Beware of the Leopard

When the news of the Peter Beattie-Multiplex "Let's build on top of the river" scheme for the north bank broke last week I kept hearing news reports quoting Peter Beattie as saying the development plan would be open for public consultation for the next month.

For the life of me I could not find any news on where I could participate in this 'consultation'. Not on the Brisbane City Council website, not on Peter Beattie's website... nothing.

Finally, one week after the news broke I managed to find a website with details of where I could give the feedback I had supposedly been invited to contribute- rather than being a state government or city council site it was a page on the ABC Brisbane website.

This morning I happened to read a passage in The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy that sounded grindingly familiar...

Mr. Prosser said, "You were quite entitled to make any suggestions or protests at the appropriate time, you know."
"Appropriate time?" hooted Arthur. "Appropriate time? The first I knew about it was when a workman arrived at my home yesterday. I asked him if he'd come to clean the windows and he said no, he'd come to demolish the house. He didn't tell me straight away of course. Oh no. First he wiped a couple of windows and charged me a fiver. Then he told me."
"But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."
"Oh yes, well, as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well, the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice, didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display on the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'"

Hmm. So, for anyone who wants to have their say on the proposed godawful north bank development project before the March 14 deadline, the 'community feedback' page is here. Note the loaded questions on the online questionnaire.

This picture is about as believable as the claim that the north bank development is being carried out with the public interest in mind...