The Coalition has faced another embarrassing blow in the Land and Environment Court with a decision setting aside the approval for the redevelopment of Walsh Bay. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald: The proposed $210 million redevelopment of Sydney’s Walsh Bay has suffered a major blow after planning approval for the project was declared invalid […]
Stripping local councils of their powers to make decisions about development applications will do nothing to restore integrity or accountability to the NSW planning system. Under the Coalition’s proposed changes contentious planning decisions will be made by unelected “independent” planning panels rather than democratically elected councillors. The Greens know that restoring trust in our local […]
Dear friends, We’re a quarter of the way through 2017 and despite how busy things are it seems a good time to reflect a bit on what we’ve done so far. Building on our work on council amalgamations that has already saved a number of councils around the state, I introduced a bill into Parliament […]
The Coalition’s draft planning bill is out and our verdict? It’s a fail. The bill completely fails to mention climate change, climate preparedness or planning for a carbon constrained world, even though our planning system is the biggest contributor to carbon emissions in NSW. We think this omission is unacceptable. What else does the bill do? The good: […]
The Greater Sydney Commission’s draft district plans are on public exhibition until 31 March 2017. This district plans are of particular importance to your local area because when it is finalised every local council in the district will be required to amend their Local Environment Plan to be consistent with it. In other words whatever is in […]
Premier Berejiklian must take a stand and immediately remove Ray Williams from her cabinet amid evidence of thousands of dollars in property developer donations being funnelled through the Hawkesbury Club for Liberal party campaigning. Leaked financial records from the NSW Liberal Party indicate that thousands of dollars of illegal donations from property developers were delivered […]
The Newcastle community, and Newcastle Council, must not be bullied by the Baird Government to support UrbanGrowth’s rezoning plans for the Newcastle rail line. The veiled threat by Transport Minister Andrew Constance that Newcastle Council is “robbing the people of Newcastle of $100 million” can’t be allowed to push the council into supporting the […]
This speech was delivered on 22.09.2016 in the NSW Upper House. You can read the full debate online here. I strongly support the motion moved by my colleague Dr Mehreen Faruqi to establish a select committee to look into what has gone horribly wrong in the approval and construction process of the CBD and South East […]
The Baird Government is grossly mismanaging the Crown Land estate and the community is being frozen out of decision-making, according to a report from the NSW Auditor General into the Sale and lease of Crown land. This report confirms what the Greens and members of the public have been saying for years, that public parks, […]
UrbanGrowth’s freshly lodged application to rezone the land along the Newcastle rail line confirms what locals have suspected all along, that the cutting of the rail line was to facilitate intensive development along the corridor. See reporting in the Newcastle Herald here. A protest and media conference will be held at 11am Thursday 7 July […]
