Premier Peter Malinauskas has been urged to consider the level of community support for your Open, Green Public Adelaide Park Lands before settling on a site to build new police barracks.
Responding to an upwelling in community support for your Park Lands, the Premier on Monday 5 June still refused to rule out building massive new police premises on your Park Lands.
Leaked artist’s impression
The Premier said on 5 June that there were four sites still under consideration, to build a semi-industrial SA Police security-fenced compound. The compound would include stables for 40 horses, offices and meeting rooms for 30 staff, a kitchen, change-rooms, showers, toilets and lockers, horse “tack” rooms, a veterinary suite, fodder stores, a secure gun room, garaging for horse floats, staff car parking and more.
To accommodate all these facilities, SA Police want eight hectares, an area bigger than the Adelaide Oval stadium.
The Premier has admitted that two of the potential sites still under consideration are on your Park Lands, and two are not, but he won’t give details.
His Government is “consulting” but only with SA Police. It’s a secret process, with no opportunity for your comment.
The State Government runs a website “YourSay” described as “Where you can influence government decisions”.
However with a decision looming about what would be the biggest-ever attack on your Open Green Public Park Lands, your feedback is not invited. Your opinions are not being taken into account on the ”YourSay” website or elsewhere.
The State Government is now under pressure to comply with an Ombudsman’s ruling that it must release its original list of 15 potential sites, drawn up in October 2022. Channel 7’s Andrea Nicolas reports:
In the meantime, this site in Golden Wattle Park / Mirnu Wirra (Park 21 West) is still the only site that has been confirmed as under threat.
Looking south, across Golden Wattle Park / Mirnu Wirra (Park 21W) with Whitmore Square and South Terrace in the foreground and Greenhill Road and the Wayville Showgrounds in the background. This is an artist’s impression of how the proposed SA Police compound would dominate what is now part of your Open Green Public Adelaide Park Lands.
What Can You Do?
Watch and share the video above with your friends, and especially with Labor MPs. Here is a direct link to share our video: https://youtu.be/Gs0tqRNnLt0
Write directly to the Premier. Here is a draft of a suggested email.
Write your own letter to the Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek. Here’s her email address and a suggested email.
Write to the National Park City Foundation in London. When the Foundation named Adelaide a National Park City in 2021, they said that the status would create “higher expectations” for Park Lands protection. Clearly those expectations have been dashed, so Adelaide’s status should be at least reviewed, if not revoked. Here’s a suggested email to the National Park City Foundation.
Read more:
6 June 2023 - Police told to hand over barracks relocation documents
21 April 2023 - Leaked: images of SAPOL compound in your Park
Six attacks in a Year
This is the State Government’s Park Lands record since being elected in March 2022:
