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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-31 Daily Xml
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Adjournment Debate

ST CLAIR HOUSING ESTATE

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon) (15:44): Recently, the Charles Sturt council surveyed residents of the new St Clair housing estate about the name by which the new suburb should be known. Residents voted by a 74 per cent majority for St Clair as the name, with Cheltenham Park coming in second. I do not have a strong opinion either way but believe it is a matter for residents of the new development.

The Mayor of the City of Charles Sturt and her backers at the last council election, the Cheltenham Park Residents Association and the Save St Clair Recreation Park group do have a strong opinion, and that is that the name St Clair should not be saved as a suburb name and the new residents should not have their way on the naming. Councillors endorsed on mayor Kirsten Alexander's ticket at the last election, councillor Joe Ienko and councillor Bob Randall, and Kirsten Alexander ally, councillor Raelene Hanley, voted to call the new suburb Cheltenham Park, despite having the results of the survey before them.

The argument advanced for the name Cheltenham Park is that, during the First World War, soldiers camped at Cheltenham racecourse before leaving for the war, and therefore the name Cheltenham is of major historical significance. A majority of Charles Sturt councillors respected the result of the survey and voted for the name St Clair. The final decision will be made by the Surveyor-General.

My great uncle Jim served in the war, but it has never occurred to me that the soldiers camping at Cheltenham racecourse before embarking was a compelling reason to call a suburb built on or near the Cheltenham racecourse Cheltenham Park, as indefatigable letter to the editor writers from the aforementioned protest groups say it is. I do not think that, in passing over Cheltenham Park as a name, we would be trashing history or being disrespectful to ex-servicemen. We already have a suburb called Cheltenham.

On 9 May, mayor Kirsten Alexander appeared on ABC radio on the question of which name should be applied to the suburb. Kirsten Alexander told listeners that some people may have engaged in multiple voting in the council survey and that is why the name St Clair obtained a majority. This is odd, because Kirsten Alexander is the mayor of the council that organised the survey. Within a week, mayor Kirsten Alexander was publicly gloating on a Facebook site that an online poll on Adelaidenow had preferred the name Cheltenham Park to St Clair, yet there is no bar to multiple voting on Adelaidenow polls and anyone in the world could have voted in that poll.

It is well known that the organisations that backed Kirsten Alexander in her campaign for mayor and Woodville ward councillor Bob Grant's bid for re-election in October 2010 opposed and continue to oppose the building of homes on the land bounded by Actil Avenue, Torrens Road, Cheltenham Parade and the railway line. Indeed, they will oppose any building between Actil Avenue and Woodville Road. If these groups had their way, no new residents would be living there. Other councillors, some of whom were members of the ALP and some not, supported the development, allowing it to go ahead.

At street corner meetings I held last Saturday, one of mayor Kirsten Alexander's supporters described the St Clair housing development as 'a slum' and said it would be full of 'migrants and Housing Trust people'. The woman asserted that the Woodville West redevelopment, the Kilkenny transit village and the Bowden urban village would also be slums full of migrants and Housing Trust people and that no-one would want to live in them.

I tried not to interrupt this person's flow, but I did say at one stage that I did not think that was true. I might have added, if I had not been so appalled, that one-quarter of my constituents are migrants from non-English-speaking countries and many of my constituents already live in public housing, and I would be pleased if they lived in the Kilkenny transit village and the Bowden urban village.

The insult 'slum' is also used in written submissions to the Charles Sturt council on whether St Clair residents should be allowed to have a road connecting them with Woodville Road and is a staple of bloggers on the Save St Clair website. From time to time, in the past 2½ years, a tall St Clair protester in his 60s has picketed my office holding up the rather clever sign 'Take the Mick out of Croydon'. He also holds a Southern Cross flag on a big stick and he protests—

Dr Close interjecting:

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: He protests at the Port Adelaide electorate office as well, the member for Port Adelaide tells me, and he protests on the steps of Parliament House. I have engaged him in conversation while helping him hold up his 'Take the Mick out of Croydon' sign because he did not have a helper to hold up the other end. This gentleman told me that he thinks the western suburbs are a dumping ground for Asian and African migrants and that the White Australia policy was a good policy for Australia. He also made an allegation of criminality against a Charles Sturt councillor that is demonstrably false and relies entirely on racial stereotyping.

Kirsten Alexander's contribution to the Save St Clair Facebook site includes referring to the St Clair development as 'little boxes, little boxes and they're all made out of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same', referencing the Pete Seeger song. The mayor liked the song so much she arranged for it to be sung at a consultation she held at the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel on the Bowden Urban Village. The mayor also supplies us on the Facebook site with a link to the Stable Population Party's website, a party that wants to stop migration to Australia.

Last week I travelled around the entire St Clair development and I think it will be a great place to live. I would like to live there myself. There has been a prolonged controversy about an access road from the St Clair development to Woodville Road. Mayor Kirsten Alexander recently told the Facebook site, 'I do not want to see any road through the park.' So, if the mayor got her way, the St Clair development would be an enclave, with access to the outside world only through Actil Avenue to Torrens Road. Owing to the common sense and goodwill of other Charles Sturt councillors, the mayor and councillor Bob Grant did not prevail on this point.

Those opposed to the St Clair housing development are continuing their hostility to the development by taking it out on the new residents: trying to stop them choosing their own suburb name; casting aspersions on the process by which they voted for their new name; and making it as difficult as possible for St Clair residents to access Woodville Road. These episodes are yet another reason why, in my opinion, those living in the new development should be wary of mayor Kirsten Alexander and councillor Bob Grant. It is important that people living in St Clair keep a weather eye on the Charles Sturt council and organise to elect one of their own at the next Charles Sturt council election due in October 2014.

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