With votes being counted this Saturday and a tight result predicted, this is my final update on candidate and party positions on Toondah.

Thank you to the Greens, NLP and LNP for responding to my requests for position statements. As I say, it’s up to you who you vote for but I hope you will Vote 1 Moreton Bay. 

Please see below the position statement for the Greens candidate for Bowman, Ian Mazlin:

‘I'm sure that most people reading this are aware, but just in case:

It is proposed  to gift a developer more than 40 hectares of Ramsar listed wetlands in the Moreton Bay Marine Park to build 3,600 apartments on the feeding grounds of our endangered migratory birds. This area is also important for turtles, dugongs and many other marine species. The sediment disturbed would smother sea grass and coral over a very large area. The construction phase would also lead to the destruction of our precious Toondah koala colony.

The Greens are the only party to consistently oppose the proposed development. The Greens have highlighted this issue through Michel Berkman in State Parliament and Federally through Larissa Waters in the Senate. Locally, myself and the other Redlands Greens, have joined the hard working community groups who are fighting this atrocity in many actions and events.

 This proposal should never have been considered. The major parties say they are waiting for the science, but the science was decided in 2018 when the Federal Environment Department ruled that the proposal was clearly unacceptable. Numerous scientific experts have left no doubt that this was the correct decision. Instead, Josh Frydenberg ignored the advice, and sent it for an Environmental Impact Statement which is still undelivered.

The major parties would have us believe that their support of the project has nothing to do with the $250,000 Walker Corp donated to both the ALP and the coalition during the approval process or their long history of association and declared political donations to both of them  totalling over $2.5 million.

The proposed Toondah Harbour development is one of my key motivations for running as a Greens candidate because it illustrates the massive flaws in our environmental legislation, planning laws and political donations rules. Environmental protection, cleaning up politics and giving communities a real say are key to this issue and they're central to the Greens platform.

This and similar developments would not be possible if there were sufficient Greens voices in government.

We must stop this abomination from proceeding and the Greens are the only political party with the will to keep fighting against it.

Ian Mazlin

Greens Candidate for Bowman