Parliamentary Report 25: December 2003 - February 2004

UPDATE SINCE LAST SDC

Costa's train wreck

The NSW government's run down of public transport is shaping up to be a major issue for 2004 with both ferry, CountryLink and City Rail services undermined by the Minister for Transport Michael Costa. Based on information given to us by train workers we believe that the Minister is deliberately using the Waterfall Inquiry recommendations to suit the Government's agenda of cutting spending on public transport. The Minister is arguing that drivers deemed fit and healthy last week are now unsuitable to work to suit his Government's agenda of cutting spending on public services. Already we have seen a cut back in services because drivers are being stood down. We are working closely with the Rail, Tram and Bus Union on this issue.

The Minister is now winding back the rail services he attempted to cut last year on the basis that there are not enough drivers to do the job. It is expected that shortly night and weekend rail services on city lines and a number of CountryLink rail services will be cut. Our office is working closely with Greens and local groups across the state fighting these changes. We will produce some new leaflets on this issue shortly.

We have had considerable media coverage for our work on safeguarding rail services after we exposed the low on-time running for peak hour trains this year. After many complaints to our office from angry commuters we tracked down City Rails own statistics that showed that during the afternoon peak hour at the end of January only 32.1% of city trains were on time. On the South line only 4.3% of afternoon peak hour trains were on time.

We had the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald on two days and a number of TV news and a lot of radio coverage for this story.

Hunter coalmine campaign

Rail heritage

Greens member Jack Mundey and I joined residents on the North Shore to call for the State Government to rework their plans for Chatswood and Gordon railway stations so that these rail heritage precincts are not lost. We joined residents in a meeting at Chatswood. State Rail has shown that it can be sensitive to heritage values when installing disability access at stations at Hornsby, Liverpool, Rockdale Fairfield and Katoomba.

NSW ports plan

Greens MP for Cunningham, Michael Organ, and I have been campaigning together for the upgrade of Port Kembla and to stop the proposed expansion of Port Botany. The recent release of the EIS for the Port Botany expansion shows that the Labor government are not serious about the Port Kembla development. The only way the 2000 jobs that the Premier promised to create in the Illawarra can be delivered is if the container traffic is sent to Port Kembla rather than the proposed Port Botany expansion. When Mr Carr announced the closure of Sydney harbour as a working harbour he boasted about transferring these jobs to the Illawarra, but Sydney Harbour only employs a few hundred port workers, so any increase in local port jobs for Illawarra can only be created if the Port Botany expansion does not go ahead. Wollongong is experiencing an unemployment rate of 9.6% and desperately needs the Carr Government to commit itself to ports growth in the regions and not in Sydney where the infrastructure is already under severe stress.

My colleague Ian Cohen is sitting on an inquiry into Port Infrastructure in NSW. The fact that the Environmental Impact Statement for Port Botany was released only two days before submissions close into the Parliamentary Inquiry into Port Infrastructure is a deliberate attempt by the Government to stifle the public's involvement. This seriously affects the Inquiry's ability to carry out its duties in the best interests of the community. The ports expansion also comes under Mr Costa's portfolio and the poor management of this issue again shows how he is mismanaging his responsibilities.

State Labor follows Coalition on anti-public-school agenda

The sacking of the director-general of the Department of Education, Jan McClelland in late January was a direct blow to the public school sector. This action by the Minister for Education coming at a time when our public schools were under attack from the Prime Minister reflected poorly on Labor's stance on public education.

The lack of commitment from the Labor government to public education was further highlighted by who they chose to put into this top job. Mr Andrew Cappie-Wood, the new director-general was the previous head of the Department of Housing, where he opened the door to private sector involvement in public housing.

While we welcome federal Labor speaking out strongly against the Prime Minister's attack on public schools Mr Refshauge has undermined his own party with this appointment.

Donation embarrassments

We have been very active with our campaign for an end to corporate donations to political parties. Working closely with Kerry Nettle's office we helped organise a protest at $11,000 a table fundraiser for Mark Latham, which attracted a good crowd and much media coverage. This was followed by more media coverage for our analysis of the annual release of information on donations by the Australian Electoral Commission.

The ongoing research of Norman Thompson meant that on the day the AEC data came out we were well placed to quickly analysis and comment to the media. Our analysis of the AEC data revealed some interesting trends.

- After winning the 2003 election, Bob Carr's Labor Government announced pokie tax increases that upset the club movement - and the ALP have paid a price. The clubs' lobby group, Clubs NSW, cut its donations from nearly $160,000 in 2001-02 to just $11,000 in 2002-03. At the same time, the Liberals supported the clubs' position. Clubs NSW increased their donation to the Liberals from zero in 2001-02 to almost $115,000 in 2002-03.
- Developers continue to be the big backers of NSW Labor with the combined donations of companies in the field of construction and planning increasing by more than 60% since last year. The Liberals run a poor second to Labor in donations from developers. Developers in 2002-3 gave $1.6m, compared to $1m in 2001-2. Five developers in the last financial year gave more than $100,000 each to NSW Labor.
- The Stockland Trust Group donated $40,500 to the NSW ALP in the 2002-03 financial year, three times more than the total given since 1998. This is the company involved in the controversial development at Sandon Point on NSW's south coast. From March 2003, the State Government was conducting a Commission of Inquiry into the development of Stages 7 and onwards at Sandon Point while the ALP was receiving donations from Stockland. I have called on the NSW ALP to hand back the donation it received from Stockland Trust and to refuse to take any more money while the controversy over the Sandon Point development continues.

