Dear Editor,

At its April 28 meeting, Darwin Council formally resolved to support a Senate inquiry into the Lee Point development.

This is a significant decision. It is not about the merits of the current proposal, but about whether the process that committed Lee Point to residential development was ever subject to transparent public scrutiny.

The Darwin foreshores, including Lee Point, were listed on the Register of the National Estate in 1991.

Even though that listing did not provide statutory protection, it is clear evidence that the Darwin foreshores were recognised at a national level for their significant natural and cultural heritage values.

As a shared public asset, it is reasonable for the Darwin public to expect that in 2003, when our elected members effectively committed Lee Point to residential development by signing a memorandum of understanding with Defence Housing Australia, there would have been public consultation and an opportunity for the community to scrutinise that decision.

That should have included a public opportunity to consider alternative sites for housing development within the NT Defence estate, rather than committing a site recognised for its natural and cultural heritage values.

This matters because the Lee Point development impacts one of the most intact parts of the Darwin foreshores, including the broader biodiversity and connected savanna habitat across Lee Point (Binybara).

DHA is a commonwealth government-owned developer that operates commercially on the open market as well as providing defence housing.

In the most controversial upcoming stages of the Lee Point land clearing and residential development, only about 30 per cent is allocated for defence housing.

After the MOU was signed, what followed was a development pathway that progressively locked in the Lee Point site.

DHA identified Lee Point as the site it wanted, and the NT Government agreed.

A joint venture was established between DHA and a private developer, and later stages expanded into adjacent land, including NT Crown land granted to DHA in 2019.

Public processes have occurred, but they have focused on how development proceeds on an already selected site, not whether Lee Point was an appropriate site for residential development in the first place.

An environmental assessment has examined impacts within the site, but it has not demonstrated that alternative sites were publicly tested.

Even if each individual step complied with the law, the question remains whether the overall process allowed a site with recognised natural and cultural heritage values to be committed to residential development without public scrutiny.

A Senate inquiry will not pre-empt the outcome, but it will finally bring these decisions into the open and examine how they were made.

The Darwin City Council has taken a clear position. Many in the Darwin community now look to their federal representatives to support a Senate inquiry into the Lee Point development.

Sonja Pastor, Planning Action Network volunteer, Fannie Bay

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