Skydive Australia has hit back at critics who have stymied its plan to build new headquarters on publicly-owned Wollongong parkland, telling objectors “profit is not a dirty word”.
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Wollongong council approved the company’s Stuart Park development in early 2015, before residents’ group Protect Our Parks launched a successful legal challenge.
Though the challenge succeeded because of a single issue (public notices about the plans failed to mention demolition of the existing amenities block and administration facility), 10 objectors stood to oppose the development on wide-ranging grounds at Tuesday night’s Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel hearing.
Protect Our Parks’ Stephen Spencer told the hearing the park was one of precious few available to North Wollongong’s growing population. He argued Skydive Australia, which in March last year became the first adventure sports company to list on the ASX, had “outgrown its ability to share Stuart Park Oval’s village green with the public” and claimed its operation “effectively alienates the public from being able to access the oval”.
Supporters of the development spoke of its flow-on economic benefits in tourism and job creation. Company co-founder Tamahra Prowse told the panel a recent mass skydiving event at the park had exposed hundreds of visitors to “the embarrassment that is our current customer check-in and processing area”.
“We are trying to compete on a global scale with tourism activities the world over, and … customer satisfaction surveys are consistently ranking us as poor for the disgraceful toilets and old amenities,” she said.
Ms Prowse expressed frustration at the “negative spin” directed at the 16-year-old company – “one of the biggest financial success stories of the region”. “It's as if somehow the company no longer has the right to be hosted or respected by the city and residents because it is finally a profitable publicly listed company,” she said.
Skydive Australia director Anthony Ritter said the company was intended to become the world’s biggest adventure tourism company.
“We’re not looking for pats on the back … However the company shouldn’t be punished for its success,” he said. “There is a perception out there that because we are a larger company now, because we are listed on the ASX, because we’re making profits, we should be paying more, we should be made to do more - ‘we should be, we should be, we should be’.
“I would like to make the comment that profit is not a dirty word. There is nothing wrong with being a profitable company, in fact I challenge you to find me a company that is not trying to make a profit in this challenging economic climate.”