MEDIA COVERAGE (Dec 03 - Feb 04)

Trains running late - The Herald, ABC TV, Ch 7, 2BL, 2GB, 2UE, 2SM,
2KY, Illawarra Mercury, Bankstown Torch, The Glebe
AAP, The Age online
Kurnell Peninsula - C h 9, The Herald
AEC annual returns (donations) -BC TV, JJJ
Costa blaming train drivers - The Herald, ABC radio,
Coalmines in the Hunter - Ch 9, 2HD, 2NUR
Council workers and amalgamations - Wellington Times
Stockland donations/Sandon Pt - Wave FM
Tobacco Donations - 2UE, 2SM
Kangaroo culling - 2SM
MP's superannuation - Daily Telegraph
Newcastle rail - Newcastle Herald
Performance of MPs - Sun-Herald
M4 extension - news.com.au, AAP
Illegal piggery raid - AAP, ABC New England, Northern Daily Leader,
Smh.com.au,
Narrabri Council investigation - ABC New England,
Open Source - APC (Aust Personal Computer) Magazine
Treasures of Palestine censorship - The Australian
Bus fare increases - The Herald, The Australian online, AAP

GREENS EVENTS ATTENDED SINCE THE LAST SDC

Local Group Events
- Launch of Greens Wollongong City Council candidates
- Stalls and media conference for Greens Sydney City Council candidates
- Greens Sydney City Council candidates campaign meetings

Greens Working Group Meetings
- Industrial Relations Working Group
- Education Working Group
- Transport Working Group

Greens on Sunday
- Workshops for Greens local government candidates

Greens in Parliament
- Morning tea for older activists

Other Greens Events
- Protest at Latham fund raising dinner
- Meeting of Port Jackson, Inner West and Marrickville Greens members, and John Kaye about Greens action to stop the extension to M4 motorway

MEETINGS ATTENDED IN PARLIAMENT
- Launch of 'You Shouldn't Have to Hide to be Safe' project of the NSW Attorney General to improve safety in the gay and lesbian community
- Luncheon with Vietnamese Women's Union

EVENTS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT WHERE LEE SPOKE
- Animal Liberation end of year function
- Australian Ecological Society Conference
- Political Finance Law Workshop at Griffith University
- Executive of the Finance Sector Union

EVENTS ATTENDED OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT
- Tour of mining sites with community activists and reps of peak environment groups
- Fair Go for Will & Dave protest outside Downing Centre Court
- Protest at sale of Maroubra High School
- End of year functions - NCOSS, Sydney City Council, Independent Education Union, Nature Conservation Council, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and Taylor & Scott Law Firm
- Presentation Day Sydney Girls High School
- Sydney City Council celebrations for Chinese New Year
- Member of Greens team in Cole Classic swim at Bondi

PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRIES AND COMMITTEES ATTENDED
- General Purpose Standing Comm - Estimates on Workcover
- General Purpose Standing Comm - Estimates on Premier/Cabinet Office
- Law & Justice Committee

STAFF, VOLUNTEERS AND INTERNS
Staff - Hans van Leeuwen, Cate Faehrmann, Susie Gemmell, Linda Wilhelm
Volunteers - Linda Wilhelm undertakes a range of administration and coordination activities for our office. Norman Thompson coordinates our volunteer team researching donations to political parties.

CONTACT WITH MY OFFICE
Ph 9230-3551 Fax 9230-3550
Lee Rhiannon
lee.rhiannon@parliament.nsw.gov.au
Hans van Leeuwen - policy adviser
hans.leeuwen@parliament.nsw.gov.au
Cate Faehrmann - media adviser
cate.faehrmann@parliament.nsw.gov.au
Susie Gemmell - communications coordinator
(to be advised)
Linda Wilhelm - office administration
linda.wilhelm@parliament.nsw.gov.au

If you have trouble reaching my office by phone I apologise. We endeavour to answer all phone calls within two days and all correspondence within two weeks. Our workload continues to increase so we very much appreciate the assistance we are receiving from a number of volunteers to manage the inquiries that we receive.

E-BRIEF
We produce a regular email bulletin providing information on our work in Parliament, a summary of Greens media, "what's on", and juicy bits of information. It's a great way to keep up to date on Greens events and views. To subscribe email to lee.rhiannon@parliament.nsw.gov.au with "E-Brief subscribe" as the subject.