Second reading motion, Redfern-Waterloo Auth'ty Bill
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LC20041207078
From Hansard second reading motion Redfern-Waterloo Authority Bill NSW Legislative Council (debate adjourned) 7/12/04
Some interesting comments here (excerpts in no particular order follow): -
The Hon Don Harwin
..."Clause 27 refers to any land in the operation area that is a State significant development. This may include areas like Rachel Forster hospital, Redfern railway station, the Eveleigh railway workshops and the local public school site. The bill allows Minister Knowles, in administering the Environment Planing and Assessment Act, to delegate to Minister Sartor his functions as the consent authority. Minister Sartor may then sub-delegate to the authority of the Council of the City of Sydney his functions as the consent authority. The reposing of so much power in Minister Sartor should be disturbing for all reasonable people. But, equally, the challenges and problems in Waterloo and Redfern need to be urgently addressed. Nothing that the Carr Labor Government has done thus far has seen any improvement in the area, and the Opposition is of the view that the Labor Government can have its belated go at trying to get improvement across the social and infrastructure needs of the area. Therefore the Liberal and National parties will not be opposing the bill, but we will move one amendment to limit Minister Sartor's capacity to grab other land areas into the operational area specified under schedule 1."
From Ms. Sylvia Hale (the Greens)-
"The Greens note the irony of the Minister for Energy and Utilities, Frank Sartor, defecting from the Council of the City of Sydney to the Labor Party only to see him now in a grubby little power grab, attempting to wrest much of his former domain back to his control—because that is what this bill is all about, handing development control for the CBD-airport corridor to the "Can-do-man", Frank Sartor—or Frankenstein, as residents named him yesterday. The bill has been dressed up by the Government as a bill that will fix the social problems of Redfern and Waterloo, but that is totally misleading and the residents of Redfern and Waterloo know that. They are well acquainted with State Government apathy toward the real and serious problems in their community. For far too long this Government has turned a blind eye to the social and economic disadvantages of the area, and the provisions of this bill do not fool anybody.
This bill will not fix social disadvantage. It will dilute indigenous and public housing communities by pushing up property prices and gentrifying the area. "
The Hon Don Harwin: ..."But recent revelations in the Sydney Morning Herald indicate that the plan is well developed. In fact, I was fascinated by speculation that elements of what is in the Sydney Morning Herald are in fact Cabinet-in-confidence documents. Therefore one wonders, first, how those documents found their way into the Sydney Morning Herald and, second, what was the motivation of the person in giving them to the Sydney Morning Herald."
Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes: "They fell off a truck!"
Ms. Sylvia Hale: ..."There is also a fear that the space above the station will be developed. Other instances of this type of development, such as Chatswood station, have proved disastrous. A once-elegant old rail building makes way for an ugly new residential tower."
The Hon. Duncan Gay: "Where is the elegant building at Redfern railway station?"
The Hon. Dr ARTHUR CHESTERFIELD-EVANS [9.52 p.m.]: "The Redfern and Waterloo Authority Bill is a prime example of the Carr Government's "rule by decree" mentality. Under this bill a new government authority will be given immense statutory power to redevelop the inner-city suburbs of Redfern, Waterloo, Darlington and Eveleigh. The area will stretch from South Dowling Street in the east, along Cleveland Street to City Road in the west, encompassing part of the grounds of Sydney university, then wind down through Golden Grove past Macdonaldtown railway station to near Erskineville station, along Railway Parade to Henderson Street, down Botany Road to the junction of Botany Road and Bourke Street, down Bourke Street and across O'Dea Avenue to South Dowling Street. Other sites affected by the bill include the Alexandria Public School and the Carlton and United Breweries site on Broadway, the developer contributions to which are said to be the seed capital for this project.
The key feature of this bill is that it will override the local council and exempt from all other planning instruments any development that has the blessing of the Minister. I recognise that there are imperatives: the central business district must grow. I recognise also that this Government's neglect of infrastructure as a result of its dogmatic refusal to borrow has made life difficult. Rather than borrow and have assets to set against its borrowings—which is perfectly reasonable economics and a policy that has been followed for perhaps hundreds of years—this Government is obsessed with saying, "The debt is less." Thus it has sold assets and neglected infrastructure. The Government has sold city land at wholesale prices to developers, who make a killing. The same developers are then appropriately grateful and give money to the Carr Government in an appalling fashion that is contrary to good governance.
That wrong policy has led to further bad policy decisions by the Government. It combined the council areas of Sydney and South Sydney and then tried to gain control of the whole area. If it had succeeded I believe it would have developed the area using City of Sydney council as the vehicle. However, the people were not impressed by the Government's arrogance and they were lucky to have a champion in Clover Moore, who they believed was more willing to consult them than the Labor Party was. Clover Moore decisively won the election for the combined Sydney and South Sydney local government areas.
But the Labor Government does not take things lying down—this is an arrogant, bullying government. It is payback time. I am sure that this bill would not have seen the light of day if the Australian Labor Party had won the mayoralty and control of City of Sydney council. The Government thought it could get away with the forced boundary changes. It did not, so it has come back with this bill. One wonders whether we could extrapolate this approach and say that when the Government wants to proceed with development it will always override local government. It has nibbled away at local government in many areas. The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority took control of choice waterfront areas. Areas of the Balmain peninsula were excised from the control of Leichhardt council. Parts of Pyrmont were removed from the control of Sydney council. An authority was created to oversee the Olympic site when Auburn Council was denied control of it. We cannot trust these local councils, can we?..."
)So I guess the model dictates (no pun indended) that the community should decide.
