Thursday 4 September 2008

Labor: We're not here for the people

It's official, and from a voice we least expected.

Minister Peter Garrett, the one person who could save the historic Cairns Yacht Club building for the community, and the countless thousands of musicians and revellers over the past 100 years, has rejected an attempt to have the old building heritage-listed.

Last week he blocked a motion, moved by Senator Ian McDonald.

"In the absence of any new information, the Cairns Yacht Club is unlikely to qualify for the National Heritage List," Garrett says.

Padraic Murphy announced Peter Garrett's veto in today's Australian.

It's amazing how easily led this Federal politician is. We heard the same rhetoric from local Labor pollys for 4 years now. They've flogged off the land to someone for some bloody highrise an d now would look stupid if they did a back flip.
We all recall that it wasn't that long ago when Garrett was fighting for the people. He was a interpreter of people wishes and desires as a community, through his medium of music. He campaigned against the destruction of Sydney's entertainment venues being demolished. Garrett wrote his Midnight Oil hit Dreamworld, which attacked the middnight demolition of the famous Cloudland Ballroom in Brisbane.

"He's yet another on the gravy train of politics," long-time campaigner Ray Taylor said today.

"When it comes to heritage matters, the term significance will be found to permeate through out the subject. The manner in which we've been treated over this matter indicates that we, here in the north of this nation, are considered to be 'not of significance' " Ray Taylor says.

Have a look at other places on National Heritage List, it's pretty exclusive. There's the ICI building, the MCG and the Nepean Defence and Quarantine site for comparison.

It's about time that Garrett had a good read of the State Coastal Protection and Management Act.
Napoleon Bonaparte said that in politics, absurdity is not a handicap.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Every Labor MP will pay dearly, come this next election, for not listening and represting the people - that is why they are there.

How hard is it to grant this building and it's position that it has rested on for 100 years, to teh community of Cairns? How hard?

Anonymous said...

Sadly the Labor Party now sits where the Liberal/Nats once were. State Labor has lost its way and unfortunately a resounding defeat in the next election and subsequent navel gazing is the only way this party can rediscover the values it once stood for. But don't worry, the current local state members will all have a nice comfortable pension to retire to in the interim. Maybe they can buy a nice unit on the Cairns waterfront?

Anonymous said...

Jim, Desley, Jason & Steve

I am a true believer & I am so disappointed that you won't listen to us grass roots. We are appalled by the lack of compassion and engagement you guys are showing the people who want to save the YC.

The waterfront is slowly .. no quickly becoming a concrete jungle for the rich .. the very people Labor has traditionally protected us from

Do we really need another high rise on the inlet? Are we, the battlers to be condemned to walking by the inlet.. not affording to be able to linger as we currently can at the Yacht Club?

You guys on your Parliamentary salaries can afford to dine and coffee at the new expensive facility. You are stealing the one affordable amenity the working class or anybody can enjoy in the CBD.

Will not one of you; Jim, Desley, Jason & Steve speak up to protect this treasured Cairns jewel. Jim, please speak up, I know you actually met your lovely wife there .. have you lost your sentimentality and concern for us, the workers who feel we have lost so much of the Cairns we love. Have you Jim, Desley, Jason & Steve & Labor joined Hedley, CEC and the rest of the insatiable developers, the very people we elected you; Jim, Desley, Jason & Steve to protect us from, this greed and privilege...... Can't vote Lib, maybe the Greens or just pay the fine ,,, so disappointed, I suppose we are to banished to the suburban shopping centers....so bloody sad....I have met you all and I thought you cared .... silly me

Anonymous said...

Obviously, Peter Garrett doesn’t understand that the CPA had a Certificate of Immunity placed over the Aquatic and the land, which effectively PREVENTS us from nominating it for State Heritage. They did this because they knew we would blow their case out of the water when we hit them again. Several of us have tested this with applications to the EPA only to be told that Nominations will NOT be accepted in the face of the Immunity Certificate. But as our resolve hardens we are committed to make the perpetrators of destruction pay.
So give us a break Peter Garrett and DO something about it. Otherwise we may have to release my new song. “Midnight Oil on a Paper Tiger!”.

Anonymous said...

Never mind, the "new" Yacht Club will have a "Major Domo" at the door, views of concrete walls all around, drinks will be $25.00 a 10oz. glass of beer, (plus tips) dress standards will be enforced, and you will have to book for a meal. There will be a "businessman's lunch" and a "businesswoman's lunch" (where the "riffraff" will be politely refused service). Meanwhile Desley, Jim, Steve and Jason will toast themselves, feeling how they have done the people of Cairns an enormous service.