Toondah Harbour Land Finally Acquired

In August,  I wrote on this blog about the importance of acquiring foreshore land in Redland City and specifically referred to land belonging to CSIRO at Toondah Harbour that it was proposing to sell. Click here for original blog.

Not long after posting this information, the Mayor organised a workshop to discuss the acquisition of this land that I referred to.  I am pleased to report that one parcel of this land has now been purchased by Council.

With this land in community ownership, it is now critical that Council, as the planning authority and a stakeholder, creates a balanced vision for this area that will encourage tourism, deliver a world class transport hub and allow greater foreshore access to the public.  The vision must be economically viable, sustainable and most importantly deliverable.  It will require good relationships with other stakeholders and in particular State Government and business.

We now look forward to quick and decisive actions to ensure the vision turns into reality.

Council Refuses To Publicly Review Koala Strategy Spending

At the previous Planning & Policy Committee Meeting, I publicly requested a review of all expenditure allocated to Council's Koala Strategy in the General Business section of the meeting agenda.

This formal request to review all expenditure was voted down by the majority of Councillors.

http://web01.redland.qld.gov.au/robo/Minutes_Agendas/July_Sept10/MinutesAndAgendasJuly-September_2010.htm

This was driven by significant concern from members of our community on recent spending including LED koala signs, questionable acquisition of land for environmental reasons, the cost of funding koala social media and the new “www.koala central.com.au” website which should be funded from multiple agencies across the nation, not just Redland City ratepayers. 

Most people, like me, want to see an effort made in protecting the koala. The debate should not be whether we save the koala and whose fault it is that the numbers are declining. Rather, the discussion should be how we can sustainably and realistically protect the koala. Roads, houses, dogs, and disease are not going to mysteriously disappear unless we are ALL happy to pack up, leave our cars and houses behind and move to Logan or the Gold Coast. Is the very promotion of the “urban koala” an oxymoron that will further add to its demise?  This is the type of question that we need to ask and debate.

The debate should not centre around saving the koala at the expense of all other community priorities. For instance, the recent $12000 Koala Hedonic Property Study tells us our properties are worth more if we have sighted a koala nearby. How does this protect the species? How does this rate higher than an Hedonic study for Redland properties that don't have access to reasonable infrastructure? Instead, we need a common sense and balanced approach on how we protect the koala in line with the other community priorities.

We should not be spending money just for the sake of spending money. It is time to assess the situation, look at all the options and stop the blame game that further divides our community and apply some common sense. We should not continue to allow the plight of the koala to further divide Council and the community.

Definition of "HEDONICS" - noun - the branch of psychology that deals with pleasurable and unpleasurable states of consciousness.