Commonwealth land must be kept for open space
Greens candidate for Bowman, Emerald Moon, has declared support for a community plan to turn a major Commonwealth landholding in Birkdale into national park.
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Greens candidate for Bowman Emerald Moon would fast-track preserving 80 hectares of Commonwealth land at Birkdale as future national park to create open space for the rapidly expanding coastal region.
Ms Moon was responding to Redland City Council’s challenge announced this week for Federal election candidates to support an advocacy document prepared in the lead-up to the 2019 Federal election.
Council asked for support from candidates for its key priority projects including the sale of the Commonwealth land in Birkdale to Council.
But Ms Moon said speaking with members of the Birkdale Progress Association (BPA) at her recent community expo, she understood the group wanted the land to remain in Commonwealth hands.
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Council is currently deep in negotiations with the Commonwealth for the purchase of the land at 362-388 and 392 Old Cleveland Rd East, Birkdale which was slated in last year’s Federal budget to be sold to developers to build 400 homes.
Following discussions Council, with support of the State Government, has progressed discussions around the sale of the land to council.
Yesterday Bowman MP Andrew Laming said negotiations were continuing around the sale price.
Ms Moon said Council’s track record when it came to “protecting precious public land” had caused the BPA concern because the site had a healthy koala population, glider possums, wallabies and native bees as well as significant indigenous cultural heritage.
“The Birkdale land has environmental and cultural significance and the Greens and I support the local community’s call for it to be designated as national park land to preserve it for future generations.”
“Council’s promise to use this land “to benefit community” is pretty misleading ... from my understanding, Council and Andrew Laming actually plan to use this land for high-density residential accommodation and a pseudo-university, which would actually be designed primarily to attract high fee-paying international students for private profit.”
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Council identified the purchase of the Commonwealth land on Old Cleveland East Rd, Birkdale, as a priority project.
A change.org petition raised by Redland Mayor Karen Williams secured more than 6000 signatures last seeking the land be transferred to Council for use by community for uses such as “educational facilities, recreation uses, environmental corridors”.
Cr Williams said last night that “first and foremost our focus is on ensuring the land is not used for housing”.
“We’ve been negotiating for several years to secure this land and if we are successful we will ask the community what they think the best use of the land is,” Cr Williams said.
“The federal budget handed down in May last year stated the government would divest the land in 2019-20, and that the property could support up to 400 homes.”
“The community have made it clear they don’t want houses on that land and it is also not necessary to meet our housing demand under the SEQ Regional Plan.”
Other priority projects in Council’s advocacy document included mobile and internet connectivity.
Ms Moon agreed internet connectivity was a major issue for the Redlands.
“This government (Federal) has botched the NBN rollout pretty royally, but the Greens and I have committed to prioritising the NBN as critical infrastructure, and upgrading it to stop Australia lagging behind the rest of the world.”
“We’re calling for a forward-looking NBN that uses Fibre to the Premises, Fibre to the kerb, and 5G Fixed Wireless to prepare us for the future.”
Ms Moon said through the Greens presence in the Senate, “safeguards” had been secured to make it difficult for future governments to privatise the NBN.
“And we’ll continue to block any moves to sell the network off,” she said.
Redland City Council calls for commitment to its priority projects
Koala population numbers critical
Ms Moon also responded to Council’s concerns regarding the region’s transport network and local economy.
“We have a serious problem with transport infrastructure in the Redlands,” she said.
“Population growth has skyrocketed in recent years, but a lack of proper investment in local industry and facilities means people are still trekking in and out of Brisbane every day.”
“Public transport is expensive and inadequate, so we end up with badly congested roads.”
She said to fix the problem the greens would look to invest in long-term, secure jobs in smart and renewal technology “right here, so people don’t need to leave the Redlands to find work”.
“We have some really viable space in this electorate to expand the industries of the future, which would be great not only for our economy, but for our community and the environment.”
She said the Greens would continue to push for increased funds for public transport and reduced, or even free, public transport fares to get people off roads and reduce congestion.
Council raised key concerns for candidates about the level of funding of longstanding and short falls in services at the Redland Hopistal.
“I believe high quality, free public health care is a basic human right,” Ms Moon said.
“That’s reflected in the Greens policy, which includes increased funding for hospitals and expansion of Medicare to include dental services.”
“I know Redland Hospital is really struggling for space. The Greens and I will also reduce hospital wait lists and free up space by introducing an independent Preventive Health Commission, to deliver evidence-based programs that tackle looming health crises like obesity, diabetes and heart disease, keeping people healthier and out of hospitals.”
She said if the Federal government stopped spending $6 billion a year “propping up private health companies who take our money for services that don’t cover what we needed, we could afford these types of upgrades”.
“Those funds need to be redirected towards the public health system.”
She said she would be happy to also support the implementation of e-health services as a platform to address the problem of access to health care for people living on the islands.
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