Andrea Dawkins MP | Greens' Environment spokesperson
Labor and the Liberals voted together against a Greens' Motion calling for far greater transparency in Crown Land deals with private developers.
Under the Hodgman Government, deals are being done with developers over public land, through the secretive Office of the Coordinator-General. There is no requirement for public consultation on unsolicited bids or a decision by the State Government to make publicly owned assets available.
This secretive Crown Land trading process is targeting some of the most valuable areas of public Crown Land from Swansea to Boat Harbour.
The Greens sought to stop the government's trading in Crown Land until the full details are made public, but both Labor and the Liberals banded together to vote against our Motion.
Both the Liberals and Labor are united in their generations-old attachment to crony capitalism. This is the same political culture within Labor and the Liberal Parties that has bred deals like the Federal Hotels' monopoly deed.
The Liberals have become well known for their secrecy and deals for private developers. For all their talk of transparency, the Labor Party were content to join them in voting down the Greens' Motion that sought to reveal what public land was on the table.
The Liberals are secretly trading significant tracts of coastal Crown Land, and private developers are being offered exclusive rights to public land, at public expense. The only Party that stood up for public access to public land this evening, was the Greens.
This is what ‘open for business’ looks like under the Liberals, and it was backed in by the Labor Opposition.