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Feb 11th Port Adelaide By-election

Preference Recommendation

Statement of the Port Adelaide branch of The Greens (SA), 7 Feb 2012  

1. The cancellation of the Newport Quays Consortium contract (Oct 31, 2011) and the Premier’s commitments to community consultation and a Master Plan process that will not be driven by the Land Management Corporation (Jan 23, 2012);
2. Recognition of the community’s interest in the heritage-listed Hart’s Mill and the announcement of an architectural design competition for the transformation of the Hart’s Mill precinct, informed by values identified in the new Master Plan process (Feb 3, 2012);
3. Extension of the Conservation Park at Torrens Island and commitment to a scoping study of the tourism potential of the heritage-listed Quarantine Station (Feb 6, 2012).

Vote Greens in the Port, vote Justin McArthur

Justin is a student at Adelaide University. Currently a Semaphore resident, and at 18 years of age, he has grown up in and around Port Adelaide.

Justin is currently the Environment Officer at Adelaide University, a Board Director of the Adelaide University Union, and has worked as a producer with Radio Adelaide’s regular show Your Rights at Night. Locally Justin has been actively involved in coastal environment, renewable energy and sustainability initiatives, as well as the Port Adelaide branch of the Greens.

As a Port Adelaide local, he cares deeply for the future of the Port area and has a big stake in seeing it thrive. He is passionate about protecting its cultural, built and environmental heritage and wants to see it developed through investment in sustainable industry, affordable and appropriately designed housing, tourism, and the arts.

Justin says “The Port Adelaide area is of deep significance to South Australia. With the stalling of the Port Waterfront Redevelopment I think that there is a great opportunity to take a new direction in developing the area. The decisions that the State Government make in the coming months will have a long term effect on the people, environment and industry of the area.”

Justin represents the fresh, new imagination needed in Port Adelaide after 18 years of Kevin Foley. We need more young people in state politics, and he is supported by an active Port Branch and the whole South Australian Greens Party.

Please email our Volunteer Coordination team to help make a Green difference this election.

Green issues and policies for the election

The Future of the Port

A new model for the Port Redevelopment

The Newport Quays model for the Port was flawed. It was built on a profit-sharing real-estate partnership between the government and a private consortium, and was based almost solely on private residential development. Historic Port buildings and businesses were unnecessarily destroyed for a development that did not reflect Port history or community needs for public space, access to the river, or housing that was affordable for many locals. That model has failed, and with the Newport Quays Consortium now gone, we have an opportunity to re-think the future of the Port.

The Greens in parliament have questioned the Port development and championed the call for a re-think with Mark Parnell currently chairing a parliamentary inquiry. We now need a development plan with a vision that builds on the existing strengths of the Port – its heritage, its maritime skills, its vibrant arts community. We need substantial investment in areas such as tourism and sustainable industry, not just real estate. Unlike the previous process run by the Land Management Corporation (LMC), we need a development process that listens to the community, is broadly based and meets present and future community needs.

The Greens call for:

• A whole-of-government taskforce that includes local Council and community representatives to replace the LMC in leading a new model for the revitalisation of the Port.
• A reconsideration of the outcomes of the consultations about the Port development that have already taken place – and were previously ignored. Any fresh consultation with residents should not be run by the LMC and should focus on more than just maximising property values.
• A major state government entity (eg. department, agency, university school) to be moved to the Port to bring people and business to the area.

Developing a tourism icon at Hart's Mill

Hart’s Mill is an icon of Port Adelaide. Set on the river bend in the inner harbour, it reflects the history of working people and the industry which made the Port. Sadly, its state of disrepair reflects the problems and lack of vision that has characterised recent Port ‘development’.

The Hart’s Mill complex includes Hart’s Mill (built in 1855) and the Adelaide Milling Company mill (built in 1889), plus a number of corrugated iron outbuildings. The broader precinct includes the wharf area surrounding the mills, including the troubridge.

Hart’s Mill and the Adelaide Milling company building are partly protected under state heritage legislation but the other buildings and the precinct have no protection. The previous development proposal would have seen most buildings demolished and the iconic buildings surrounded by high-rise housing blocks.

