We are ready to continue our fight on behalf of the people of South Australia to protect and defend what we value and believe in. There will be a public protest meeting this Sunday, March 28th at 1pm on the Steps of Parliament, North Terrace.

Come along and let your voice be heard.

Mr Rann has said the Labor Party is out of touch. Here is your chance to come and tell him what you think about his party’s election fraud in the key marginal seats as well as reminding him that he hasn’t been listening to the people of South Australia with regards to Glenside Hospital, St Clair Reserve, Cheltenham Race Course, relocating the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Protecting our Parklands and our Communities from inappropriate development, and a range of water-related issues including the Murray and Desalination.

Bring your posters, bring your banners, and bring your family and friends. Its time to remind the Government of South Australia who is in charge of this state, namely we the people of South Australia.

Please publicise this article by sending it along to your fellow South Australians who care about the future of our State. I look forward to seeing you there. The text of the flier is below.

Community Voice Coalition – Community Protest

Come Join Our Community Protest and Help Stop Labor’s Election Fraud

When – Sunday 28 March 2010 at 1:00 PM
Where – Parliament House Steps – North Terrace, Adelaide

Real Community Action Against Fraudulent Election Processes
The Community Voice Coalition is organising a public protest rally against the fraudulent how-to-vote card practices of the Labor Party during last weekend’s elections. Like most in the community, we are disgusted and dismayed by this fraud perpetrated against the people of South Australia by candidates of the Labor party who want us to entrust them with the responsibilities of public office and government.

Come along and express your opinion regarding this election, the lack of the most basic principles of honest behaviour expected by our Community, and the loss of your support for these people to represent their electorates and the people of South Australia.

Mike Rann has said that they have lost touch and he wants to know what you think! Come tell him.
Come tell Mike what you think of his government. Its failure to expel these candidates and its failure to call fresh elections in the electorates where these un-ethical, immoral, and un-Australian activities of fraudulent how-to-vote cards took place.

If you want honest, ethical government, you have to fight for it. Its never been any different. Come join us in the next battle for honest, open, and accountable government.

Community Voice Coalition

CVC is a cooperative undertaking by disaffected citizens who care about our community – including the St Clair Reserve, Glenside Hospital, Cheltenham Racecourse, Burnside Save Open Spaces, Save Our Suburbs Adelaide, Parkland Preservation, Save The RAH and a range of water-orientated issues.

The following letter sent to us has been forwarded to The Advertiser & other newspapers for publication, as well as TV channels (other than Channel Nine as Google gave a warning that it’s site may harm your computer, which may have been a temporary aberration attributable to hackers, detected malware or a virus):

Letter to The Editor
30 December 2009
I challenge you, Premier Rann, Treasurer Foley, Attorney General Atkinson, Minister Hill & Ministers Maywald & Gago to a debate on national television.  The only condition I seek is the full protection of Parliamentary Privilege; not that I intend to disclose anything but facts & my opinion of them.

