Public meeting opposes power station

By Emma Webb

ADELAIDE -- Four hundred people attended a public meeting organised by Community Action for Pelican Point on March 9. CAPP opposes the building of a power station at Pelican Point on the LeFevre Peninsula.

CAPP argues that the proposed station will endanger long-term residential development in the area, attract more toxic waste-generating industries (such as ship-breaking and iron smelting) and upset the ecosystem of the Port Adelaide River. CAPP says the power station should be located at either Whyalla or Torrens Island.

The meeting was addressed by the mayor of Port Adelaide, Labor opposition leader Mike Rann, Labor member for Hart Kevin Foley, dolphin researcher Mike Bosley, the Australian Democrats' Sandra Kanck and Liberal state treasurer Rob Lucas.

Messages of solidarity from Pat Katinyeri, a Kaurna woman from the area, and the Jabiluka Action Group were read. Davey Thomason, a local resident and an organiser for the construction division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union, told the meeting that the union pledged not to build the power station if residents did not want it.

Representatives from Whyalla told the meeting they would come down to Port Adelaide to support any direct action against the proposed development. They said that Whyalla residents want the power station as much as LeFevre Peninsula residents don't, yet both are ignored by the government.

Lucas received an angry reception. Just before the meeting, CAPP had received a letter from him alluding to possible legal action against residents opposing the power station. He refused to rule out the possibility of ship-breaking being set up at Pelican Point.

The meeting voted unanimously to take any action required to stop the building of the power station. For more information, phone Bruce Moffatt on 8242 0660 or e-mail bmoffatt@picknowl.com.au

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