The Hart’s Mill precinct is part of our heritage with endless possibilities for the future. It must be a core part of a new vision of the Port.

The Greens call for:

• A commitment to redeveloping Hart’s Mill and precinct as an arts and community space, the kind of public venue that could be a tourism jewel.
• A commitment to maintain open space around the Hart’s Mill complex of buildings in any Port redevelopment plan.
• Funding of an architectural competition for redevelopment of the Hart’s Mill and precinct.

Protecting heritage at risk at Torrens Island

As the first arrival destination of many immigrants, quarantine stations form a unique part of history, and in NSW and Victoria they are major tourist assets. The former Quarantine Station at Torrens Island, however, has been identified by the National Trust as “heritage at risk”.

The Torrens Island Quarantine Station is threatened by plans to subdivide for industrial development and other proposals which would destroy both the heritage value and future tourist possibilities of the area.

The SA government originally established the Quarantine Station in 1855 as a place where new immigrants with disease risk were segregated and quarantined on arrival. By 1909, there was a 551 acre station accommodating 224 people. The oldest remaining building is a pre-fabricated wooden hut dating from 1879. The existing waiting room, bathing block, luggage block, boilerhouse, linen store, morgue and administration blocks all date from 1912-1916. Most of these are partially protected under state heritage legislation but are badly in need of repair. The cemetery and the grounds of the station are not protected, and the SA Police Star Force is causing additional damage in using some buildings for training exercises.

The Torrens Island area is also of natural significance with the nearby Conservation Park and Dolphin Sanctuary.

The long term future heritage agenda is the redevelopment of the Quarantine Station as a heritage/tourist site. As preliminary steps, the Greens call for:

• Ceasing of any destructive industrial development of the Quarantine Station.
• Ceasing use of the Quarantine Station for SA Police Star Force training.
• Extending the Torrens Island Conservation Park to adjoin the northern boundary of Quarantine Station (ie. native vegetation north half of Lot 206) and add Lot 201 to the Park.
• Repairing the Quarantine Station wharf so it can be used.
• Initiating a scoping study for tourism opportunities for Quarantine Station.

See Greens MLC, Mark Parnell’s speech to parliament on Torrens Island: http://markparnell.org.au/speech.php?speech=978

Development, Environment and Your Rights

A better approach to development across the state

 The Port Adelaide redevelopment is a local example of fundamental problems with the planning and development system across the state.

At its heart, the development system is corrupted by cosy relations between developers and government (including political donations) and nearly always gives preference to developers over local communities. This leads to conflict, much of which could be avoided if we had a more inclusive approach to planning.

The Greens call for:

• Reforms to planning laws to limit the ability of governments and developers to use “major project status”, “interim operation”, “Crown development status” and other techniques that disenfranchise local communities.
• Formal processes for developers and local communities to negotiate around potential problems before plans are finalised and development applications lodged.

An Environment Protection Agency that works

Port Adelaide has a long and proud industrial history.  This has brought much needed employment, but it has also led to air and noise pollution problems where houses and industry exist side by side.

The Greens have long campaigned for better pollution laws and greater transparency of information. The government watchdog, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is slowly making more information available, but there is still a long way to go before communities get all the information they need and a reasonable chance to comment on or challenge pollution or development decisions.

The EPA is supposed to be “independent”, yet it is chronically under-funded and under-staffed. In many cases, it has no authority or isn’t even consulted about important decisions.  Despite thousands of complaints from members of the public each year, only a handful of companies have ever been taken to Court for breaching pollution laws.

The Greens call for:

• More monitoring of all types of pollution and for all pollution monitoring data to be made freely available.
• The public to have the right to comment on all major development decisions and EPA pollution licences, including renewals, plus the right to challenge bad decisions by going to the environmental umpire, the Environment Resources and Development Court.
• Strengthening of the EPA’s resources and ‘teeth’, so it can enforce environmental protection.

