Political games are they Steve Wettenhall? Such di...

2008-09-25T17:40:00.000+10:00

Political games are they Steve Wettenhall? Such dimissive comments are insulting to most. Yes, there are people out there who will delight at your discomfort over this, but for most; it's about the Yacht Club. We just want it to remain where it is!! Listen to your constituency, this is an issue that has galvanised local people more than anything else in recent years.
Signed Tom Asquith (one who voted for you).

The CYC building will be moved to the JCU Campus.T...

2008-09-25T11:31:00.000+10:00

The CYC building will be moved to the JCU Campus.

The ultimate insult and the act of a desperate government who have lost all credibility because of their actions in this whole sordid affair and I say sordid because that’s the only description that suffices. The CYC met all the cultural heritage significance criteria and was provisionally listed but was knocked out by objection on the basis of boundary uncertainties. A complete and utter nonsense.

That was just the first step in the process to ensure that the CYC would never be given Queensland Heritage List status. What completed the process? A Certificate of Immunity preventing the CYC from being listed via a new application until 2009 during which time the CYC lease would have expired. There was no intention to renew the lease and it had nothing to do with rental or other problems. If the CYC building remained and was listed on the Qld Heritage List it would have been an enormous impediment to any future development plans. That’s what this is all about. Development on strategic port land is “exempt development” if it is consistent with a land use plan and involves the reconfiguration of a lot. If the CYC was a registered Qld Heritage property the Queensland Heritage Council would be a concurrence agency for any development application and therefore a huge impediment.

The Hilton Hotel and Tourism Tropical North Qld were both objectors to the listing of the CYC so that should tell you something. It is equally devastating that our former Council was a party to this entire process.

The State government it seems have no regard for their own policies or laws particularly the following:

• Queensland Heritage Act 1992
The object of this Act is to provide for the conservation of
Queensland’s cultural heritage for the benefit of the
community and future generations
• Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995
The main objects of this Act are to—
provide for the protection, conservation, rehabilitation
and management of the coast, including its resources
and biological diversity
[ the CYC is a coastal cultural heritage resource ]

The “Burra Charter” principles adopted by the Qld Heritage Council make it absolutely clear that location and setting are integral to the cultural heritage values of a place.
There is no other location for the CYC building other than where it now sits. It is not negotiable.

This is Cairns Watershed, something the state government is still unable to grasp. The fundamental right of a community to determine what has value and importance to them and the fundamental right to protect for present and future generations their own cultural history and heritage.

To Steve Wettenhall the only political games perpetrated are those of your government and its entity the Port Authority under the directorship of two shareholding ministers. You have lost all credibility. How dare you claim that community objections are politically motivated. What happened to the right of the community, the people, to expect that those who represent them at both the local and state level will always act in their best interests and in an open and transparent way? Public interest is not exclusively “economic” interest.

Comments on CairnsBlog.net: There are still options

Political games are they Steve Wettenhall? Such di...

The CYC building will be moved to the JCU Campus.T...