Federal (Howard) Government's position on Pooh Corner
Gambaro's sell off!
The land at Pooh Corner (1.4 sq km) was owned by the Federal Department
of Defence. Since 1998, the Department of Defence had indicated Pooh Corner
was surplus defence land to be sold.
The Federal government was fully aware of the nature conservation values of
Pooh Corner yet did not enter into any public consultation process before the
"For Sale" signs suddenly appeared along the Wacol Station road in
late February 2005. This was despite a letter from the government saying that there would be public consultation prior to any sale.
The real estate agent acting for the Federal Government was Jones Lang Lasalle. They marketed Pooh Corner as a site suitable for developement into an industrial estate. Prespecitve buyers were advised they had only until the 27of March 2005 to submitt tenders and that Commonwealth government due dilligence material was available at the real estate office. All this informaiton was provided in a glossy sales brochure. Downloadjoint Federal Government and Jones Lang Lasalle glossy Pooh Corner sales brochure (pdf).
After discussions with the real estate agent and various public servants within
the Federal Government, Friends of Pooh Corner came to understand that
Federal MP, Teresa Gambaro authorised the sale of Pooh Corner to the highest bidder (two month tender sale), in her
role as Parliamentary Secretary to the Federal Minister for Defence.
In 2005 Theresa Gambaro's electorate included the northern suburbs of Brisbane. Although Pooh Corner
was outside Teresa Gambaro's immediate electorate, it is still a part
of the Brisbane metropolitan area and a part of what the Brisbane region has
to offer. Hence Teresa Gambaro's decision to sell off public land with extremely high
nature conservation values at Pooh Corner was a slap in the face to the
entire Brisbane community, including the people of her own electorate of Petrie. Theresa Gambaro never came to come to Pooh Corner to
see the high nature conservation forest and discuss issues with
Friends of Pooh Corner and other local conservation groups.
In April 2005, FoPC launched an intense media campaign that targeted Theresa Gambaro in her capacity as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence.
Pooh Corner was located in the Federal electorate of Oxley, where Bernie Ripoll was the local member. On the 12 April 2005, Mr Ripoll went to Pooh Corner and condemned Gambaro for her decision to sell Pooh Corner. Download: Ripoll media release dated 12 April 2005 .
Five days later, the Deputy Mayor for Brisbane City Council, Cr David Hinchliffe along with Environment chairperson Cr Helen Abrahams and other councillors travelled to Pooh Corner to condemn the sale. Download: Councillors' media release dated 17 April 2005.
However Gambaro became politically isolated as fellow Liberal party members would not support the sale of Pooh Corner. This included the former Liberal member for the Federal seat of Ryan, Michael Johnson and the then Liberal Mayor for Brisbane, Campbell Newman.
Gambaro was forced to change her position. At a joint press release on the 21 April Gambaro and Campbell Newman announced that the Government would gift Pooh Corner to the Brisbane City Council.
Download:Joint Gambaro and Newman media release dated 21 April 2005.
For a legal sale of land, there needed to be a nominal cost (consideration); this ended up being just $1.
The media reported 'people power' had prevailed against the Federal Government.
