While no trees are safe from SA Premier Peter “the wrecker” Malinauskas, his minions protect the Motor Sports Board. What’s the scam?
The scam is the SA Premier’s Department refusing to allow the public to see how the South Australian Motor Sports Board weighed all the factors that led to a decision to cut down another 400 trees.
We submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the board last month to see if they were planning to cut down Adelaide Park Land’s trees and put permanent structures in the park to support a motorbike race.
Despite the plans being made public last week, we were still keen to get the FOI documents, but the documents were almost completely redacted. And the excuse? Premiers Department is of the view that the Motor Sports Board needs to have
a safe space to consider options without the fear of this advice being made public.
Safe Space from Accountability (Source: SA Department of Premier and Cabinet)
There is no safe space for parks in Adelaide. There is no safe space for trees in the Adelaide Park Lands. There is no safe space for the rare Chequered Copper butterfly, discovered in the Park Lands in 2011. But there is a safe space from accountability for the SA Motor Sports Board and its band of merry advisors.
The decision is being appealed.
Peter ‘Chopper’ Malinauskas to plonk MotoGP in Adelaide’s cherished Park Lands
Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and, earlier, a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader, Rex is also known as the "Transparency Warrior."