Hindmarsh Island Bridge Controversy - Opposition

Opposition

Many people, including a majority of the islands inhabitants, variously opposed the government funding of a project for the benefit of private developers, the urbanisation of Hindmarsh Island and/or the effects it would have on the natural environment had also voiced their opposition. Initiating legal action in April 1994 they applied to the Federal government for an order prohibiting construction.

On 12 May, shortly before construction began, at the request of the Ngarrindjeri, the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Robert Tickner issued an emergency declaration blocking work on the bridge, and then appointed a lawyer, Professor Cheryl Saunders OA, to report on the significant Aboriginal sites. Saunders consulted with a range of interested parties, including a group of Ngarrindjeri women who claimed Hindmarsh Island was sacred to them as a fertility site, and for other reasons that could not be publicly revealed. An anthropologist, Dr Dean Fergie, prepared an assessment of the women's claims, which was then submitted to Saunders. As a part of this process some of these cultural secrets were written down and sealed in two envelopes marked Confidential: to be read by women only and forwarded to Tickner with the assessment. On 10 July 1994, Tickner placed a 25 year ban on the bridge construction putting the marina in doubt and bringing the Chapmans close to bankruptcy.

In February 1995 the Chapmans initiated a legal challenge of the ban in the Federal Court. Although the Judge praised Saunders report and criticized the Chapman’s litigation, the Judge overturned the ban on a legal technicality. The media had heavily criticized the ban and focused on Tickner issuing it based on the contents of sealed envelopes that he had never read. In fact Saunders’ assessment had stressed that the contents were not needed to reach a decision, as there was enough evidence supporting their contents in the assessment and public domain. In fact, Tickner is on record in the February court case as stating that his decision was not based on the envelopes.

In March, Shadow Minister for the Environment Ian McLachlan was forced to resign after tabling some of the secret documents in Parliament misrepresenting how he obtained them and falsely claiming they had not been marked "Confidential". The envelope had been delivered to McLachlan's office in error and despite being clearly marked "Confidential: to be read by women only" had been read, photocopied and circulated among both male and female staff.

In May 1995 the media and politicians aired the claims of five "dissident" Aboriginal women who stated that what had become known as "secret women's business" must have been "fabricated" by the "proponents" because they either had no knowledge of the secrets or did not believe them.