BY TONY ILTIS
MELBOURNE — Residents of the western suburb of Sunshine who have been campaigning for nine years to have a local outdoor pool reopened have reacted with scepticism to the setting up of a 25-member advisory group to be headed by local Labor MP Bruce Mildenhall.
The announcement of the committee, at an August 14 public meeting of the Sunshine Community Pool Action Group (SCPAG), drew a negative response from the 70-strong meeting.
When Mildenhall announced his advisory group as the solution to the community's concerns, local resident and Socialist Alliance member Maurice Sibelle suggested that as a government MP he could have a conflict of interest given the government's opposition to funding the pool, and said that the advisory group should be accountable to the community. The advisory group will have 18 representatives of state and local government and only seven community "representatives", although no indication has been given on how these will be selected.
Mildenhall attempted to deflect criticism of the failure of the state Labor government to reopen the pool, closed in 1994 for "repairs", by citing his achievement in getting government funding for a pool at the privately owned Highpoint shopping mall. Residents pointed out that Sunshine residents who use public transport could not access the Highpoint pool.
SCPAG members Katie Pahlow, John Pahlow and John Hedditch explained that since the allegedly "temporary" closure of the pool in 1994, all the local council and the state government had delivered was regular "pool saved" headlines in the local press.
Local Labor city councillors announced a submission to the state government in November whereby the City of Brimbank would contribute $3.3 million towards a new pool if the state government would match it.
The meeting passed a resolution that the council should spend the money on reopening the pool regardless of the state government's response. It also resolved to organise a campaign, with another public meeting to be held on August 28, for accountable community representation on the advisory group and to reject an earlier council-government proposal for the pool to be re-opened with a car-park built on top of it.
From Green Left Weekly, August 27, 2003.
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