“Canberra Matters” columnist PAUL COSTIGAN looks at the spin in the latest newsletter from the Chief Minister.

CURIOUSLY, the spin highlighted below is available only in the August Central Canberra newsletter from the Chief Minister. It is not in the newsletter for Tuggeranong, Woden-Weston, Belconnen or for Gungahlin.

Apparently, news about how the ACT Greens and ACT Labor are messing with Lake Burley Griffin is of little interest to residents not living in Central Canberra. Good to know!

On page three of Land-Swap Barr’s Central Canberra newsletter is this:

Acton Waterfront Extension takes shape 

Since September, 2020, about 150,000 tonnes of rocks have been used to reclaim 30,000 square metres of the lake, which brings the new lake edge in line with Walter Burley Griffin’s original vision for the West Basin. The project includes a 500-metre boardwalk from Henry Rolland Park to give Canberrans better access to the lakefront

“In line with Walter Burley Griffin’s original vision for the West Basin”. Did he really say that? Does Barr have any idea what Walter and Marion intended for this part of the lake?

To assist him I have included this link – a research paper on the topic.

When he reads it over the weekend, he will discover how the original intentions and plans (there were several) have been distorted in more recent years by a 2004 NCA document titled The Griffin Legacy.

The glossy document was full of pretty pictures and offered up developer-friendly guidance for building inappropriate stuff on the foreshores of the lake. This misconstruing of facts is the basis for decisions by the present Greens-Labor coalition for filling in West Basin to create opportunities for a new suburban development.

The title “The Griffin Legacy” was an ingenuous use of the name of the original designers. Filling in West Basin is not something they would have approved. The NCA’s document is a manifesto for development that is being used to override the original intent of the city’s designers.

For the Chief Minister to use the words “In line with Walter Burley Griffin’s original vision” is pure bunkum. Those who wrote the paragraph for him, know it is misleading. No surprises there!

Given that the obvious reasons for destroying West Basin are to please the developer lobbyists and to build a folly as Andrew Barr’s legacy to the city, one wonders what the ACT Greens and ACT Labor stand for in the way of valuing heritage, the built environment, biodiversity, need for parklands, and respect for the people. “Do No Harm” must be an ideal totally foreign to them.

West Basin is happening. As with the War Memorial expansion, there are things being done in our name that future generations are going to be perplexed as to how these things were allowed to happen.

None of this will make any sense to the present cabal of ACT government politicians. Facts are no longer valued. Instead facts are often avoided and misrepresented in decisions on planning and urban development. 

While it is very unsettling to have it made clearer that this is how they are to Build A Better Normal, it is the ACT government’s constant flow of bunkum that really stinks!