26 February 2010

Following today’s report of a leaked document revealing a plan by Minister Madden’s office to run a sham public consultation looking at the future of the Grand Windsor Hotel development, the Trust has not seen a copy of the leaked report and can only respond on the basis of the reporting of its contents by media outlets.

The National Trust of Australia (Vic) is aware that Minister Madden has already received many hundreds of objections to the Grand Windsor Hotel proposal, and that the Trust’s and the community's opinion about the scheme has been made very clear.

CEO for the Trust Martin Purslow said: " We would be dismayed if the Advisory Committee report recommended the scheme in its current form. The Advisory Committee met in December with limited terms of reference requiring that only the developer and the City of Melbourne be heard. The Trust had to argue its way on to the table so that the community's voice could be heard too."

“Whatever the recommendations of that report, we deplore any notion that community consultation may be manipulated to achieve certain outcomes and therefore we welcome the Minister's commitment that full probity will indeed be applied to the process. Why would consultation need to be concocted? Whether the community will now accept any decision by the Minister as being fairly based must now be open to question.”

Mr Purslow added: "We also keenly await the outcome of Heritage Victoria's independent assessment of the same proposal."