The Federal election has started with Lindsay Shurey the Greens candidate for Kingsford Smith pointing to Peter Garrett’s “lack of infrastructure planning” for port and airport expansions in Southern Sydney.
Ms Shurey said on Sunday that Garret has ignored predicted traffic warnings. She elaborated,
“Peter Garrett has failed his constituents by not reading authoritative predictions that freight container movements from Port Botany will smash through what was supposed to be a maximum cap of 3.2 million a year. “
Ms Shurey claims that the MP has failed to intervene to head off growing road congestion as more and more containers are forced on to trucks to bypass the area’s limited rail facilities.
She said,
“Garrett should have spotted that expansions of Port Botany and the airport are unsustainable with the lack of rail facilities available in the area. He should be promoting positive intervention such as funding the state government to complete the unfinished Maldon-Dombarton rail line that could service Port Kembla. Plus he should be calling for a second airport outside Sydney. “
The Greens say the projected truck movement increase highlights the Government’s “climate change indifference” and that ways should be found for more freight to be moved around the state by rail.
Ms Shurey said,
“Our federal MP and Environment Minister has been asleep on the job while his government’s environment profile is eroded by the forced growth of container truck movements from Port Botany. No wonder Julia Gillard still hasn’t committed to a climate change strategy.”
Last week the Southern Courier newspaper revealed Labor Mayor Ron Hoenig warning that traffic congestion is growing in Kingsford Smith.
The Greens agree and point to a NSW Ministry of Transport submission to the draft National Ports Strategy that shows that the maximum planned for “cap” of 3.2 million freight movements a year out of Port Botany can’t be kept to.
“The trade forecasts for Sydney are not correct. NSW have agreed or approved the forecasts. At this time the trade simulation that NSW agency, Sydney Ports Corporation, is developing has an average growth rate of just under 6% which puts container trade in 2029/30 at 5.8 million.“ (clause 8.2. NSW Ministry of Transport's submission to the Draft National Ports Strategy.) Ms Shurey is worried that Garrett will “…acquiesce to misguided calls for further freeway expansions allowing more polluting trucks into his electorate”. S
he elaborated by asking Garrett a series of provocative questions.
“Labor Mayor Ron Hoenig’s statements reveal that his is acknowledging the mess that Labor’s failed infrastructure planning has got the Botany area into. But is Peter Garrett listening? Will we see the federal government funding more movement of freight by rail? Will we see a second airport out side Sydney? Or will we see Peter Garrett acquiesce to Hoenig’s misguided calls for further freeway expansions allowing more polluting trucks into his electorate?”
The Greens are intending to bring out a series of media statements attacking Garrett’s environmental performance in the run up to election day the 21st August.
These include:
· Julia Gillards’ lack of an articulated climate change strategy;
· The need for national package waste legislation (i.e. “Container Deposit Legislation”);
· Dredging threats to the ecosystem of Botany Bay;
· The failure to fund the new environment park at Bundock Street; and
· The failure to turn federal land at Malabar Headland into a national park;
On social justice issues Ms Shurey wants to see that:
· Essential services such as education, public transport, health and hospital systems are properly funded; and
· Asylum seekers are treated with dignity and have their UN decreed rights to flee persecution upheld.
Lindsay Shurey has campaigned energetically for many years on local government planning issues and community concerns about anti social behaviour.
She is passionate about human rights, social justice for all, protecting our environment and accountability in government at every level.
Lindsay lives in Maroubra with her architect husband and their daughter. She is a long time member and supporter of the Friends of Malabar Headland and an active member of her local precinct committee.