Labor candidate Peter Tinley is embroiled in a dispute with the residents of a Port Hedland caravan park who are being forced out of their homes because of the former SAS major's $11 million redevelopment plans.
About 20 residents of the Port Tourist Park, some of whom have lived on the Great Northern Highway site for several years, got a letter from Mr Tinley's wife Victoria on Tuesday informing them they would have to leave the caravan park by December 6.
It came less than six months after Mr Tinley, whose company Port Village Accommodation owns the caravan park, told residents he "did not anticipate" anyone would be displaced.
The residents live in 12 dongas to be torn down. They claim the lack of affordable accommodation in Port Hedland means they have nowhere else to go and they will almost certainly be forced to leave town.
A letter lay unopened on the doorstep of a resident who was away when "The West Australian" visited on Thursday. It is believed a staff member of R2R Services, which has Ms Tinley as its commercial manager and operates the park for Port Village, has resigned.
Mr Tinley is the sole director of Port Village Accommodation and one of several investors in the venture which bought the caravan park earlier this year.
Chris Kenney, a mobile plant operator who has lived in one of the dongas for the past nine months and gets work "wherever I can", said residents were devastated by the decision to force them out weeks before Christmas and the cyclone season.
Mr Kenney, 50, said there would not be enough tourists to fill the redeveloped park and it would be home to more lucrative fly-in fly-out workers. "Isn't Labor meant to be for the working man," Mr Kenney said. Grant, 45, who wouldn't give his surname, said he had lived on site for more than two years and would have to come up with $1000 a week for a three-bedroom house or leave Port Hedland.
Mr Tinley, who was selected last month as Labor's candidate to contest the Willagee seat vacated by former premier Alan Carpenter, confirmed the residents would have to leave and said he "had sympathy" for them. But Mr Tinley said he also had a right to develop his business and was not surprised the issue had been raised during his election campaign.
He rejected the residents' belief the caravan park would house fly-in fly-out workers who could afford to pay $1000 a week as opposed to the $230 a week the residents pay.
"We have moved those that we can and we are now down to 20 people out of approximately 250," he said.
Rising Labor star in caravan park furore
BEN SPENCER, The West Australian
November 7, 2009, 2:45 am
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3 Comments
Hey I live in Port Hedland and this is true, there is NO accommodation available anywhere for less than $1000 a week unless you want to rent only a room and you're still looking at a good 5 or 6 hundred for that. Friends of my mum lived in a tent at the Blackrock Cvn Park for nearly 6 months while waiting for a place to live; they did that over summer and with 2 teenagers attending school. This place is ridiculous. Homeswest has nothing either, there's a ridiculous waiting list there too. Basically, so many local residents rely on the cheaper accommodation that caravan parks can supply and if Mr Tinley takes that away, he will kill this town even further. FIFO's are ruining this place, they don't spend locally and we're suffering for it. My sister in law lives at this park as she doesn't have a licence and works close by, she's terrified she'll end up being kicked out as she only earns a few hundred a week. Mr Tinley, what about the little people??? We don't all work for BHP.
It is disgusting to expect anyone to pay $1000 per week for holiday accommodation. Who said fly in fly out workers can afford that much. Thats is about what they make a week AND SOME MAKE LESS. So make sure people know what sort of a person Mr Tinley is and make sure no one votes for him if this is the way he treats his potential voting public.
LABOUR ONLY CARES ABOUT ABORIGINIES AND DARK SKINNED ETHNICS, they HATE their own race and have done so since the time they were successfully infiltrated by the white far left. They (once) did care about their own and this is the party the elderly remember and unfortuneatly, keep voting for as did their parents. We get the society we deserve with the political party we choose to run our lives. So, change the way we live, change our politicans. www.protectionist.net.au