Page 1911 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 25 June 2008
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processes as would an apartment complex or a home renovation—a $2,000 million project. But of course both the Chief Minister and the proponents knew only too well that this project would not be saleable to the people most affected—and, by design, sought to ram this under the radar as much as possible.
By the time a special meeting was convened by the Tuggeranong Community Council to give ActewAGL its first opportunity to present information—and I stress: at the insistence of the Tuggeranong community—there was only an unbelievable seven-day window of opportunity remaining for the public to submit objections to the development application to ACTPLA. On a $2,000 million dollar project, there were seven days for the community in the first instance to have a look at it.
I was witness to the 300-strong group of residents’ outpouring of anger and dismay at the 28 April TCC meeting. I watched with disbelief as the ActewAGL representative sought to explain away significant aspects of the misinformation surrounding this project—you were not there, Mr Hargreaves—showing a general contempt for his audience and failing to address the many concerns raised.
As I spoke to concerned constituents on the night, as well as residents from various other parts of Canberra, the single most vexing issue on people’s minds was: how could any government even consider offering land so close to homes and/or are they out of their minds? That was what the feedback was. It was an easy decision for me, or for any fair dinkum MLA, to make that night, on 28 April, that I would emphatically reject the government’s plan.
How does the Chief Minister then reconcile the fact that his own public statements about the site clearly compromise his integrity on this matter? On 15 October 2007, even after the site had been granted by him to the proponents as a Hobson’s choice in August 2007, the Chief Minister continued to describe the location of the project as being in Hume.
It is no secret that the overwhelming majority of the community simply want the project to be relocated entirely to a more appropriate site. And do they not have a right to have a say, to participate, in the statutory process or to use legitimate means at their disposal to influence the outcomes that will affect them? Not according to Mr Stanhope.
The Chief Minister and the proponents were, in tandem, waging a propaganda war against the people of Tuggeranong, seeking to win the battle for public opinion. ActewAGL CEO Michael Costello did no great service to the Chief Minister’s declarations when he said, regarding the decision to scale down the original proposal:
It’s too small. It has to be 350 to 450 (megawatts) so that site was not suitable whether there were protests or not.
That quote is from the Canberra Times of 31 May 2008. In fact, the consortium knew three weeks prior that the Hobson’s choice given to them by the Chief Minister would be unviable and that to make this project feasible an appropriate site well away from homes would be required.
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