The Committee of the Flinders Community Association has met to discuss next steps, following its Save the Pier public meeting in early May. The FCA believes this will be a ‘long burn’ issue, which means that decisions and actions will take some time to influence and we need to prepare for a drawn-out campaign that could run into next year.
The Committee has decided to focus its attention on two outcomes over the next 8 weeks.
The first is to request a face to face meeting with the Minister, Melissa Horne. The Minister has the power to over-turn decisions, reject advice and instruct her Departments to look at alternatives. It is possible that she may welcome a direct discussion with our community and find value in preserving the pier for future generations of Victorians.
Our second tactic is to continue building online awareness; and getting our message and petition on to as many Facebook pages as we can. A petition with a 1000 signatures is easily ignored. While a petition of 100,000 signatures begins to attract attention. We need to get our message to every single Victorian. This is an issue that is much bigger than Flinders.
The FCA may consider commissioning an independent report including heritage assessment. This depends on cost and will remain an option subject to our discussions with the Minister.
Thank you to all our members for your support and please stay with us as we take our early tentative steps. Please continue to promote our Save the Pier online petition and share it across other media platforms and amongst your friends and family wherever possible.
