Newcastle Bicentenary
Ms LEE RHIANNON [9.08 p.m.]: As Newcastle's bicentenary approaches, the city's inhabitants are getting ready to celebrate their history. But this milestone is also a perfect opportunity to look to the future and to think about what kind of city Newcastle is becoming. Newcastle is growing and it is changing. It is still in touch with its heritage as an industrial city, but it has become much more than just a mining and manufacturing town.
Parliament House, Sydney
One of Lee's responsibilities as a Greens MP is the Hunter region. She regularly visits the Hunter to meet residents and campaign on local issues. She gave this speech to Parliament on March 17, 2004 on the eve of Newcastle's bicentenary.
Ms LEE RHIANNON [9.08 p.m.]: As Newcastle's bicentenary approaches, the city's inhabitants are getting ready to celebrate their history. But this milestone is also a perfect opportunity to look to the future and to think about what kind of city Newcastle is becoming. Newcastle is growing and it is changing. It is still in touch with its heritage as an industrial city, but it has become much more than just a mining and manufacturing town. These days the real job creators are the retail industry and service sectors, such as health, education, tourism and property. The face of the city is also evolving. A changing economy means a changing urban landscape. At the same time, a rapidly growing population means development pressures are growing at both the centre and on the fringes. This is a great opportunity to rejuvenate and redefine Newcastle.
But not everyone's vision for the future of Newcastle is the same. Many of the city's inhabitants want development that respects tradition and heritage. They want development that is in accord with community values and needs. To achieve this, they need to ensure that the process of evolution and growth in Newcastle is not dictated by the interests of big developers.
Already there are worrying signs. The battle to save the Newcastle rail line is an ominous portent of the tensions that exist between the community and the developers. The Lower Hunter Transport Working Group has ignored submissions representing hundreds of ordinary citizens and called for the line to be torn up.
The group has ignored also the compelling statistics that more than a third of Hunter rail traffic is on the Newcastle line; that passenger numbers have risen 10 per cent in the past five years; and, if one analyses the figures properly, rather than in the misleading way the working group did it, it can be seen that the service is profitable. The working group seems to have other priorities on its mind. The group, three of whose four members are on the Honeysuckle Development Corporation board, could not even wait until after the inquiry process to stamp Honeysuckle's name all over the rail corridor's future.
The group's first report recommended that Honeysuckle be given the right to develop the rail line area once the tracks were torn up. The third report contained blueprints for major commercial and residential development all the way along the route of this so-called transport corridor. That is but one example of how those charged with shaping Newcastle's future are seemingly lining up with developer interests over those of the locals. That is not an isolated incident. Community outrage over the Lee Wharf proposal is gathering steam. Will the New South Wales Government ignore concerns that the development is too high and will overshadow the street? Will the Government endorse a proposal that is not set back enough from the road and lacks adequate car parking?
Private commercial interests have also been placed ahead of the public good in the proposal to reinvent the Newcastle Mater Misericordiae Hospital as a public-private partnership. When 40,000 public hospital staff walked off the job over that issue, alarm bells should have sounded at the highest levels of the Carr Government. Why have governments been so unresponsive to the voice of the community? Why, to use the classic phrase, are profits apparently coming before people? The answer lies in political donations. Both the Labor and Liberal parties have reaped millions of dollars from corporate donations in the past few years, and developers have been particularly generous. In the five years to June 2003, the New South Wales Labor Party received almost $5 million in donations from developers.
The New South Wales Liberals, who were in Opposition for that whole period, still managed to collect almost $3.7 million. That flow of money was a blight on the democratic process. Even if donations do not buy access to Ministers and influence over politicians, that is still the public perception. The same insidious influence can also work at a local level, particularly with a council election looming. The New South Wales Greens is the only party that does not take donations from companies, especially developers. Our role is to represent the interests of the community, not donors and other corporate interests. Until those governing Newcastle at both council and State level can say the same, the future of this great city may not rest in the hands of the people who live here; and the next 200 years may not be as much of a cause for celebration.
One of Lee's responsibilities as a Greens MP is the Hunter region. She regularly visits the Hunter to meet residents and campaign on local issues. She gave this speech to Parliament on March 17, 2004 on the eve of Newcastle's bicentenary.
Ms LEE RHIANNON [9.08 p.m.]: As Newcastle's bicentenary approaches, the city's inhabitants are getting ready to celebrate their history. But this milestone is also a perfect opportunity to look to the future and to think about what kind of city Newcastle is becoming. Newcastle is growing and it is changing. It is still in touch with its heritage as an industrial city, but it has become much more than just a mining and manufacturing town. These days the real job creators are the retail industry and service sectors, such as health, education, tourism and property. The face of the city is also evolving. A changing economy means a changing urban landscape. At the same time, a rapidly growing population means development pressures are growing at both the centre and on the fringes. This is a great opportunity to rejuvenate and redefine Newcastle.
But not everyone's vision for the future of Newcastle is the same. Many of the city's inhabitants want development that respects tradition and heritage. They want development that is in accord with community values and needs. To achieve this, they need to ensure that the process of evolution and growth in Newcastle is not dictated by the interests of big developers.
Already there are worrying signs. The battle to save the Newcastle rail line is an ominous portent of the tensions that exist between the community and the developers. The Lower Hunter Transport Working Group has ignored submissions representing hundreds of ordinary citizens and called for the line to be torn up.
The group has ignored also the compelling statistics that more than a third of Hunter rail traffic is on the Newcastle line; that passenger numbers have risen 10 per cent in the past five years; and, if one analyses the figures properly, rather than in the misleading way the working group did it, it can be seen that the service is profitable. The working group seems to have other priorities on its mind. The group, three of whose four members are on the Honeysuckle Development Corporation board, could not even wait until after the inquiry process to stamp Honeysuckle's name all over the rail corridor's future.
The group's first report recommended that Honeysuckle be given the right to develop the rail line area once the tracks were torn up. The third report contained blueprints for major commercial and residential development all the way along the route of this so-called transport corridor. That is but one example of how those charged with shaping Newcastle's future are seemingly lining up with developer interests over those of the locals. That is not an isolated incident. Community outrage over the Lee Wharf proposal is gathering steam. Will the New South Wales Government ignore concerns that the development is too high and will overshadow the street? Will the Government endorse a proposal that is not set back enough from the road and lacks adequate car parking?
Private commercial interests have also been placed ahead of the public good in the proposal to reinvent the Newcastle Mater Misericordiae Hospital as a public-private partnership. When 40,000 public hospital staff walked off the job over that issue, alarm bells should have sounded at the highest levels of the Carr Government. Why have governments been so unresponsive to the voice of the community? Why, to use the classic phrase, are profits apparently coming before people? The answer lies in political donations. Both the Labor and Liberal parties have reaped millions of dollars from corporate donations in the past few years, and developers have been particularly generous. In the five years to June 2003, the New South Wales Labor Party received almost $5 million in donations from developers.
The New South Wales Liberals, who were in Opposition for that whole period, still managed to collect almost $3.7 million. That flow of money was a blight on the democratic process. Even if donations do not buy access to Ministers and influence over politicians, that is still the public perception. The same insidious influence can also work at a local level, particularly with a council election looming. The New South Wales Greens is the only party that does not take donations from companies, especially developers. Our role is to represent the interests of the community, not donors and other corporate interests. Until those governing Newcastle at both council and State level can say the same, the future of this great city may not rest in the hands of the people who live here; and the next 200 years may not be as much of a cause for celebration.
