Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones says he makes no apologies for playing a key role in the federal government's backflip on a controversial proposal to allow an aged care home to be built on harbourside parkland at Middle Head.
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And he has sought to play down Prime Minister Tony Abbott's responsibility for the debacle, claiming that the original decision to greenlight the proposal was "made virtually behind [Abbott's] back by people he thought he could trust."
"Did I have some role in [opposing] this? Yes. Do I apologise for that? No, I don't .....This was a stupid decision and it should never have been made," Jones told his radio 2GB breakfast listeners on Friday.
Fairfax Media revealed on Thursday that the government was quietly walking away from the proposal, which was approved by federal Environment minister Greg Hunt and his then parliamentary secretary Simon Birmingham in October last year.
The plan had also been endorsed by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, custodian of the former harbourside defence site - now parklands - where the proposed aged care home would have been built.
The Trust is a federal body reporting to Mr Hunt and its championing of the aged care proposal caused a fierce backlash in Mr Abbott's own electorate, which takes in Middle Head.
Among opponents were local Liberal party branches, Mosman Council, the National Trust, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Headland Preservation Group, which argued that the plan amounted to alienating public parklands for a commercially run-operation.
Opponents also highlighted the danger of housing elderly residents on a headland vulnerable to bushfire, with only one dead-end road in and out.
One of Mr Abbott's sisters, Jane Vincent, was among those who came out lambasting the original plan.
On Friday, she told Fairfax Media that the reversal of the decision, by new parliamentary secretary for the environment Bob Baldwin, was a sign that " democracy delivers."
The proposed 89-bed home would have reaped the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust more than a million dollars in rent each year.
The trust has refused to comment on the government's ditching of the plan, but it is likely to have significant ramifications for the board and for the trust's long-standing executive director, Geoff Bailey, who was an advocate of the proposal.
Linda Bergin who is president of the Headland Preservation Group, praised the government's reversal as a "rightful decision" and a "victory for all Australians who will now have this land in the public domain forever."
Mosman council's deputy mayor Roy Bendall also welcomed the reversal as recognition that "the Middle Head precinct is a jewel in the crown of Sydney Harbour which should be protected for the benefit of all Australians"
Former barrister Phil Jenkyn, who is a member of the trust's community advisory committee, said the trust had "ridden roughshod over every informed opinion" by approving the luxury aged care home last year.
He called for the resignation of Mr Bailey and all board members except one, Peter Lowry, who had opposed the plan.
"This issue highlights some real weaknesses in the way the trust has been operating" Mr Jenkyn said.
The company which has spent three years developing plans for the aged care home, Middle Head Health Care, says it is "devastated and completely perplexed" by the government backflip.
