Newman takes aim at former colleagues, hints at Victoria Park legal strategy

3 months ago 21

For the 100-or-so people who assembled on a Victoria Park ridge to mark 150 years since its establishment on Wednesday morning, the mood was more resolute than celebratory.

Resolute that their campaign to prevent a 63,000-seat stadium being built on the inner-city site would ultimately be successful, despite the considerable headwinds they faced.

Those headwinds were literal as well as figurative near the Victoria Park golf clubhouse in the post-dawn light, wreaking havoc with paintings and signs placed around a survey marker, indicating a future borehole for the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority’s search for a suitable location for the stadium.

Campbell Newman with an unflattering painting of his former LNP government colleagues David Crisafulli and Jarrod Bleijie.

The message from the Save Victoria Park group was clear – there was no suitable location to be found within the park’s borders.

Former Queensland premier and Brisbane lord mayor Campbell Newman gave an impassioned speech to the crowd, which included his old sparring partner in City Hall, former Labor deputy mayor David Hinchliffe.

“Here we are in a green oasis of rolling hills, a precious piece of space,” Newman said.

“But in the background there we’re seeing the towers of this city grow.

Former deputy mayor David Hinchliffe painting a vista of Victoria Park during Wednesday’s protest.

“I’ll say up front this morning, I’m a capitalist. I’m for private enterprise. Some people here won’t feel that way perhaps today, but I welcome growth and development, and I certainly am a supporter of the Olympics, but that in no way gives any sort of rationale for what is being contemplated right here.”

Newman said the group was ready to take out injunctions to prevent work being done at the site, to protect its Indigenous heritage.

“The story hasn’t been told yet about the diabolical position that the government have put themselves in.

“They think they can legislate away the rights of Queenslanders to have their say about this. What they can’t do is interfere in federal legislation, longstanding legislation, that is there to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage.”

Last year, a mythical blue-banded bee from local Indigenous creation legends and songlines forced changes to a planned gold mine in central western NSW.

Newman said the Indigenous links to Victoria Park would be even easier to prove because they were well documented “in black and white” in early European records.

“The legal process, as far as I’m concerned, is clear ... because the case for this [Indigenous] association with this place is very clear,” he said.

“I’m sure that the lawyers will look at every avenue to challenge that.”

Brisbane Yuggera Elder Aunty Gaja Kerry Charlton, who as part of the Yagara Magandjin Aboriginal Corporation has launched a legal challenge against the stadium through Section 10 of the Commonwealth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act, said the site and its trees were vital to First Nations law and lore.

“Brisbane, named after Governor [Thomas] Brisbane, is synonymous with the most prolific tree-clearing governor,” she said.

“We’ve got a legacy there between two cultures with very different world views and values.”

Sue Bremner speaking beside a GIICA bore marker.

Newman also had choice words for the man he, as premier, elevated to the position of attorney-general for the state of Queensland.

“If they attempt, in their arrogance – I’m talking about Jarrod Bleijie now – to start knocking over trees, digging holes in this place ... I’m sure the lawyers will be looking at every avenue for injunctive relief in the courts, in front of a judge who will consider the evidence,” he said.

“I’m sure [that judge] will see a compelling case that they need to actually consider the matter properly before any project can proceed.”

Save Victoria Park organiser Sue Bremner said their fight was “absolutely not” over.

“I was standing here when the wind was blowing over David’s paintings and prints there, thinking, yes, ‘Barrambin’ means a windy place, and we are actually standing on the ridges where over 1000 First Nations people had their camps, right on these ridges,” she said.

That was a heritage worth protecting, Bremner said.

Comment has been sought from Bleijie.

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