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LandCorp deal not all it seems

Kathryn Hamilton, BassendeanEastern Reporter

IF the LandCorp deal is so extraordinary, where are the queues of people lining up to give away their properties for redevelopment?

Think of the deal like this… you are managing a lovely big recreational area that has been put into trust for the local people.

As the managing agent, you lease out half the area to a sporting club, but fence off the entire area so folk for whom the land was put into trust, cannot access it.

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After a while, the tenant cries poor saying they cannot manage financially. You decide, as the managing agent, to give away 10,000 square metres of land free to the troubled sporting club tenant, without consulting the local folk for whom you work.

To top it off, you also decide the “poor” tenant should receive an additional $3 million, so you give away the remainder of Bassendean Oval for free to LandCorp, and “sweeten” the deal by giving away the BIC Reserve as well.

The warped logic is that LandCorp can then sell off these public assets to give the poor tenant the said $3 million.But you are not finished yet.

Giving away land and cash is not enough. You make an additional offer to the poor football club tenant (soon to be wealthy landowner).

You offer to continue paying forever all the upkeep and maintenance of the oval at the expense of your employers i.e. local ratepayers.

In this analogy, the managing agent is our council.

All is not lost: our council can still put matters to right by officially withdrawing from the development agreement signed in August 2015.

We deserve and demand better management of our precious public assets.

KATHRYN HAMILTON, Bassendean.