Greens candidate for Maranoa Grant Newson

April 3, 2013

Residents of Kingaroy and the South Burnett should be seriously alarmed at how easily a public park can be sold off regardless of the massive disapproval of ratepayers, Greens Candidate for Maranoa Grant Newson said today.

Mr Newson told southburnett.com.au he thought selling off a piece of Adermann Park in Kingaroy to St John’s School was “disgraceful”.

“They’ve disregarded all the petitioners for a sale to a private business,” he said.

“Public assets should not be sold off. It’s a sad day for the community of Kingaroy to lose a piece of park space.”

Mr Newson said he also had issues about the process taken by South Burnett Regional Council.

He said he’d used the public consultation period to conduct a door-to-door survey to learn how people living in the neighbourhood viewed the proposal, and had done so as a private citizen who believed the sale was wrong, not as a Greens candidate.

“An overwhelming percentage of random people I approached objected to this sale of their already limited public park area.”

Mr Newson said South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann commenting on radio that the sale was a “fait accompli” and Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington giving the sale her “blessing” displayed either “ignorance of due process or arrogance towards the people of the South Burnett”.

“Council cannot deny their involvement in this process as they wrote letters supporting the sale of this public parkland to DNRM and others,” he said.

“This statement of position by Councillors on this matter (was made) before any consideration was given to public opinion.

“Council’s claim that there is a surplus of park lands in Kingaroy is rubbish, just like they tried to claim that the cost of maintenance was a factor.

“They just saved over $200,000 per year by stopping the toxic fluoridation of the undrinkable town water. That would mow the lawn for a few years.

“The LNP position on the sale of public assets goes well beyond just the electricity grid and health care, where will this continual ‘sell everything’ mentality end?”

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