They Tried to Silence Us Tonight—But Our Message Was Received (Albeit Ignored!)

Dear Supporters,

Tonight, our fight to Save Timor Barracks went straight to the floor of Parramatta Town Hall, and the Federal Government proved just how terrified they are of our message.

The Attempt to Silence the Community

It became immediately clear that the political back-channels were working overtime ahead of tonight's meeting. Assistant Minister for Defence Peter Khalil MP deliberately bypassed allowing me a microphone during the official public Q&A queue. They knew the "bombshell" legislative flaw we had uncovered regarding the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW) was coming, and their only tactical escape hatch was to deny us a voice.

The Confrontation on the Floor

I forced our critical message directly onto the floor, shouting out the reality they are trying to hide:

Aboriginal land claims will ensure that no fiscal or sovereign benefit will be had for any of the divestment properties in NSW due to the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1983.

The moment Defence personnel walk out of Timor Barracks, it will be subject to a land claim—similar to what happened to the Old Parramatta Gaol, where a claim was made in 2011 and eventually resolved by being granted to the local Aboriginal Land Council in 2015.  A Timor Barracks land claim will join the existing 38,000 to 44,000 claim backlog here in NSW, freezing property titles for decades and locking taxpayers into millions of dollars of ongoing holding costs for an empty and unutilised base.

Assistant Minister Khalil’s knee-jerk response was to declare from the stage that what I was saying was "incorrect."  When I immediately fired back with the hard truth—"Just look at what happened to Spectacle Island!" (which is one of the other 11 NSW Military sites marked for divestment, where a current claim has been made by the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council and is costing the taxpayers between $1m to $4m per year in upkeep costs without being of any benefit to the military or anyone else) — Assistant Minister Khalil completely ignored this precedent.

Why Tonight Was a Turning Point

They didn't ignore us because we were wrong. They ignored us because they have absolutely no legal or financial answer to this multi-million dollar blunder.

By publicly denying state statutory laws on the record tonight, the Assistant Minister has walked straight into a trap.  I have already briefed The Daily Telegraph on tonight’s cover-up, contrasting the Minister's denials with the literal reality of the active land claim campaign freezing the Spectacle Island Defence site in Sydney Harbour.

They tried to deal with this quietly, but instead, they have supercharged our momentum. We are not backing down.

Please share our petition link with five friends tonight. Let’s hit 1,000 signatures and show Canberra that they cannot silence the community!