Speak up, union urges councillors
By SARAH ALLELY
SHELLHARBOUR councillors will be urged to put politics and point-scoring aside when they vote on a mayoral recommendation to oppose the lease of Killalea State Park land to a private company, South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris said.
Mr Rorris said the peak union body had written to councillors requesting they "support the community" in its concerns about the 52-year lease for a strata titled resort. David Hamilton's mayoral minute asks councillors to oppose any move by the Killalea State Park Trust or the Department of Lands to lease any land to private enterprise.
He made his position public last Monday, and Kiama Mayor and trust member Sandra McCarthy backed him up the next day. At tonight's council meeting, Mr Rorris will stress to councillors they can oppose a government lease without pre-empting future development applications.
"It will be a bit of a furphy to say `We haven't seen the plans'," Mr. Rorris said.
On April 30, NSW Lands Minister Tony Kelly signed an agreement to lease three parcels of land to Killalea Coastal Investments, a joint venture between Mariner Financial and Babcock & Brown. It allows 202 residential lodges, pools, tennis courts, restaurants and a conference centre.
Mr Rorris said councillors who favoured the lease should simply say so. He referred to councillor comments in Saturday's Mercury which criticised their Labor mayor for not caucusing, consulting or waiting for the development application.
"There may be people that do or don't like David Hamilton, but this issue is not about him, it's about Killalea," Mr Rorris said, adding "internal machinations, party politics and point-scoring" should not come into play.
Illawarra Mercury - 3 July 2007
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