There’s a bit of buzz around the recent Clarence City Council’s elector poll at the moment and lots of social chatter with touch of media interest.
“It’s fantastic that the Clarence community have backed in having the AFL/AFLW High-Performance Centre in the former Rosny golf course site – that has always been my preferred option” posts (or should that be boasts?) the Mayor of Clarence on social media. But hold on a minute Mr Mayor! Are we looking at the same results?
And there’s been fist pumping and high fiving with a: “we won, we got the most votes” emanating from the local football brethren.
Excuse me, what?
I think there’s been a slight misunderstanding here. Hey, it’s important to understand what the elector poll results mean, right? Yes.
So firstly, a 62% participation rate in a non-compulsory elector poll is a great result by anyone’s calculation. I think we all agree on that.
Another thing we can all agree on is the High-Performance Centre being located across both Charles Hand Memorial Park and the Rosny Parkland showed a resounding 65% of residents voting NO! That’s a strong message for anyone who’s listening.
So then what is the issue with the Rosny Parklands result where 49% of people were against, and 51% were for the High-Performance Centre being located solely on that park?
To examine that result we need to properly understand the difference between an election and an elector poll and what it means for the Clarence poll.
Unlike a state election which deals with electing state-level representatives, where a majority of votes can determine outcomes based on the highest vote count, an elector poll seeks public consultation on issues through direct voting on specific matters. The community consultation process gathers different people’s opinions to inform council decisions. There is no win/lose in that case. It’s a fact-finding mission.
In the case of Clarence, when approximately 28,000 residents cast their vote at the recent elector poll, the result gave a narrow margin of just 2% in favour of locating the HPC in the Rosny Parklands. However, it was not a clear outcome given the tight margin, and it indicated highly-divided opinion within the community.
Why is that important? A close result like that divided the community and underscores the importance of Clarence Council addressing community concerns and being responsive to the closely-contested views within the electorate.
But where there should be thoughtful reflection there is instead a constant refusal by some members of the council to acknowledge the divided sentiment within the community. The Mayor has been crowing about his version of what he says the voter community wants, without acknowledging what other half of the voter community actually said they wanted.
So much has happened in the weeks and months since Clarence Council announced that Rosny Parklands would be the location of the High-Performance Centre. And it’s all been a tad dramatic darlings! One could go so far as to say unsettling for the community. And now, yet again, despite the results some council members are ignoring the voices of at least seventeen thousand of their constituents.
Despite that all that, here’s the good news for those people: Almost 14,000 people said NO to using Rosny Parklands for the AFL HPC. Let that sink in! That is roughly more than the combined population of Montague Bay, Bellerive and Howrah.
And over 17,000 people voted NO to the second question of both Charles Hand and Rosny Parks. You can add Warrane to the previous suburb list!
So, what does that tell us?
Did every single person in Montague Bay, Bellerive, Warrane and Howrah vote NO to the High-Performance Centre in either one or both parks? Nope.
That tells us that saving Rosny’s Parklands was important to a significant number of people from all over Clarence municipality whether they lived near the parklands or not. It tells us what what we need to know.
The High Performance Centre will go ahead regardless. No one is losing out. But enough people in Clarence don’t want it in their parklands. That should be enough for council to stop and think. If money and economic development is all that’s important to this council, then perhaps some introspection on their values is needed.
State government is working on jobs. Kingborough can house the HPC. Developers will come and go. But for the people who live in the municipality, their lifestyle and the liveability of the area are what is important to them.
You’ve been told time and again council. The area is unique. We need to develop it sensitively. We don’t need to be the big end of town. We like the idea of being a high quality, low key seaside and country-styled place.
We have lots of natural assets and beautiful places. What assets they are, keep them that way!
What we have in the current version of the Rosny CBD needs a lot of planning and beautification work. Focus on that and get it right. It’s a sure bet if there is such a thing that in the next decade, when the “other side” of the river is built up and built out they’ll be coming over to the ‘sunny side’ for some respite and to spend their well-earned cash in our local businesses, eateries and attractions. It’s subtle and it’s non branded, it’s the eastern shore vibe and that’s the way we like it.
Now might be the time for elected members of the Clarence Council to take stock of what is really important. People over profit. Parks as a viable and sustainable community asset.
It may be time to be brave councillors. Brave enough to listen to your community and strong enough to reconsider your previous thoughts so that we can all adopt a much kinder, more sustainable, community-endorsed, community-centred alternative option.
City Heart Plan? Just saying!
