Page 1265 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 29 March 2017
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There are plenty of people just surviving in Weston Creek, people who still live in the houses they first moved into as the first owners in the 1970s, people who have lost a husband or a wife or are struggling to cope, people who have had their Mr Fluffy house bought from them and have lost so many memories and security with that change. There are people with young babies who walk to the shops and find the graffiti on Hindmarsh Drive stressful; graffiti the government will not lift a finger to deal with. There are still defunct petrol station sites covered in debris and long grass where snakes breed; this gives locals the feeling that they have been forgotten.
The people of Weston Creek and Woden have been forgotten. They are stuck in the middle. They have worked hard enough to be able to buy or rent their own place but they do not live in luxury. They make ends meet and they have done so by the hard work of their own hands. I respect the people of my electorate and I respect what each of them has built. This government does not respect the people in Weston Creek and Woden. It thinks it is okay to totally change an area without regard to the hard work and choices of those who have worked so hard for their little piece of land and their own home and their quiet spaces.
I respect the people of Rivett but the government does not. In the last term Rivett residents woke to a newspaper article—the same form of consultation that we are seeing now—telling them that a mosque was going to be built at Rivett shops. There is barely enough parking as it is, with the pre-existing religious facility at those shops. Apparently it is okay to just tell people there is a mosque coming, never mind that even for the Ahmadiyya Muslims, who were meant to be going into this site, the site was hopeless. It was not nearly big enough for what they needed to build. Muslims have already suffered plenty of persecution in their countries of origin, and the government insulted them over and over again by offering them unsuitable block after unsuitable block.
Now, some four years later, it seems they have a near enough solution. They are buying, but it is not ideal, from a government that claims to cater for ethnic and religious minorities and that likes to bang on about it quite a lot. But their actions speak louder than words. They have not been taking proper care of these groups. ACT Labor is good at talking the talk but when it comes to walking the walk there is some hopelessness here. Fortunately for the Ahmadiyya Muslims and the local community, the government did not succeed in putting this facility in the wrong location. The problem for now has disappeared. However, what is happening now just goes to show that it was not a one-off moment of carelessness from government, a government that has given up on local consultation and open conversation with local people.
Let us talk about these proposed public housing developments. In Holder the plan is for 30 or so units of one and two stories, all together on green space, backing onto private housing on Staplyton Street. Residents will have to drive out on a blind corner. The housing is prominently for elderly or retired couples living in that area and some young families. The middle of Holder is green. The centre of this beloved suburb is its green grass. Kids play there. It needs upgrading. The playground needs an upgrade anyway. I have mentioned this before in letters to the government but that has not
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