Hillcrest residents railroaded by ARTC
October 20, 2017
Member for Algester Leeanne Enoch has slammed the Australian Rail Track Corporation for shunting the concerns of Logan locals by ignoring their calls for public consultation on the Inland Rail project.
Ms Enoch, a local resident who lives near the proposed rail line, said she shared community anger after ARTC derailed plans by the Hillcrest Neighbourhood Watch group for an information session on the controversial project.
“As a Hillcrest local myself, I regularly attend the Hillcrest Neighbourhood Watch group meetings, and I think it’s totally unacceptable the ARTC has failed to deliver on plans to consult with local residents, now for a second time,” Ms Enoch said.
“Living near the rail line, I understand how community concern about this project is turning to anger and frustration.
“The fact local voices – and concerns – are not being heard by the Federal LNP Government is not good enough.”
Hillcrest Neighbourhood Watch President Bob Stack is one of many local residents concerned about the Inland Rail Project and what it will mean for the community. He attended one of the ARTC’s information sessions earlier this year, where he asked representatives to attend a Neighbourhood Watch meeting to provide residents with further information.
“They were quite willing at the time to come to the meeting and pass the information on, so I let our members know. But then on the day, they just didn’t turn up. I didn’t get any notice that they wouldn’t be attending,” Mr Stack said.
“A few days later, I got a phone call from the ARTC saying the fact our meeting was happening didn’t get passed on to the right people due to lack of communication. Apparently no one was told to attend. This was our August meeting.
“They said at the time they would come to our next meeting, which was on Sunday (October 22), and now they’ve cancelled on that as well.
“The ARTC have said they could come on dates different to the ones we’d put forward, but they were all week days when local residents wouldn’t have been able to attend which would have been useless anyway”.
Mr Stack said the group has now been advised to call a hotline or go to the ARTC website if they have any questions.
“It’s a joke. The whole way it’s been handled is a debacle when it affects so many people. This project could affect lots of people’s lives and they’re refusing to give out the information they should be.”
Ms Enoch said community anger was obvious at the four community BBQs she has held for residents in affected suburbs in her electorate: Parkinson, Algester, Hillcrest and Forestdale.
“People are concerned about this project, and they want their questions answered but they believe they are being railroaded by the Federal LNP Government,” Ms Enoch said.
“Residents have tried to relay their concerns directly to ARTC, but have yet to receive an adequate response, or in some cases any response at all, so for a local community group to be simply directed to the ARTC’s hotline and website is just poor form.
“We want meaningful consultation with the Commonwealth on this issue – considering the Turnbull Government has committed $8.46 billion taxpayer dollars to this freight rail line,” Ms Enoch said.
“That’s why I’m running a petition calling on the Federal LNP Government and the ARTC to consult with our community, because the ARTC have not only failed to do so, they are actively avoiding it.
“Cancelling on the Hillcrest Neighbourhood Watch group at the last minute is just one example of this unacceptable behaviour.”
You can sign Ms Enoch’s petition at http://fight4qld.org/consultalgester or contact her office for a hard copy.
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Media Contact: Louise Ryan 3737 2110 or 0413 722 656