May Day for trees as calls for inquiry into light rail loudens

BY CHRISTOPHER HARRIS

Hundreds gathered on Sunday to stop the removal of fig trees on Anzac Parade. By Tuesday morning, one person had been arrested by the police. The felling continued into the early hours of Wednesday morning. By then the crowd had petered out to just a handful of people, who sang Waltzing Matilda and played drums in the early hours of the morning as the work continued.

“The community is heartbroken and angry, and there are calls to sack the Baird Government, and a new bill through the biodiversity laws, which is going to allow clear felling of many more trees,” said John Bellamy, organiser of Sydney Light Rail Action Group on Wednesday morning.

At the rally on Sunday, campaigners who gathered said they were not against the light rail – which the government says has necessitated the removal of the trees – but rather the bad planning and poor process.

The government has classified the light rail as State Significant Infrastructure, effectively removing the need for the government to adhere to heritage rules around trees and local council restrictions.

Fearing that the end was nigh for the trees, protestors gathered on Monday, chaining themselves to the old fig trees. They were removed by police with some being arrested.

“this insanity must be stopped and we are calling on the prime minister to step in and stop the chainsaws, while other options are looked at,” Mr Bellamy said,

“The light rail will go down the middle of Anzac Parade from Alison Road to Kingsford, and we don’t understand why it can’t run down the middle of the rest of Anzac Parade and save these historic figs from being fully or partially destroyed.”

City Hub understands that 1277 trees will be affected by the light rail project, either cut down or by having branches cut.

On Sunday, Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi said that she intended to move a motion to establish an inquiry into the light rail when parliament resumed.

She said the state government was “out of control”.

“Premier Baird and his LNP Government are arrogantly pushing ahead with their agenda destroying everything that comes in their way be it trees, heritage or the will of the people.”

“The light rail project is a classic example of this.  We all agree that Sydney needs good public transport but this project has made a mockery of what’s left of our our planning system and environmental assessment processes.”

“There has been no transparency, no community consultation, routes have changed willy nilly without any justification and there have been massive cost blowouts already.”

Locals disgruntled with the loss of trees from the park as well as community leaders had a similar message.

Sydney Morning Herald columnist and architecture critic, Elizabeth Farrelly said to the rally that people should be concerned because the loss of tree canopy was substantial, and that it would in total amount to nine hectares, or around half the size of Hyde Park.

“I’m angry about the environmental responsibility. The urban heat island effect we know about – that’s a different of up to maybe ten degrees — that’s huge.”

“I’m angry about the pretense that this is about a choice between trees and light rail, as though we can’t have both […] we know we can have both.”

She said the most disturbing thing was that the information was obfuscated by the government.

“The secrecy is what destroys the trust, and that destroys the system. If we can’t trust government; if they lie to our faces, if they deliberately and conceal the truth about what they’re doing. If they betray the commitments made in their own Environmental Impact statements, then who can we trust, and how do we deal with this?”

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said that it would only take a matter of months to find a solution that could save the trees and find a route for the light rail.

“This light rail system will serve Sydney for the next century or more. It would take six or 12 months to get it right,” she said.

An indigenous archeologist, Scott Franks said that there were also serious questions remaining over how Transport for NSW had handled the indigenous artefacts discovered at the light rail dig site.

“My job is to look, understand, interpret and learn with the advice of the original people from these lands. Those stones and artefacts in the ground are the textbooks for the future.

“Who we are, what we represent, and why we are here. We can’t replace that with iron and steel, we can’t replace that with a foreign company that has been awarded a 2.1 billion contract with an open hand, to act like an environmental vandal, with the sign off of the premier.”

“It’s a sad position to be in to know now, that this premier can with the stroke of a pen take away not only aboriginal rights, but non aboriginal and the broader community’s right to stand up and have a voice.”