Media Release: Protecting Public Land While Supporting WA’s First Children’s Hospice
MEDIA RELEASE FROM AMANDA DORN MP
Today I moved to ensure Parliament fully debates Excision Proposal 02/2025, which seeks to remove protection from a portion of Allen Park, Swanbourne.
Let me be absolutely clear: I support the development of WA’s first children’s hospice and the compassionate care it will provide families. Nothing in this Notice of Motion seeks to delay or prevent the hospice from being built.
What is at stake here is the principle of protecting our most valued public open spaces. Class A reserves were created to ensure that treasured community land is protected for all people. Parliament has a duty to scrutinise any proposal that would remove this highest level of protection.
The land in Allen Park subject to this excision proposal was classified ‘Class A’ 124 years ago, just a year after Kings Park, and is part of the Allen Park Master Plan.
In 2020, Parliament already permitted an excision of land to accommodate the hospice project. The facility design includes gardens and play areas within its boundary. The government’s new proposal seeks to excise an additional 3,000 square metres (to this date unsurveyed), of Allen Park for “complementary parkland.” But this land is already classified Park and Recreation — there is no need to remove its Class A status for it to be landscaped or enjoyed by hospice families and the broader community.
The area in question is a vital connecting corridor of Allen Park used by thousands of people. Removing its Class A protection sets a precedent that undermines the long-term protection of all Class A reserves across the State.
My Notice of Motion is about ensuring transparency, accountability, and debate in the Parliament on a matter that impacts not just the Allen Park Class A reserves, but the integrity of protected lands across Western Australia.
The hospice project can and must go ahead on the land already secured for it. What must not go ahead is the unnecessary weakening of protections for our public reserves — protections that safeguard cherished spaces for generations to come.
NOTE: No media interviews will be undertaken prior to the debate in the Legislative Council, the timing for which is now in the hands of the government.