Opinion: Self-appointed handful of objectors block $1bn project

Hundreds of community objections to a Brisbane development have been brushed aside. What might have happened if they were on cultural grounds, wonders Mike O’Connor.

What’s the difference between a gold mine in NSW and a high-rise development in ­Brisbane?

Allow me to explain. As is so often the case in dear old Brissie, the proposed high-rise made a joke of the suburb’s neighbourhood plan, with towers twice the permitted height and mass and attracted hundreds of objections from locals.

Developers rule in the River City, proudly proclaiming they are doing their bit to solve the “housing crisis” by building apartment towers where the prices start at $2m, and are encouraged in their efforts by a Brisbane City Council eager for the income they generate, with residents’ concerns treated with disdain.

Writing in the Village Voice community news magazine recently, former deputy lord mayor David Hinchcliffe, who was once chairman of the committee that oversaw development in the city, described the current approval process as fundamentally broken.

He said councils met only with developers, not residents.

“Council planning shapes our neighbourhoods. We need to take back control of the process,” he wrote.

The objections were lodged and acknowledged and, as everyone knew would happen, the council approved the project, reducing the height but approving five buildings on the site ­instead of two. The council giveth and the council taketh away.

It was business as usual for the developer, which brings us to the Regis gold mine in Orange, NSW.

Former deputy lord mayor David Hinchliffe

The proponent of this $1bn project had jumped through every bureaucratic hoop rolled its way, spending $192m in getting state and federal government approval and meeting all the environmental safeguards required of it.

The local Indigenous land council had also given it the nod, so it was full steam ahead, with hundreds of jobs to be created and millions of dollars set to flow into the coffers of the NSW government in the form of taxes and royalties. It was a classic win-win.

That is until 17 people objected under the Indigenous Heritage Act. The Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council had said that the development would not impact any known sites or artefacts of high significance. OLALC’s submission to the NSW government said the matter of concern was a range of claims that had been made on the issue by people and organisations lacking experience, expertise and authority who hold themselves as authorities on Aboriginal cultural heritage.

“We question the motives of people and organisations who participate in promoting unsubstantiated claims and seek to hijack Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in order to push other agendas,” it said.

In spite of all this, on the claims of 17 people whose identities apart from their Christian names have been kept secret, federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek banned the development with the mining company, saying it has now abandoned the project and taken a significant financial hit as a result.

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies has described the decision as a “truly terrible precedent” for future projects, saying the $1bn investment along with the 580 construction jobs, 290 operational jobs, $200m of royalties for NSW and real benefits for local traditional owners had just gone up in smoke.

Apartment buildings have proliferated in inner Brisbane.

“How can any company or investor have confidence to invest in Australia?” it asked.

Meanwhile up in sunny Brisbane, hundreds of objections to a development containing the names and contacts of the objectors and listing the specific details of their concerns are brushed aside.

What would have happened, I wonder, if local Indigenous people had declared that the proposed high-rise development was on a sacred site of cultural significance and lodged objections? Would the council have ignored them and given the developer the green light to bring in the bulldozers?

I can but imagine the outcry that would have followed. A more likely outcome would have been that our civic leaders would have backed away at the speed of light and cancelled the development approval.

There would have been apologies all around, with the developer forced to either walk away or come to an arrangement with the Indigenous objectors.

It’s a dangerously lopsided playing field when a self-appointed handful of people can block significant developments and inflict financial and reputational damage on the nation on untested claims, while residents who object to developments and farmers who try and object to wind and solar farms and transmission lines running through or being built alongside their properties are told to suck it up and get out of the way.

Something has to change.

Originally published as Opinion: Self-appointed handful of objectors block $1bn project