public space

The CFMEU has placed a green ban on a proposed site of an indoor sports stadium at McIver Reserve in Yarraville that will reduce the provision and access to open space for the local community.  McIver Reserve is a key community hub for recreation and leisure. The proposed reduction of open space in a council with already limited provision of open space shows a lack of regard to the views of local residents by Council.

Discussion about the plight of the most famous and most revered Australian forbidden in your Parliament!? In 2020, the shadowy Parliamentary Selection Committee, which is controlled by the Labor Party and the Liberal/National coalition, refused to allow Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie MP to raise, for discussion, the plight of that most famous and revered Australian Julian Assange.

See inside for a fascinating video account of the history of the law on church land grants in Victoria. A North West Melbourne group is asking for support in their battle to reclaim land for a public park land given by the crown to a Baptist church which no longer wants if for a church. The land now has a value of about $15m and the Baptist organisation wants to sell it off for a dense appartment block. The residents feel that if there is no longer need for a church, the land should revert back to the Crown and citizens and the law seems to clearly support this (see the video). People in North Melbourne are desperately short of open space and need a public park. The church never paid for the land and broke the law many times since the 19th century grant in changing its use. The group fighting for the land to be made public again suggest several ways that you could help them. Editorial comment: There is a long history of churches acquiring land then speculating on it in western history, making them rich and powerful institutions, travelling under cloaks of charity with different tax status. Churches tend to encourage mass immigration and benefit from this situation like other growth lobby members with landbanks.

This is about a fight against the Eight Day church apartment redevelopment in our local neighbourhood.

We really need help urgently please.

Video clips have been produced outlining the Crown grant law and Transfer of Land Act law in the state of Victoria and how the Eighth Day church sect have broken those TRUST laws.

Our hope of stopping the apartment development now rests on getting our message out to social media and to the Attorney General of Victoria, to encourage the State Government to resume the land from the Eighth Day church sect and return it back to the community as an open park for the residents and visitors to North and West Melbourne.

There are 3 ways you can help us.

1) Posting the link for our video clips below and write something along with your post. To make it easy for you please feel free to copy any of the text options below to your social media page, also ask others you know on social media to assist us in our fight please.

Link to video clip: https://youtu.be/m3NLD3uh1J4 short version     https://youtu.be/iRi43xt1niQ extended version

a)      Attorney General the Crown grant on the Eighth Day land in West Melbourne is no longer being used for religious purposes it states “it shall be lawful for persons duly authorised by the Governor or other officer administering the Government to re enter upon the land and to hold possess it as if this grant had not been made.” North and West Melbourne really needs a park.

b)      Attorney General if the pastor and congregation of the Eighth Day church sect in West Melbourne do not continue to use the church land solely given to them for religious purposes, the State Government of  Victoria has the legal right to step in and take back full control of the land and resume ownership as per the wording of the 1866 Crown grant. North and West Melbourne really needs more open space and a park.

c)      Attorney General in relation to the Eighth Day church in West Melbourne, The Transfer of Land Act of 1958 clearly states in section 42, 2: the land which is included in any folio of the Register or registered instrument shall be subject to the reservations, exceptions, conditions and powers contained in the original Crown grant of land. It’s time the State Government resume the land for a community for a park in North & West Melbourne.

d)     Attorney General regarding the Eighth Day church sect in West Melbourne, Act 391 of 1871 clearly states title to the land was issued to the denomination on the basis that the land remained subject to the limitations and conditions of

d)the original 1866 Crown grant and the land can only be used for a church and nothing else. It’s time the State Government take back the land for the community to be used as a park.

2) Post a link of the video clip/s and any of the text options above of your choosing onto our Facebook page or onto Martin Pakula’s Facebook page, and ask all your friends to please do the same please. However if his page blocks you please feel free to join our facebook page to keep up to date with our fight against the Eighth Day church sect and other happenings. https://www.facebook.com/NorthWestMelbourneVoice  https://www.facebook.com/MartinpPakula/

The Wednesday Action Group was established in 1999 to take issues that directly affect us as individuals, communities and the nation, directly to the people on the streets. The group is a coalition of concerned reformers, radicals and conservatives who believe the current social, cultural, political and economic needs of the people of this country cannot be met by the economic, legal and political institutions that currently dominate life in Australia. The Wednesday Action Group

The Wednesday Action Group was formed in 1999 to raise important social and political issues on the streets of Melbourne's CBD. Public rights to public space are a major issue for this group. Every Wednesday, over the last 14 years, we have legally assembled on the footpath collecting signatures on petitions that we have presented to the House of Representatives and the Senate in the Federal Parliament and the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council in the Victorian Parliament.

E: [email protected]
A: P.O. Box 5035, Alphington 3078
M: 0439 395 489

Petition activities on street

Over the years we have collected thousands of names, addresses and signatures on various petitions relating to important political issues of the day. Currently we are collecting signatures on six petitions.

A petition to the Victorian Legislative Assembly and the Victorian Legislative Council calling for a Royal Commission into Corruption in Victoria.

A petition to the Federal House of Representatives and the Senate calling for the establishment of a New People's Bank.

A petition to the Federal House of Representatives and the Senate calling for the introduction of a 1% Stock Market Turnover tax on transactions of over $10,000.

Council bylaw-bullies

Over the years countless hours and millions of dollars of public money has been spent trying to stop us exercising our constitutional rights to use the streets to petition Parliament. During the last three months the Melbourne City Council has regularly been using its bylaws officers to try to force us off the streets claiming we need a Melbourne City Council permit to set up the card table that houses the petitions. Police have been called on every occasion. Two weeks ago 14 police were despatched at the request of Melbourne City Council bylaws officers to try to force us to remove the card table which holds the petitions.

Not a flash in the pan

Unlike Occupy Melbourne, we are not a flash in the pan. We have legally and peacefully exercised our constitutional rights for the last 14 years and will continue to do so irrespective of Melbourne City Council and Melbourne business harassment. The waste of thousands of hours of police time and millions of dollars of public money that has occurred over this issue is unacceptable.

Melbourne City Council is overreaching its prerogative

Allowing the Melbourne City Council to decide how political activity should be conducted on the streets of Melbourne is totally unacceptable. To apply for a permit to set up a card table gives a faceless bureaucracy the power to curtail legal legitimate political activity. It gives Councils, State governments and the Federal government the power to determine what is and isn't peaceful legitimate political activity.

Be a witness on 5 June outside Melbourne Town Hall, 11.30am

There are more than enough laws at the local, state and federal level to regulate political activity in this country. We encourage you to join us outside Melbourne Town Hall at 11:30am on Wednesday 5th June to witness our continuing struggle to exercise our constitutional rights. What may at first seem like a trivial insignificant issue has ramifications for every Australian that goes far beyond whether we need a Melbourne City Council permit to set up a card table to collect signatures for a petition.

Dr. Joseph TOSCANO / Convenor Wednesday Action Group
Steering Committee: Bobbie Burns, Jack Collins, Mick Doran, Simic Juric, Ruth Martin, Beth Matthews, John Murray, Bill Pickering, Jude Pierce, Peter Riley, Rick Simpson, Vasil Tilev, John Zabane

Why?

The Wednesday Action Group was established in 1999 to take issues that directly affect us as individuals, communities and the nation, directly to the people on the streets. The group is a coalition of concerned reformers, radicals and conservatives who believe the current social, cultural, political and economic needs of the people of this country cannot be met by the economic, legal and political institutions that currently dominate life in Australia.

Useful Links:
http://www.anarchistmedia.org http://www.rulebythepeople.org http://www.seditioncharter.org