[Greens-Media] More spin, smoke and mirrors at Triangle site

[susan.pennicuik at parliament.vic.gov.au]

12 August 2008

More spin, smoke and mirrors at Triangle site

Greens MP for the Southern Metropolitan Region, Sue Pennicuik said today 
that "News that the Port Phillip Council has endorsed a supposedly revised 
development plan for the St Kilda Triangle site is just more spin, smoke 
and mirrors".

"The revised development plan remains essentially the same - way too big 
and a total misuse of publicly owned, crown land on the foreshore", she 
said.

"Reclassifying areas as 'retail' and 'offices associated with retail uses' 
to appear to meet a reduction in the retail component is a pretty cynical 
smoke and mirrors exercise and I am disappointed that the Council has gone 
along with such a scheme", said Ms Pennicuik.

"Even if the retail component is reduced from 23,000 sqm to 19,000 sqm, 
the development would still be too big and its focus on commercial 
activities is completely at odds with what public land should be used 
for", she said. 

"How is it appropriate to use our rare and precious public land on the 
foreshore for dozens of shops, banks, insurance and travel agencies that 
could be put anywhere on private land? It's completely wrong to hand 
public land over for private profit in this way".

"The state government should put an end to this travesty by acknowledging 
its responsibility for the heritage status of the Palais Theatre and 
providing funds for its restoration in the interests of all Victorians. 
This would take away the excuse that the developer, the council and the 
government continue to trot out to defend the overdevelopment on the rest 
of the site. "

"It's not too late to throw out this wrong headed proposal and come up 
with a plan that fulfils the community vision of the original Urban Design 
Framework, is not driven by shareholder profits, can be achieved with a 
lot less expenditure and has a low ecological footprint", she said.

Contact Sue Pennicuik:  0407 000 270
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