Kurnell: Take It With A Grain Of Salt

It's been amusing to see Sutherland Shire mayor Kevin Schreiber blustering all over the airwaves this week over the `raping and pillaging' of Kurnell, the `birthplace of European Australia', for a mooted Carr Government desalination plant.

Poor old Kurnell - it's a godforsaken place, frankly. There's a couple of plaques, a nice visitor's centre, but it's no Plymouth Rock. And while the NSW Government aren't entirely blameless, the Liberal-led Sutherland Shire Council, whose drive to redevelop anything in sight (and preferably invite John Brogden to the opening) is not only notorious, but well and truly includes Kurnell and its surrounds. Control of the council has ebbed and flowed over the years, with Schreiber and co losing and then regaining the reins from a series of Labor and Independent mayors.

Consider for example Liberal State Member for Cronulla Malcolm Kerr's Hansard huffery about a militant leftist/Wests Tigers conspiracy being held over the Sutho Council (then led by Independent mayor Tracey Sonda, a member of the anti-development Shire Watch coalition) to selfishly block a massive development planned by the Sharks Leagues Club in adjacent Wooloware Bay. As the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre said:

Q.: What's [Sutherland] Council done by sanctioning apartment building by the Sharks?

A.: A disastrous decision. Because this is a sports club, a majority of councillors who say they want to preserve Kurnell Peninsula have voted for a massive development on Woolooware Bay. It would, if allowed by State Government, set a precedent which will be cheered by every landowner from North Cronulla to Kurnell refinery – they'll cash in happily on a building bonanza that will see thousands of dwellings on Australia 's historic birthplace. Just foolishness.

The fact of the matter: yes, desalination is a silly idea. But Sutherland Shire Council getting all uppity about it? Take it with a grain of salt.