Media Release
22-3-04
Greens Refute Hypocritical Attack on Central Ward Candidate
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Greens Central Ward candidate Clare Raffan has responded angrily to allegations that the Greens ...
"...support the ALP majority on Council which brought us Bundock St, Maroubra Mall & other overdevelopment."
She said,
"To claim that the Greens have supported Labor over Bundock Street and on over-development in general shows an ignorance of local political history."
The allegations have been made in a poster authorised by Randwick Community Independent candidate Andrew Hamilton who is himself directing preferences to the Labor Party after the Liberals.
Ms Raffan disproved the allegations by pointing to the often acrimonious battle waged between Greens Councillor Murray Matson and ALP Mayor Dominic Sullivan over the Bundock Street development site.
She said,
"Greens Councillor Matson has opposed the ALP over many aspects of the Bundock Street site since 1995. These include excessive development, protection of the wetlands, clarification of the degree of contamination, and protection of residents from noise, vibration and dust damage.
Our web site at www.randwickbotanygreens.org.au clearly shows the number of Bundock related Council motions that have been voted down by the ALP."
Councillor Matson also responded to Hamilton by suggesting that he (Hamilton) had shown no interest in the Bundock Street issue until the election. Matson said,
"I suspect that Andrew Hamilton has little real knowledge of the decade long battle between the Greens and the Labor party over the Bundock Street issue.
He says he has lived in the area for 13 years but in reality he has only once to my knowledge attended a meeting of the local Moverly Precinct Committee and discussed Bundock Street.
The only meeting he attended was the last one before the election and he was late to that.
I think that its a bit rich for Mr Hamilton to claim we are supporting Labor when he himself refused to exchange preferences with the Greens in Central Ward. "
Cr Matson accused Mr Hamilton of undermining the probability of the non-Labor/Liberal candidates winning a seat by his refusal to enter into a preference deal with the Greens.
Cr Matson elaborated,
If Hamilton and the Greens could have agreed to exchange preferences with each other ahead of both of the major parties, then one of us would have probably taken a seat from them in Central Ward. Hamilton's decision to go to Labor and the Liberals ahead of us has made that much more difficult. We tried to contact him to talk about it but he shunned us."