OPINION

Linda Poulton, Westbury

WHEN THE Government abandoned the prison project on the Westbury industrial estate on 18 June, it did not come as a surprise to opponents here in Westbury.

We had begun to publicise details of the close, historic collaboration between the Government and the Council on the selection of the industrial site, aimed at securing the delivery of the prison to Westbury.

This level of collaboration had not previously been known by the public.

The Government’s determination to press ahead with Westbury and the Council’s obvious support for this course, in the face of ongoing passionate public opposition, was looking unhealthily obsessive.

So on 18 June, Tasmania’s most powerful developer was driven off its chosen site at Westbury.

For be under no illusion: when it comes to this prison project, the Government is wearing its developer’s hat. And this developer has deep, taxpayer funded pockets to see its project over the line.

When the Government abandoned the industrial estate in June 2020, it had already spent significant taxpayer dollars over nearly 12 months preparing its planning application.

In September 2019, it had engaged SGS Economics and Planning (SGS) to produce a report that would show only the benefits, not the downsides, of the prison.

When the Government is viewed as a developer, this should come as no surprise.

Like any developer, the Government paid a consultant to present its planning application in the most favourable light. Like any paid consultant, SGS performed that task.

The only real surprise is that the Government now insists that SGS is an independent umpire and we are told to accept the findings in its report.

But this umpire is anything but independent.

The Government says that the SGS report justifies the prison being nudged just a little further down the road. It says that it has listened to opponents.

This statement is as ludicrous as it is self-serving.

It is true that opponents wanted the prison to be moved away from Westbury. So far away that the prison could have absolutely no association with our small, historic town. This decision was not made to placate opponents, and was never going to.

So, we ask, what is the real reason for the project being moved just a little further up the road, to a far more expensive building site with its own unique and significant set of complications?

Perhaps some people had believed, despite no ‘final decision’ having been made, that the industrial site was well and truly in the bag and had gambled on that outcome. Perhaps keeping the prison close to Westbury is aimed at placating them.

This is a far more logical conclusion, for there is no other reason why the obsession with Westbury has not been well and truly shaken off.

The ongoing fixation on locating the prison near Westbury now has more of a stench than before, something that we who knew its already torrid history had not thought possible.