Kings Park: Simpson Playing The Man, Not The Ball

Our concerns about the integrity of Kings Park, in the face of the City of Perth Bill, were published in a letter in the West Australian on Wednesday 26th August. Today (27th August), the West published a very strange response from Local Government Minister, Tony Simpson, which provides not one skerrick of evidence, or even argument, to counter our contentions.

Our response to Simpson's diatribe is below - this has been sent to the West Australian, but it is by no means certain that it will print it, as it is generally averse to being the forum for protracted correspondence:

Dear Sir

I suppose, given the state of West Australian (and, indeed, Australian) politics, one should not be surprised that Local Government Minister, Tony Simpson, chose to play the man not the ball in responding (Kings Park is safe, Letters, 27th August) to my letter of concern about the potential effect of the City of Perth Bill on Kings Park.

He provides not one piece of information to counter the arguments made in my letter (PCH may take scalpel to Kings Park, Letters, 26th August), but the vituperative nature of his response suggests we hit a raw nerve.

Mr Simpson expects us simply to accept his assurance that 'Kings Park is here to stay'. I was not in any way suggesting that it, or at least most of it, was not - but the City of Perth Bill does provide the means to erode the edges.

And what value does his 'assurance' have? Many of us remember his statement of 21st February 2013, just before the March 2013 election, that "the Liberal Party does not support forced amalgamations" [of local councils]. Fast forward a few months and he was leading the charge to do exactly that - force councils to amalgamate.

And he's still doing it! The City of Perth Bill would force 1800 Subiaco residents into the City of Perth, with which they have no community of interest whatsoever and which has repeatedly said it doesn't want residential areas.