Greens MP: a deal is a deal

The Greens senator put the proposed marina in the national spotlight again last week, after questioning why the Federal Government would not honour a land deal agreement signed in January 1964 between the federal and state governments.

Caveats were placed on the land in 1968 in a deal between then-Prime Minister John Gorton and acting WA Premier David Brand. The deal stipulated that the Commonwealth would hand over the 443-acre site, which includes Point Peron and Mangles Bay, to the state for $30,460 on the proviso that land ‘shall be created a reserve for recreation and park lands’.

‘The conditions were there would be a park forever and no commercial development ever,’ Mr Ludlam said.

‘There is substantial opposition (to the marina) in the local community’