Page 4894 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 November 2017
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This is arrogance and contempt at its worst from this government, to destroy this man’s livelihood because he might have known something. It is a bit like a mafia mentality, is it not? You find out certain information; you will get knocked off. This is a racket of protection, a racket of looking after yourself, by a systemic boys’ club in the Labor culture.
I would like to talk about Mr Spokes Bike Hire. Jillian Edwards and Mr Shanahan purchased the business in November 2006 for $480,000 plus bikes worth $20,000, so the purchase price was around $500,000. The business ran for 10 years before the LDA purchased it in 2016, after two years of negotiations.
The owners of Mr Spokes said they were proud of what they had done. They had great reviews. They had great accolades and reviews on TripAdvisor, and they were often rated very highly compared even with the War Memorial and Questacon as one of the great family things to do in Canberra. I have done that with my kids over the years.
For a husband and wife team, this was a great achievement. That was until this Labor government decided they wanted that land for the city to the lake project. After initially threatening to compulsorily acquire the land for a price far less than the value of the business, the government in 2015 told them they could stay put while development went ahead around them. The government taunted the couple by writing in a letter, “The LDA no longer needs to pursue the acquisition of your crown lease” and—how lovely—“a level of noise and other disruption will be unavoidable,” a bit of bullying by the government.
Sadly, this was not the only example of bullying towards Ms Edwards and her husband, Mr Shanahan. Ms Edwards told the public accounts committee that when negotiations seemed to be going nowhere she contacted the Chief Minister’s office. Her husband then received a phone call later in the day from a staffer of the Chief Minister. He said:
He raised his voice and he said, “If you don’t agree to sit down and meet with the LDA, things are going to get a lot tougher for you.”
Wow. That was from a staffer in the Chief Minister’s office. Ms Edwards became visibly distraught while giving her evidence to the public accounts committee as she recalled how she was treated by the public servants and the Chief Minister’s advisers, saying:
… you could come to the conclusion that there was a bit of malicious intent in there at times.
That is pretty disappointing from this government. The people of Canberra expect more. The issue eventually was only resolved when someone phoned Ms Edwards out of the blue and offered to represent her. What we have seen here is the ACT Labor culture of mates getting each other’s backs. It is systemic. It is pervasive. If you want a good outcome in this city, you have to be part of the gang. Mr Wall has already
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