Melbourne rally for parks

By Saul Fischart

MELBOURNE -- Three thousand people gathered on February 23 to express their anger at the state government's environmental vandalism. The rally was called by Hands Off Our Parks, a coalition of more than 100 groups campaigning against development in areas ranging from Wilson's Promontory and Port Campbell to Albert Park and Rosebud Beach. The Carlton Gardens, themselves threatened as the proposed new Museum of Victoria site, provided an appropriate venue.

Speakers who roused an already enthusiastic crowd included Miles Lewis, president of the Town and Country Planning Association; Sandra Hart of Parklands Victoria; Margaret Gardiner, representative for the Elders of the Wurundjuri Community, on whose land the rally was held; Doug Humann, director of Victoria National Parks Association; and Susan Davies, the newly elected independent for Gippsland West, who advocated running candidates in every seat at the next state election who would put the sitting member last on their how to vote card.

Following the rally, Amanda Munro from HOOP told Green Left that the action achieved considerable cooperation between many varied groups.

In response to conservation minister Marie Tehan's disparaging of the rally, Munro retorted, ``The rally showed to the government that on these issues, their Achilles heel is being touched. The government is in fact running scared.''

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