Editorial by Ruth Parnell
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Feb/Mar 2005
Happy Chinese Year of the Rooster! Last year, among members of the community
protesting the proposed Cornerstone Woolworths supermarket development,
it was surely the Year of the Roster -- and we can expect
a bit more of the same this year.
Just as I was finalising this edition, I heard Andrew Harper, MD of
Cornerstone Properties, interviewed by Steve Austin on Brisbane ABC
Radio. Mr Harper seems to have had an epiphany of sorts in that he's
now crowing over his company's plans to revegetate the "degraded"
Obi Obi site with 3,500 trees, set the concrete box further back from
the creekbank and "create parklands that the community wants".
Oh great! He seems to think that these initiatives are going to put
the community at large on side, when so many of us have made it quite
clear that we don't want a Woolworths supermarket on that site or anywhere
in Maleny for that matter. We're not even sure if there's any guarantee
that the trees which the community fought so hard to protect last year
will be spared in this new "greener" strategy.
Mr Harper announced that Cornerstone hopes to get started mid-year,
i.e., by June/July, which is a little later than the anticipated March
commencement, and hopes the construction will be finished early next
year. He reiterated that Cornerstone is contractually bound to Woolworths,
that it has all the required approvals and that the supermarket giant
has every right to enter the Range and provide goods that the growing
population wants.
So, in preparation for that inevitable "D-Day", the phone
tree is being reactivated and there's a growing list of people prepared
to put themselves on the line. Anyone who'd like to be part of these
actions should contact
Joe Colreavy on 5499 9662. Organisers are asking everyone to wear their
"I Won't Shop There" T-shirts and badges around town, especially
on weekends when visitors are here in numbers, to maintain momentum
and awareness. The Maleny Voice group is to hold its AGM on Saturday
26 February from 11 am at the Community Centre, so make a diary note.
We live in interesting times, as the Chinese proverb forewarned. Hope
you find the content of this latest edition interesting, too.
Ruth
[From "Maple Street Co-op News", Feb/Mar 2005; published by
The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny,
Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.co-op@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]