We’ve received a copy of Cr. Penhalluriack’s speech last night –
The residents of this municipality know exactly where I stand on the issue of opening up the Caulfield Racecourse Reserve for public use, rather than as a private estate for the “rich and famous”, as it has been used by the Racing Fraternity for the past 153 years.
What the residents of this municipality do not know is where you, the rest of their elected representatives, stand. If you vote against this motion then I’m afraid you will have abandoned not only your moral obligations to this community but also you will have abandoned your fiduciary obligations to ensure that public resources are used to benefit the entire community.
This is the moment of truth.
Alan Jones, the very successful Wallabies Coach, once said:
“There are many things we can never get back. There is time, this very minute, this very second of our lives … we will never have it again.
“Then there are words, what you and I are saying right now will never be heard or spoken in the same light in any other point in time.
“And finally there are opportunities, once missed you are never given the chance again.”
This is one such occasion. This is the time, these are the words, and this is the only opportunity you are ever going to get to make amends for 150 years of monopoly that the “Sport of Kings” – even that name rings of arrogance — has over our public recreation ground and our public park. We must seize the opportunity with both hands, or forever know that we personally have not done our best for the community. We have let them down.
Listen to your conscience. Apply your hearts and minds to this issue.
Glen Eira has only 1.4 hectares of open space per 1,000 residents. That’s less than any other local government in Victoria. 14 sq.m. per person. About half the size of a small bedroom.
The time of reckoning is here, right now. Will you settle for a half a car-park, or a real public park? This choice is of vital importance to every citizens of Glen Eira — and to those who live well beyond our borders. It can put Glen Eira on the world map of beautiful parks.
The people have elected you. The people trust you. The choice is yours, and yours alone.
We are about to make a decision which will have lifelong consequences for the population and the surrounds of this municipality. The community has every right to expect that we, as its democratically elected decision makers, put the community’s interests above those of the MRC. We must ensure that our processes of decision making are beyond reproach. We must ensure we are open and transparent. We are a government of the people, by the people and, most importantly, for the people. We all have to justify our stance now, at the next election and, most importantly, to your own consciences as you lie in bed tonight and reflect on what you have done for the wider community.
Finally, let me remind you of a Select Committee that the Minister for Health chaired in 2008. One of many supportive conclusions was “that evidence from the Trustees themselves illustrates the complete lack of appreciation for the original purposes of the Reserve as a Public Park and the responsibility to uphold that purpose (the public park purpose) with equal status as horse racing.” (P.135).
At that hearing it became apparent that some Racing Industry appointed Trustees did not even know the boundaries between the MRC’s freehold land and the Crown Land which they supposedly govern and control.
It is some three years after that Select Committee reported to Parliament. Only now is Council claiming some small portion, some 30%, of the Crown Land. We are laying claim to a redundant runt accessible only via a quarter-kilometre long tunnel. Councillors, for the life of me, is that asking too much?
Following on from that Select Committee, on the 27th November 2009 , the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment the Hon Gavin Jennings, told Parliament … “I wanted to be satisfied that the net benefit of this would derive a community benefit and that there would be the potential once and for all to make sure that the community is aware this is a public reserve and not, as it may have been perceived for decades, a private space.
“We are unswerving in our determination to ensure that there is a public benefit derived from this public reserve.”
Council has not made adequate demands on Parliament or the Trustees on behalf of its citizens. Tonight we have an opportunity to correct that anomaly. If you vote with your heart and your mind you must vote for this motion
Glen Eira Debates 
February 23, 2011 at 1:23 PM
I’d also like to add my congratulations to Crs. Penhalluriack and Forge for initiating and lobbying hard for this motion to get through. It is about time that councillors took the bull by the horns and made their views absolutely clear via a binding motion. What is disappointing is the apparent attitudes of Crs. Lipshutz and Hyams and their quibbling over something as important as addressing the lack of open space in this municipality. If they cannot see that the community expects them not to be lawyers first and foremost, but to be firm advocates for the people who elected them, then I’d argue that they have no right to sit on council. We do not need lawyers, and we do not need councillors that cannot see beyond the fine print. We need individuals who are prepared to support and fight for the local community. Thus far I have no evidence to conclude that Lipshutz, Hyams and Tang have realised this.
February 23, 2011 at 9:31 PM
The funny thing about all this is that Frank has taken the facts and twisted them to somehow produce a stupid argument. Everyone in the west of our municipality knows about our lack of open space but there are many parts of the City that have adequate open space. If you live in Park St North Caulfield you have 57 hectres across the Road. Also his arguement tries to embarrass Councillors into voting for an incomplete arguement. What about employment and enjoyment our Ratepayers and their families get. What about this being a vital asset in a large,important Australia wide industry. Next we will be inspecting the Racecourse for Salmanella.
February 23, 2011 at 10:30 PM
Ah yes….anonymous the MRC stooge is back. Once again anon (if I can be some faimilar to shorten your name) you have failed to look at facts, review the VEAC report (together with the abysmal GE Council official response or the blatant half truths of the MRC response) and any other open space source you care to name…. indisputably Glen Eira has the least open space per 1000 people than any municipality in the Melbourne Metropolitan area. Yeah sure those that like by parks can be shown to have more access to open space than those that don’t. Funny ain’t it how averages or per population figures tend to level the playing field between the haves and haves not.
As to what your argument has to do with the integrity of Frank, or the significance on the racing industry vs the racing industry’s continued historical failure to comply with legal obligations to provide open space, I’m afraid I miss your point and cordially invite you to elucidate.