Protecting our marine environment

The Port River is a marine environment of national significance, home to resident families of wild bottlenose dolphins. The river has the Dolphin Sanctuary, but protection of our unique marine life is sadly lacking in the rest of the state. Less than 1% of SA’s total marine environment is fully protected, despite the declaration of a network of 19 marine parks in 2010. The marine parks process needs to be completed by declaring sanctuary zones within those parks.

Fully protected sanctuary zones within marine parks are a crucial part of protecting marine life and ensuring the replenishment of fish stocks. Activities such as boating, swimming, diving and snorkelling will be allowed in sanctuary zones, and the interests of fishers can still be catered for in a properly designed system of marine sanctuaries.

The Greens call for:

• The declaration of big iconic marine areas covering a minimum of 30% of SA’s state waters as high level sanctuary zones. Particularly important areas include the Nuyts Reef, the Isles of St Francis, Chain of Bays and the Islands of the Investigator Group (Pearson Island) on the West Coast, the West and South coast of Kangaroo Island, the Giant Cuttlefish Coast in the Spencer Gulf at Point Lowly and the estuary of the Murray Darling Basin and Coorong Coast.
• A funding package for adjustment and management of $50m is needed to underpin the program delivery.

For further information on the SA Greens approach to marine parks, see http://markparnell.org.au/campaign.php?campaignn=48

Social Justice in Our Community

A decent system of Workcover for injured workers

Workcover provides a vital safety net for thousands of workers who are injured at work. The Greens recognise that the current WorkCover system is deeply flawed and needs a comprehensive overhaul.

However, there are urgent and practical changes that should made straight away to improve the lives of injured workers today. Accordingly, the Greens call for:

• Changing the provision of rehabilitation to injured workers by establishing clear selection criteria and consideration of the extent of the worker’s injury, their current skills and qualifications and their capacity for retraining, and then supporting them to return to work with training options such as apprenticeships, traineeships or TAFE courses;
• Abolishing the costly, controversial and ineffective Medical Panels and redirecting the approximate $8.5m currently wasted on these panels to support the specific needs of injured workers.
• Removing the cut backs made to injured workers’ payments after 13 weeks, and removing the termination of Workcover payments to seriously injured workers after 2.5 years.
• Re-introducing the right to go to the courts to sue negligent employers.
• Increasing the maximum age of eligibility for WorkCover so that it reflects the pension age increase.

Helping South Australians in financial difficulty

The demand for financial counselling services is growing and comes from all walks of life. Many people who never thought they would require help are struggling to manage their debts. Access to early financial counselling can make a real difference for many people, but waiting lists are long as the effects of the GFC and increased costs of living are biting hard.

SA continues to lag well behind other states in funding NGO’s financial counselling services, and remains the only state not to have an Independent Financial Counselling and Consumer Legal Service. The Rann Government’s 2010 budget cuts to anti-poverty services only exacerbated this inadequacy.

The Greens call for:

• Increased funding to ensure access to financial counselling services for all South Australians.
• The establishment a Consumer Credit Legal Service in line with that available in every other state of Australia.

Investing in justice, not prisons

The Greens believe that all Australians have a right to live free from crime, however simply putting more and more people in prison does not make our community safer. It is expensive, doesn’t reduce crime, and has long term impacts on individuals, families and communities. And it does nothing to address the problems which underly a lot of crime, such as substance abuse, mental illness, and poverty.

The Greens are promoting the concept of “Justice Reinvestment”. Pioneered in the USA, Britain and Canada, it is a proven strategy for reducing crime, improving public safety and strengthening communities – particularly in Indigenous communities. Monies earmarked for building new prisons are instead invested in areas of high-offending to provide community programs and services which address the underlying causes of crime. By preventing crime from occurring in the first place and reducing reoffending, significant savings in the prison budget can be made.

The Greens call for:

• The South Australian Government to abandon its failed ‘tough on crime’ approach and instead work cooperatively with the Federal Government to redirect criminal justice funding to those communities where it is needed most.

More on Justice Reinvestment can be found at http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/sj_report/sjreport09/pdf/sjr_ch2.pdf

If you wish to help the Greens campaign, please email our Volunteer Coordination team.