Government rubbishes prison site reserve claims

The State Government has denied claims the new Westbury Prison site has high conservation values, saying it has been used for rubbish dumping and woodhooking.

Premier Peter Gutwein and Attorney General Elise Archer met with Westbury residents ahead of a community consultation meeting around the Government's preferred northern prison site. Picture: PATRICK GEE

THE government has denied claims the new Westbury Prison site has high conservation values, saying it has been used for illegal rubbish dumping and woodhooking for years.

In state parliament today, Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said the site was listed as part of the National Reserve System.

“The new prison site is a haven for multiple native species including rare endemic birds,” she said.

GOVERNMENT ABANDONS PREFERRED NORTHERN PRISON SITE

Ms O’Connor accused the government of seizing on the new site to solve a political problem.

The state government announced last Thursday that it had decided to proceed with the new northern prison on a fresh site on 70ha lot of disused Crown land near Birralee, 5.2km from the Westbury town centre.

Justice Minister Elise Archer told parliament the reserve was originally set aside to protect what was thought to be a rare forest type, but the assessment of the block has been mistaken.

“It is troubling that the Greens continually peddle things in this house and outside the house that are simply not true,” she said.

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“The site does not contain protected forest. There is a very long history or timber harvesting and more recently stock grazing, rubbish dumping, illegal timber gathering and shooting,” she said.

“There are no eagle nests on the site, there are no covenants on the block, nor are there any records of threatened wildlife on the block.

“I call on the Greens to stop saying things about the site in public that are not true.”

Ms Archer said further assessment of the site was underway, but the government planned to clear part of the site for the prison and preserve the remainder as a reserve.