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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-10-17 Daily Xml
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GLENSIDE HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:50): On Thursday 3 October, I attended a so-called 'listening event' held by the state government at the Burnside Town Hall in relation to the proposed redevelopment of a large-scale sell-off of open space to developers at the Glenside Hospital site. Madam Speaker, you will note that, with the recent electoral district redistribution, Glenside will fall within my seat of Unley in the 2010 state election. Unley is the most densely populated electorate in South Australia, having an acute and well recognised lack of open space. Carving up Glenside's open space for high density housing and shops would be totally inappropriate.

Although the event was not widely advertised, over 200 very concerned locals and other interested parties attended. In fact, government advertisements for the meeting failed to mention Glenside Hospital or the intention to sell off nearly half the site. Also, it was a 6 p.m. starting time on a week night, when the members of most working families are preparing meals for their children or still making their way home. Obviously, the minister and departmental advisers were hoping for a small turnout. The general mood of those attending was probably best summed up by a local Burnside councillor, who said after the meeting: 'Clearly, the old adage of never stand between a pig and its trough still applies. We appear to have a government run by property speculators and developers.'

There has been an alarming lack of community consultation with respect to the entire Glenside development proposal. Certainly, the 'listening event' was more of an exercise in indoctrination than information. Along with local residents, the member for Bragg, the Burnside council and I have effectively been left out of the information loop, despite many questions, in particular, from the responsible planning authority, the City of Burnside. The government is often dismissive of the leafy eastern suburbs, although many Labor MPs are more comfortable living there than in their own electorates. There is no doubt that the Rann government feels that the residents of the eastern suburbs can be ignored once they have paid their stamp duty and land and payroll taxes. The long overdue 'listening' process seems a token gesture, obviously, in the hope that people will be so overawed by the glossy flyers and slick master plan documents that they feel it is a deal and just roll over.

Notably, no Rann government members attended the 'listening event'. But, of course, there are none so deaf as those who will not hear! Apart from unease relating to mental health care arrangements at the site, Rann government members would also have heard, had they shown up, a vocal crowd expressing their disquiet about the sale of 42 per cent of the site to developers; the loss of up to 75 per cent of the total open space; the axing of 134 (or 45 per cent) of the trees on the site, many of them significant trees with circumferences greater than two metres; the destruction of habitat, including tree plantings dating back to the 1860s, which offer food and shelter for a huge variety of native birds, including black cockatoos and kookaburras; the protection of heritage buildings and possible destruction of a state heritage listed wall; and reduced public access to any remaining open space.

What residents are also alarmed about is medium to high density development. With current land costs in the area being about $1,000 a square metre, the highest bidding developer, needing to maximise profits, will want as high a density option as possible. The Rann government is promoting the plans as moving forward, with Commissioner David Cappo's social inclusion report. However, nowhere in the document did Monsignor Cappo recommend privatising open space at Glenside. The Rann government has dollar signs in its eyes; make no mistake. The South Australian state budget took 170 years to reach $8 billion, but only five years to reach the $12 billion it is now. I do not accept that it is necessary for Mike Rann to sell off irreplaceable inner suburban open space and heritage to fund mental health needs. After all, it was he who pledged no privatisations. Any large-scale sell-off of open space at Glenside needs to be adequately justified by the Rann government after a proper consultation process, not presented as a fait accompli.

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