Protester arrested at Ainslie phone tower site as group warns of precedent for rest of Canberra

A 5G tower is coming to your front door – that’s the message from the group that has been battling to save a corner of Ainslie from a mobile phone tower after one of their members was arrested when she staged a sit-down protest as workers attempted to begin test drilling this morning.

And the group is warning of future direct action to stop the tower being built involving more people.

Police were called to the site on the corner of Limestone Avenue and Quick Street when Friends of Ainslie Volcanic Grasslands member Amy Blain disrupted the work of Indara Communications by sitting in front of the drilling equipment.

She agreed to accompany police to the Watch House and was charged with breaching the exclusion zone and ordered not to go within 50 metres of the site until her court appearance on 25 March.

Indara has approval to erect a 28-metre-high tower for Optus and Vodafone on the site, but the group that has been working to restore native grasses to the block, with government financial backing, has been conducting a media campaign to have the decision overturned, given it cannot be reviewed by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The ACT Greens and Independent MLA Thomas Emerson are supporting the group, with leader Shane Rattenbury and Mr Emerson lending support this morning.

Mr Rattenbury accused the Labor Government of breaking a promise to save the site.

The Friends argue a nearby, more secluded site near Ainslie Village is more appropriate but Indara says it is not feasible.

The Friends want the corner site preserved as native grassland but also say that this decision sets a precedent for future mobile phone tower development across Canberra.

Convenor Marianne Albury-Colless told Region that if this tower went ahead it meant similar structures could be sited anywhere.

Ms Albury-Colless said the tower was only 50 metres from residents’ front doors on Quick Street.

She said this was not a NIMBY issue [not in my backyard] – it’s people’s front yards.

“To me, that is, from a planning perspective, absolutely opening the door for putting them all through the suburbs right in people’s front doors,” Ms Albury-Colless said.

She warned that the way the planning legislation was written meant they could be erected anywhere within 50 metres of a home, and a decision could not be appealed.

“There’s something wrong with the Planning Act,” Ms Albury-Colless said. “There’s something wrong with the way the environmental standards are discussed, and I think that Planning doesn’t seem to give a damn.”

Ms Albury-Colless said there should be specific policy and legislation covering the erection of phone towers rather than the piecemeal approval of individual projects.

“This sort of thing should be mapped out carefully, so the best place that causes the least amount of disturbance for the community is sorted out, and I don’t think there’s any of it that I’ve seen,” she said.

Ms Albury-Colless said more people needed to be made aware of having such a tower built so close to residential land that has been there for a very long time.

She said Ms Blain had put her principles on the line and indicated there may be more arrests to come.

“I think that more and more people need to be involved in this,” Ms Albury-Colless said. “I think a proper conversation needs to be made.

“There is an alternative site that is very much better than this site.”

Consultation had been a sham and the groups’ responses to the proposal were dismissed, Ms Albury-Colless said.

“We’ve been given the finger.”

After being released, Ms Blain said that she hoped her actions had shown that environmental defenders were being ignored and that powerful companies were overriding what community and environmental volunteers were saying.

She hoped that it would raise awareness about the conservation work being done and that there was no right of appeal for the community and for people who were living right next to where the tower was going to be built.

“The power imbalance today was just wild, with the fact that they can call the police, the fact that I’m arrested for defending a restoration project,” she said.

“The priorities are completely wrong for the police, for Indara, and for the government.”

Ms Blain said she hoped the community would rally but did not know if there would be more arrests.

“It shouldn’t take that, should it? It’s a waste of everybody’s time … but what would be nice is if the Conservator and Minister Steel and Indara’s CEO came down to the site to give the volunteers the very courtesy of just walking the two sites to see why we’re making a very strong objection.”

Mr Rattenbury accused the government for reneging on a promise to protect the site given during post-election negotiations.

He said the Greens fought hard to secure protection for Ainslie Volcanics as a condition for the formation of the Labor minority government.

“Now, it seems Labor is not committed to fulfilling their signed promise, allowing this precious site to be destroyed for corporate gain, breaching our power-sharing agreement and ignoring the pleas from the community,” he said.

“Today, the ACT Greens are calling on Labor to halt the destructive works that have begun at this site and work with Indara Communications to resettle the site practically and reasonably, nearby on less ecologically significant land.”

Comment was sought from Indara.