SRB News

In a small victory of sorts for Ralphs Bay, the Lennon Cabinet has been split over the Walker Corporation’s request for Project of State Significance Status (POSS). The decision to defer debate at the Cabinet table is a signal the political heat is only intensifying.

Save Ralphs Bay Inc is in no doubt the Bay was on Cabinet’s agenda for Monday 15 August 2005. Yet, on Monday morning, Ministers had not received the minutes on the Walker request.

Read todays story in the Mercury HERE

The Lennon Cabinet is widely tipped to meet today to decide whether to endorse or reject Tasmania’s first canal housing plan.  When it does sit down to discuss the Environment Minister’s submission, its members might first acknowledge that the South Arm peninsula community was offered a choice when the Walker Corporation ‘vision’ bubbled up in March 2004.

Tasmanians should not accept the disingenuous line that the only two options are assessment in the Resource Planning and Development Commission as a Project of State Significance or, equally worrying, in the hands of the Clarence City Council. The Premier and the Environment Minister both assured us that public feeling would be weighed in any decision on whether to allow this proposal through to the formal planning process. A sizeable community cross-section has made its feelings very plain.

Cabinet has the right, the legal and policy power, to say to Walker Corporation; “We do not support this development because a significant proportion of the community does not support it. And, because Tasmania is a democracy.”

THERE ARE NOW JUST A FEW SHORT DAYS TO CONVINCE THE LENNON GOVERNMENT THERE WILL BE ELECTORAL PAIN IF IT GIVES WALKER CORPORATION PROJECT OF STATE SIGNIFICANCE STATUS.

STATE CABINET IS LIKELY TO MEET THIS MONDAY 15 AUGUST.

OUR INFORMATION-RICH BROCHURE IS TO BE DELIVERED TO 6500 HOUSEHOLDS BEFORE THE END OF THIS WEEK.  YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT HERE:

“Save_Ralphs_Bay_Brochure.pdf" (NOTE 624KB PDF DOWNLOAD)

Give Lang Walker the big thumbs down and send a message to the Lennon Cabinet.

Visit our ‘Ask the Experts Expo’ and letter-writing day at Lauderdale Hall and Ralphs Bay on Sunday 14 August.  11 am – 4 pm.

The Lennon Labor government will decide within the next month whether to accept Walker Corporation’s request for Project of State Significance (POSS) status for its canal estate and marina proposal on the Ralphs Bay mudflats.

Please act now, then tell your family and friends and tell them to tell their friends to ring the offices of Labor members, and to write, and say…”Take your hands off Ralphs Bay!”

Download the letter to Premier Lennon

STOP PRESS:  Save Ralphs Bay Inc set up its mobile operation at Salamanca Markets on Saturday 23 July, collecting personal messages for the Premier Paul Lennon.

We spoke to hundreds of concerned Tasmanians over the course of the day.  Their feelings range from disbelief, to anger, cynicism and a strong desire to see some evidence the Lennon Government is not profoundly deaf to community concerns.

As a group, SRB Inc has extended its efforts towards communicating our core messages to the largest possible audience, particularly the most important stakeholders in this debate, the Tasmanian people themselves.  It is their coastline which is in the sights of developers who care not for its beauty, but its capacity for profit.

Our message is simple and it is heartfelt.  Ralphs Bay is not for sale to Walker Corporation or any of its ilk: not for any price, not ever.