I wish to debate you all on the following issues within South Australia:
* Water policy & the River Murray, including related taxation;
* Desalination vs Storm water recycling & purification & expansion of existing water storage facilities with reverse pumping back to the Murray in times of overflow;
* The impact of desalination on power use (see rail electrification below) & the coastal environment;
* The missed opportunity at the recent Premier’s conference to put water use of our river Murray water (being used by the eastern states to grow rice & cotton) on the table as a priority;
* TOD’s;
* The proposed light Rail system & public transport in general;
* The impact of rail electrification on CO2 emissions & potential blackouts to households during peak electric power use periods (see desalination above);
* Revocation of Community land at St Clair & the Barossa;
* Councils increasingly ignoring their constituents on issues like land revocation, Chelsea Cinema, Cheltenham Racecourse and other local issues;
* State Government & Councils refusal to ban “donations” from developers – we the taxpayers & ratepayers donate far more in the way of taxes, duties, GST & rates, allegedly resulting in South Australia being the highest taxed state in Australia;
* State Government’s position in declining a need for an Independent Commission Against Corruption in this State, which refusal allegedly has the strong support of Councils like the City of Charles Sturt;
* Freedom of speech, Internet censoring & media reporting in general, from a State perspective;
* The proposals for the former Mitsubishi site & the former Clipsal site;
* Mental Health facilities in this state and the impact of the Glenside redevelopment on our capacity to care for the mentally ill.  Included in this would be reference to existing government policy to relocate the mentally ill to within the community (mostly in substandard facilities like cheap pubs and community housing) without allegedly the provision of proper care and rehabilitation activities;
* The alleged singling out of “bikies” as an illegal group, noting the vast majority of crime in this state appears to emanate from other sources;
* The proposed “Marj” (Royal Adelaide Hospital) redevelopment;
* The proposed redevelopment of Adelaide Oval;
* Government’s previous push to close Country Hospitals in favour of 4 “Super Hospitals”;
* The state of our City & Country roads – e.g. Goodwood Road, South Road & roads to the mid-north, when fines, registrations & taxes are purportedly allocated for such purposes;
* The financial position of this State; recalling that Treasurer Foley previously advised at the height of the Global Financial Crisis that SA had suffered financial losses. I have witnessed nothing subsequent to this than ad nauseum grandiose announcements on how you, our State Government, will spend our money in the billions.  Is the money there or will we see increased taxes akin the water rate rises to pay for a desalination plant nobody wants (or needs)?;
* Treasurer Foley’s plan to import skilled labor from the Phillipines as opposed to increasing re-training & education facilities for the unemployed and those who have lost their jobs during the GFC;
* The ability for a labor dominated Council like the City of Charles Sturt to command the protection at their meetings numbering in the 10′s of Police Officers, at least 2 paddywagons & 6 police cars + 2 designated Police Negotiators & then lock out all but 30 or so selected ratepayers to public meetings;

I could go on but guess you all get the idea. Hell, I’ll even let you bring along the alleged 130+ taxpayer funded media staff contingent under your command to back you all up. Hey, why not bring along our City of Charles Sturt Mayor Harold Anderson & Councilor Sykes (who allegedly works for Mr Atkinson) for good measure?

I have never been a Politician, a lawyer or held community office.  I am a self funded retiree with some experience in the finance industry. I will stand totally alone in a debate with you all. Will you all stand accountable & debate only one?  If you do not, I can only accept that you all fear only one thing – the truth.

Mark Walker
West Lakes

Please click on the following link to see Channel 7′s Today Tonight story on the St Clair Land Swap:

Today Tonight Covering the St Clair Reserve Land Swap issue on YouTube

There are currently 1,143 fans on FaceBook of the Save St Clair Reserve issue & growing Daily.

Save St Clair Update

What a busy week we are having on the Save St Clair front.

Today is the day that the Charles Sturt Council will vote for the second time on the motion to swap our community parkland of St Clair for development. In exchange we will receive the previously owned industrial site of Actil with its associated problems of soil contamination.

This second vote follows after Woodville Ward Councillor Robert Grant rescinded the motion at the last council meeting on Nov 9^th.

Councillors who voted against the proposed swap were Robert Grant and Brian Massey both representing Woodville Ward and Mick Harley of Beverley and Stuart Ghent of Semaphore Park.

The remaining 12 councillors all voted to go ahead with the land swap – in the words of the residents who were there to see the vote; shame!

We encourage you to join us in a rally together to make our voice heard against this proposed swap. Council decided NOT to survey all its residents, or, to have a public meeting to discuss this matter. Come along and show council we do care about our community open land. Our councillors have a duty to act on their ratepayers behalf as custodians of this land.

Bring your family and friends!

The Save St Clair Rally

Where: Carpark opposite Charles Sturt Council chambers on Woodville Road

Time: 6.30pm- arrive a little earlier if you are able

7.00pm -Charles Sturt council meeting.

Rally outside after to hear speakers and show your support – we promise that you won’t be disappointed by the show!

Remember that together we can make a difference.

Web and facebook sites

A lot is happening on our www.charlessturtratepayers.org website, our Ratepayers & residents discussion forum and Save St Clair facebook page.

Be sure to look at them and make a comment if you haven’t already.

