More On ADI Site Related Stuff

"We secured from the Government a commitment at the last election that they would not sell off government-owned land without consulting with the local community. Now we find... they have their fingerprints over a secret deal, which the community would not have been even made aware of, had we not been able to uncover this information at the eleventh hour."

- David Bradbury, Penrith Mayor + Federal ALP Candidate

That's taken from Cranebrook Sell-Off Broke Promise: ALP.

Hmm. The land was sold off by Airservices Australia (they do air traffic control stuff), to Infracorp. Airservices Australia is a government-owned organisation, yet the public wasn't told about this at all. Double hmm.

Infracorp sent a letter to the ASX on the 30th of July, announcing that it bought the land and intends to develop it. Sounds like a lot of public consultation went on (yes, that was sarcasm).

The Labor candidate for the seat of Lindsay, David Bradbury - who is the current Penrith mayor - said the sale of the Cranebrook site, and the revelation of the in-house environmental report on western Sydney lands - smacked of secrecy, and suspicious upcoming deals.

"As the Cranebrook example shows, there may well have been some consultation with developer interests, but there has been no consultation with local community interests," he said.

The member for Lindsay, Jackie Kelly, broke her silence on the issue yesterday and called on the council to block any efforts to rezone the land.

"I will continue to fight against over-development for the people of western Sydney," she said.

So Jackie at last speaks! The question is, why did she only speak now, given that she most likely would have known all about this back in July (and is supposedly against all this type of stuff)?

Infracorp stands to make a shitload of cash if council rezones the land.

And finally, Ian Campbell, Liberal Minister For The Environment, says a report finds that only 4 out of 28 sites in Western Sydney are worth saving.

He said that despite a council report suggesting the site had threatened species and rare woodlands, the Government's environmental assessment had uncovered no evidence to support such a conclusion.

The report still hasn't actually been released to the public.