Malcolm’s shotgun wedding at Malabar

BY JORDAN FERMANIS

In May last year, Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjlem claimed victory after the NSW Rifle Association secured a fifty year lease on the long disputed Malabar Headland site.

Leyonhjlem celebrated on Facebook posting,

“Malabar was a big fight, but I won in the end.”

However last week it was revealed through Finance Department documents that the NSW Rifle Association are paying a paltry sum for the prime real estate.

Last week the ABC reported that the association is paying less than $26,500 a year or around $510 a week to lease the 39 hectare site over fifty years.

The enormous site includes four shooting ranges, a clubhouse, caravan park and clubhouse which all come under the lowly figure.

The median rental price for a home in Malabar comes in at $42,460, around 10 per cent higher than what the rifle association negotiated with the federal government.

Under the Abbott government the projected sale price for the site was estimated at $3 billion but the government eventually backed away from plans to sell the 160 hectare headland site.

In a speech to parliament last October, Labor MP for Kingsford-Smith, Matt Thistlethwaite accused the federal government of insidious conduct in negotiating a backroom deal with Leyonhjelm right under the community’s nose.

“In May this year the Turnbull coalition government stitched up a secret, dirty backroom deal to lock the community that I represent out of 177 hectares of historically and environmentally significant green space at Malabar headland.”

”Made in the shadows with the crossbench senator and gun enthusiast David Leyonhjelm, the agreement to lease out the central portion of Malabar headland to the New South Wales Rifle Association for the next 50 years has been met with anger, frustration and disbelief in our community,” Mr Thistlethwaite said.

This is not the first accusation of its kind. Last year it was reported that the federal government attempted to amend Australia’s gun laws relating to the importation of the Adler shotgun, in exchange for Leyonhjelm’s support for the ABCC bill that finally passed before Christmas. The final iteration of the bill only passed after Leyonhjelm was granted a concession to drop the reverse onus of proof required to criminally convict on construction sites.

When speaking to City Hub, the Chair of the Friends of Malabar Headland, David Pyett, said that the community is livid with the government in what he describes as “very funny goings on” in determining how Leyonhjelm was able to secure a deal with the government.

Mr Pyett said the community was shocked when it was revealed Leyonhjelm was at the centre of the deal and that the government has lost the community’s trust on the issue.

“When Senator Leyonhjelm brokered the deal it came as a nasty surprise to everyone, including the other shooters. Some of the other sporting shooters who used to be there are being kept out, which to our point of view is not fair.”

“This is trivial, it’s disgusting. It means the federal government is not getting any money to do anything. The other clubs were never given a chance to offer something. Mr Leyonhjelm has upset everyone except his mates at the RA, giving it to them for peanuts,” Mr Pyett said.

The federal government has since defended the cheap lease, with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann claiming that the price is a continuation of what was already in place, including under a Labor government.

Mr Pyett told City Hub that the community’s attention will now turn to the centre section of the headland which is yet to be subdivided.