It’s also a great way to keep informed with latest developments!

Government response

You may have noticed a sudden urgency on the Government’s part to put glossy promotional fliers in our letterboxes and adverts in the paper to inform us of the benefits of the TOD development. They have certainly been caught “on the back foot” and are trying to discredit any opposition to their development. It seems both government and council believed this development would proceed without opposition.

Many concerns have been presented regarding the land swap. Plans for Woodville Road include high-density apartments and offices that will go on the current shady park with a new road exiting onto Woodville Road quite close to the railway line (further increasing traffic problems). It is interesting to see that in the glossy brochures they are still maintaining the “fact” that we do not lose any open space, when in fact we lose about 2 hectares in the swap due to the inclusion of roads as open space, together with the elimination of a large part of the mandatory 12.5% of open space on the Actil site; these details have been provided to the SA Ombudsman.

The government is emphasising the TOD benefit and green corridor. Need we point out that much of the area between Woodville, Torrens and Cheltenham Roads and the railway line is currently open space and the intended development plan will increase the local population resulting in the open space per head of population being further reduced. Taking away St Clair significantly reduces the green corridor available between Cheltenham and Woodville Roads; one only has to take a drive along Woodville Rd to see this. The government and the Council have a fantastic opportunity here to do something wonderful with this area for future generations and they are squandering it for the benefit of developers, who end up with the “crown jewels” of Woodville – St Clair Park in exchange for a contaminated dust bowl with no trees. Great deal for them!

No one seems prepared to answer the question; Why the land swap is essential for the TOD to go ahead? We have no problems with TODs or improvements to our public transport system, but why on earth would you take a park when you have industrial land available immediately adjacent along the railway line? Did you know that a representative of TriMet in Portland, Oregon (where the TOD concept came from) has confirmed that none of their TODs were located on parks. Clearly it is only our government that are short-sighted enough to think that this is a good idea.

Why not relocate one of the Woodville station platforms further west, or put a new station in? Even easier, while you are busy blowing your trumpets about the new light rail; why not build a new tram stop at the Actil site? (And don’t bother telling us this is too expensive – we are not that naive!)

As a committee representing concerned ratepayers we believe a truly democratic decision can only be made by a ratepayer’s poll.

Letters and Petitions

We ask everyone to write a letter to Mr Rann this week.

We are particularly keen to write many letters to our politicians and encourage you to do this. Check the website today and download the proforma for sending a letter to Mr Rann then pop it in the post. Every letter should be answered. The more letters written will help to keep our politicians on their toes. Make your voice heard.

Letter writing is more effective than petitioning and at this stage we encourage you to do this.

Ombudsman Inquiry and Questions over Land Value

Hon.David Winderlich MLC has moved for an Ombudsman’s inquiry into the influence of the ALP over Charles Sturt Council’s decision to swap St Clair. The vote will be 3^rd Dec .

David asks to be sent any information regarding conflicts of interest to him at winderlich@gmail.com and if the information is credible he will read it out in parliament.

Questions have also been asked in Parliament over the relative land values of the two sites and the government have stated that the value of St Clair is $17M and so is the Actil site! Really?!! We understand that the value of the Actil site is closer to $10M and it doesn’t take much to calculate what St Clair is really worth as prime residential real estate in Woodville! Should we say $40M??

If it is developed for high rise apartments, probably more!

Donations and Membership

We thank everyone for their support. We are currently establishing a group membership base.

Please fill in a form. They will be available at the rally and to down load on line from our web site.

We ask also for a $10 joining fee to help subsidize our ongoing costs including photocopying and banner making not to mention legal fees!

We will have donation boxes at the rally.

Please help us financially if you are able.

Our apologies to anyone who received multiple copies of our update last week.

We really are trying our best to pull everything together in a short space of time and naturally we are encountering teething problems. Please be understanding and aware that we value any offers to help in any way.

Looking forward to seeing you all at the rally tonight

The Charles Sturt Ratepayers Committee

Have Minister Atkinson and Minister Weatherill now taken to pleading their case by admitting that the government has made mistakes?

