesn’t give a damn about quality of the air they are forced to breathe every day from polluting traffic congestion in suburbia. As Dr Tafe says: Time to wake up!
BLATANT FALSE ADVERTISING
When the latest issue of the Redland City Bulletin (RCB) arrived on my lawn this week (04/09/19) I considered throwing it straight in the bin, as my next door neighbour did. However I was curious to read the front page titled “Dog baiting fears” because we have a dog. It was blatant advertising for the Mayor of Redland City Council because the words “Cr Williams” or “she said” were mentioned seven times in a short 13 paragraph segment. As for the dog fears, yes, there have been a couple of dog baiting attempts in the last two weeks but nothing has been done and no one has been caught. Then I turned to page 3. This was even MORE BLATANT FALSE ADVERTISING. For the third time there was an artist’s impression of the proposed $1.4 billion Toondah Harbour redevelopment. The impression showed an area of about 2 square kilometres but there was not a single unit shown. Peter Saba, the spokesman for Walker Corporation, has already stated in RCB (03/11/18) that if the Corporation “cannot build enough apartments to turn a profit, it may walk away from the venture.” So their proposal hinges on unit construction but not one single unit is shown. To have 3,600 units they would need to construct 36-40 blocks of units up to 10 storeys high, so it is strange that not a single block of units is shown in their artist’s impression. Yet we have gullible people like Don Brown (Member for Capalaba) and Cr Paul Gleeson (RCC) completely fooled by the Walker Corporation false advertising.
The Mayor of Redland City Council and a couple of our local politicians from both sides of the fence are in the process of bringing themselves down. Last Thursday I took six photographs right in the middle of Cleveland CBD, not far from the Council building. Each photo shows a shop front with a “For Lease” sign in the window and an empty space inside. One of those For Lease signs has been there for about 15 years. It is the old site of the Commonwealth Bank. Also in the photos, taken soon after midday on a working day, you can see lots of empty car spaces outside the Council Building and outside the vacant shops opposite. But how can this be? In 1990 under a previous Mayor, the wealthy developer of the Raby Bay Canal Development assured us this new development, worth billions of dollars, would rejuvenate Cleveland and bring unrivalled tourism to the Redlands. His visions of grandeur were echoed by the Mayor of the Day. Now, 30 years later, it is clear to all of us that the Cleveland CBD is in financial stress and the current Council has not provided enough parking for shoppers or train travellers. There was not a single parking spot vacant at the train station on Thursday yet the Council carries on oblivious. Even the Member for Cleveland, Mark Robinson, has highlighted the problem but nothing has been done. Now the current Mayor, Karen Williams, is spruiking the latest development proposal at Toondah by yet another wealthy developer. The last one made a huge profit on the Raby Bay Canal Estate and then disappeared, leaving the problem of subsiding reclaimed land to the Council and to the new owners. On 1st August 2017 the current Mayor made this claim in the Redland City Bulletin in relation to the yet to be assessed multi-million dollar proposal for Toondah Harbour. This project represents “unrivalled tourism as well as cultural and economic growth opportunities for the region and is critical to the future of North Stradbroke Island.” Do these words sound familiar when we look back over the last 30 years, with a developer orientated, dysfunctional council and a tourism section that does nothing for local tourism? However, the Mayor is taking overseas trips at rate payer expense to spruik tourism to wealthy overseas entrepreneurs. In the meantime we have a Ramsar International Convention in relation to migrating shore-birds that needs to be respected. But why worry about that when there is so much money to be made from all those extra rates, irrespective of what it does to our sensitive wetland environment and to our congested roads? I say to the Mayor, to Don Brown in Capalaba and to Andrew Laming in the seat of Bowman, it is time to wake up.
Dennis,
The issues with businesses failing in Cleveland has very little to do with developments or the council representatives.
It has everything to do with the fact that we, as a local community, do not support local businesses sufficiently. eg: how many people shop at Mitre 10 ‘v’ Bunnings, Cleveland Office Supplies ‘v’ Officeworks, local dress shops ‘v’ Carindale shopping centre?
I would suggest very few now reading this reply.
A simple fact of economics is that for every dollar spent with a local business, $1.48 is generated for the city.
Stop blaming politicians and developers and start spending in the local community and the “For Lease” signs will disappear.