Mr David Shoebridge, Greens MP NSW Parliament, spoke at our 3rd public Meeting, in addition to urging the campaign to continue to work towards fighting what he describes as a "fundamental attack on our natural and our historical heritage" he also brought up some important issues related to bushfire issues for the proposed development. Here is a transcript of what he said:Thanks for that. And I thoroughly enjoyed the traffic on the way here, and I'm sorry for being a little late.This is one of those moments when you realise that Sydney is bigger than just a little local area. It's bigger than just the headland, that in fact the heritage of Sydney, in fact much of Australia, is really colonial and aboriginal history. It's really typified in its quite unique and beautiful site there at Middle Head.For many people who don't, aren't lucky enough to live sort of close to Middle Head, their experience of Middle Head is when they fly past it on that Manly Ferry. They look at that beautiful, I think for a global city of the size and stature of Sydney, this truly unique part of our city which is we have that gorgeous national park, those amazing green fringes and that rich natural and colonial heritage which occupies the very centre of Sydney's harbour and really the very centre of Sydney.I've seen people criticising campaigns aiming to protect Middle Head from an extraordinary out-of-scale development as being NIMBYs, or Mosmanites or the little league, the passion with which they will apply to protect Middle Head, and I think they have fundamentally missed the point here about what Middle Head represents.When you go back and just look at simply the military history, the archaeology there from, I think, as early as 1801, I saw recorded archaeological and military history, we see those sort of waves of Australian coastline of history, first defending ourselves from the French, then the Russians, then the Japanese and the Germans. If you dig a little deeper and you a look a little bit more closely, you see that extraordinary aboriginal history that's on the sites, and the connection back to a continuous culture, the oldest traditional living continuous culture on the planet right there, right in the harbour of an amazing global city and protected by, I think, an extraordinary community campaign that existed 20 years ago.This is one of those moments where I think we need to revive that campaign and we need to dispel the myth that this is NIMBYs and narrow sectional interests. If this provides a go-ahead, if it's approved by the trust and then given a tick by the federal environment minister, it won't be about a little thing about Mosman, it's a fundamental attack on our natural and our historical heritage.What you're fighting for here, what you're struggling to protect is far bigger than just a little bit of Sydney. It is in many ways the heart of Sydney. It is something you should be proud that you're putting your hand up to protect. And I, I've got to say, when I look at the size of the gathering here today and I'm filled with real heart. I'm filled with real heart that if the Trust takes doesn’t listen and I do hope they do, then the minister must listen. Then surely the minister must listen. And if they don't listen, like previous propositions haven't listened, well then I think we need to continue to campaign, continue to pressure, because what you're struggling for, what you're fighting for, you should be uniting Sydney, not dividing Sydney.This idea that we must have an out-of-the-sky or inappropriately-located [inaudible 04:00] facility in order to make some economically-viable development in such a gorgeous heritage precinct, you only need to say that proposal to realise how ridiculous it is. Yes, the traffic is really killer. Yes, it is going to be really exclusive and limited-access, despite which all of the management plan documentation says it should be permeable and granting public access, instead we'll have a gated community for a privileged few. Too much of our harbour is gated communities for the privileged few.So I'd like to tell you I'm a Green [inaudible 04:43], but I think it should be well beyond Greens, or Liberals or Labor. Every elected representative, and I hope there's strong support on the Council, I've heard staff saying that, should be standing with you in order to protect it. I've put some of these thoughts into an opinion piece that was published just yesterday in New Matilda. I want you to go along and have a look at that. So stay united, stay strong, remember that you stand with people across Sydney, across Australia to protect this heritage. Thank you.
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