Not a bad ploy really; if all else fails go for the old sympathy vote. Works every time, particularly if you have the moral high ground. How do you think you’re going in this respect fellows?

It's About

It’s hard to build much of a hill of morals when the government is taking a children’s park away and giving them less play space on suspect land with no significant trees.

By the way, we haven’t heard much from the man at the top over the issue. You know who we mean; the one who is always saying “It’s about this” and “It’s about that”.

Anyway, if the government (and the Council?) is in the business of admitting to mistakes we can readily give them a hand. Here goes a few:

It’s about not saying up front that you had to have St Clair for your TOD and your light rail (which is simply not true when the Actil site is located only 500m away).

It’s about subjecting the Woodville community to a farcical consultation process using the ALP Charles Sturt puppet show, with no intention of listening to the community.

It’s about putting the land swap in the Charles Sturt CEO’s performance agreement, and then leaving him in charge of the consultation process.

It’s about legislating a cute deal for developers in which changing the status of community owned land only requires consultation within a pitiful 500 metre radius (and then not listening to the residents anyway).

It’s about consulting in an area that has virtually no ratepayers (over a third of the land within 500 metres is encompassed by the former Cheltenham Racecourse, Woodville High School, the uninhabited Actil site and the Charles Sturt Council complex itself).

It’s about offering soccer clubs/associations brand new facilities then “consulting” them and claiming their numbers as part of the Council’s supposed “widespread support”.

It’s about forcing the hand of the Woodville High School Governing Council by threatening to re-open Brocas Avenue (which may yet happen). Is student safety the only reason that they have agreed to support the land swap and therefore not exercise the power of veto they hold over the land?

It’s about including the 1100 students of Woodville High School as supporters in your “widespread support” group without asking them what they think.

It’s about making promises about road closures that you possibly can’t keep (Woodville High please note).

It’s about the developer refusing to build houses on the contaminated Actil land, regardless of how well it is rejuvenated. Is this due to the possible risk of litigation in 30 years time from people who might become ill?

It’s about playing Russian Roulette with our children’s lives, and their children’s lives, by having them play on former industrial land instead of heeding the very sound judgement of the developer.

It’s about the supposed hectare for hectare swap of pristine land for a contaminated industrial site (Actil).

It’s about the Council not benefiting financially while giving away Woodville’s crown jewels to developers.

It’s about not disclosing who does benefit from the millions of extra dollars which emanate from selling prestigious St Clair Reserve blocks compared to blocks on the Actil site.

It’s about consistently and doggedly arguing that there is no other alternative for the TOD other than St Clair Reserve, despite the fact that there are clearly a number of other possibilities (check your own research guys).

It’s about ignoring the carpark site already owned by Council, located directly across the railway line from St Clair AT THE WOODVILLE RAILWAY STATION for the non-ambulant denizens of the TOD, who the government clearly thinks cannot walk further than 20 metres.

It’s about refusing to consider TOD locations further along the railway line to the west (for example the Actil site).

It’s about conveniently ignoring the advice of the experts that you are so fond of quoting about introducing TODs —at all costs avoid disadvantaging and alienating the folk who already live there by taking away their parks.

It’s about the refusal to have major traffic impact studies of the whole area conducted (fearing what you might be told?)

There you go; that’s a good start to the list of mistakes that the government and the Council could admit to making. Should be heaps of votes in that lot!

Where to from here Mr Rann? An investigation could be announced because some irregularities in the consultation process have suddenly been discovered? Perhaps that could last until after the elections in March?

Perhaps try making another heap of “It’s about” statements about an entirely unrelated area to try to take the heat off? Why not try threatening to sue a few of the people who voted you into power, but are disenchanted now?

Better get a move on with whatever you’ve decided to do. Woodville unrest has rapidly escalated from Save St Clair and now it has spread to all of Charles Sturt and beyond. We’re getting calls from groups and citizens all over the state who are disaffected by the government’s arrogance and failure to listen (remember your slogan at the last elections—‘Labor Listens’).

Maybe the simplest way out would be to back off St Clair Reserve altogether. Now that has a certain appeal about it…….Where did I leave that white horse tied up?