It’s not the first time the campaign has been taken to the streets (or in this photo’s case, river) of Brisbane, but the need to convince the people of the capital that the dam is the wrong way to go was reinforced at a public information forum held in West End on Saturday.
Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett, a long term supporter of the Save the Mary River Group, hosted the session, which aimed to give Brisbane residents the facts on the dam and the threats it poses to the environment. Professor Stuart White from the Sydney University of Technology was also in attendance, presenting an outline of the anti-dam report he co-authored, after being commissioned by the Mary River Council of Mayors.
“We need to get Brisbane people on-side,” Senator Bartlett was quoted as saying in the Fraser Coast Chronicle. “The Government has already programmed themselves to ignore people outside Brisbane.”
Indeed, according to Queensland Deputy Premier, Anna Bligh, people outside Brisbane who are against the dam are suffering from nothing but a classic case of ‘NIMBY’ (i.e. ‘not-in-my-back-yard’) syndrome. She says we are selfish for wanting to prevent wide-scale environmental, social and cultural destruction in the landscapes we love; that instead we should be willing to sacrifice them for the greater good … blah blah. Sounds all too much like the ‘Local Pain for National Gain’ myth Arundhati Roy blasts in The Cost of Living; a biting commentary on dams in India. Well worth a read if you’re interested in this subject.
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