It was a great privilege to speak at the Save Ralphs Bay forum last night in front of such a passionate audience who’ve been fighting heroically now for 6 years against the disgusting canal development proposal which would privatise a publicly owned conservation area. I told them amongst other things that Socialist Alliance supports a ban on canal estates in Tasmania.
Our response includes:
The Socialist Alliance fully supports the Save Ralphs Bay campaign and the dedicated work that you have put into submissions and community protest to explain the inappropriateness of this development. It is obvious that the majority of the local community is opposed but furthermore that many others who appreciate the beauty of this area are also opposed.
We believe that the social and environmental impacts far outweigh the benefits of the development and let’s face it what would be the so called benefits if not just profits for a few already-wealthy corporate bosses and shareholders. Why should a greedy minority dictate what we do as ordinary people with the land? "
Socialist Alliance supports additional funding for the Tasmanian Planning Commission, to provide assistance for the Tasmanian community to engage large
corporations in the Commission process fairly and on an even playing field. We supprot this as I am sure that the Save Ralphs Bay group would have discovered through experience that this is necessary.
Socialist Alliance believes that additional funding for the Tasmanian Planning Commission needs to be provided to produce transcripts of TPC hearings, freely available for scrutiny by media and the public on the Commission's website. We believe that this would improve transparency and public accountability.
The SA supports a strong State Coastal Policy, able to protect Tasmania’s beautiful coastlines, coastal wildlife and peaceful communities from multiple threats.
The state government started a review of the State Coastal Policy in 2004 and why hasn’t the final policy been released.
See their website for our submission http://www.saveralphsbay.org/
