December 13, 2014
Peter Manning
On Monday and Tuesday the Baird government will auction off three more houses in Kent Street from the public housing estate at The Rocks.
Families that have lived there for three and five generations or more – some paying rent for more than 100 years – will compulsorily lose their homes, their friends and their community.
The 293 families involved can thank Pru Goward, now the NSW Minister for Planning, for she was the minister who replaced the disgraced Greg Pearce when Barry O'Farrell sacked him over a perceived conflict of interest more than a year ago.
When the Housing Corporation that deals with public housing – and The Rocks has been Australia's first and oldest such project – was transferred to Goward as then Minister for Community Services, Goward took the opportunity to ignore its recommendations to build a new facility to avoid evicting the elderly tenants.
Goward made the decision to evict the lot from Millers Point. Her office ignored the fact that the public housing was protected under the NSW Heritage Act, which included its residents not just the buildings, and failed to consult the Heritage office.
Sydney historian Shirley Fitzgerald described Goward's actions as "appalling" and "rapacious".
When O'Farrell fell on his sword in April this year following an ICAC hearing, the new Premier lifted Goward to Planning Minister and Gabrielle Upton was given Community Services and responsibility to see Goward's project through.
Upton has yet to produce a business plan for the Millers Point sell-off but last week rejected a report to her from a leading economics consultancy (commissioned by the residents) stating that the original idea of Pearce – purpose-built accommodation to house the elderly long-term residents – would be the cheapest solution.
Upton at first said she would consider the report and then changed her mind and rejected it outright. It seems there is simply too much money at stake for investors, and the Baird government, for putting residents before investors and developers.
This is not the first time there has been a battle for The Rocks. Labor and Liberal governments have came up with reports in 1930, 1953, 1960 and 1970 to develop the area and move the residents out. But every time the community housing argument won the day.
The Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority met its match in 1970 with a spirited resistance from the Rocks Resident Action Group led by feisty local resident Nita McRae. She called on Jack Mundey's Builders' Labourers' Federation to stop the bulldozers.
I interviewed Nita in 1974 and she told me she rang Jack and said: "Is it the policy of your union to have members pull down other unionists' houses?". It was a rhetorical question. The BLF slammed a "green ban" on this working-class area, full of maritime workers and their families, and the project was dropped. Nita died 12 years later.
The success of the BLF action – one of more than 40 "green bans" around Sydney halting projects worth more than $3000 million – may well explain the excessive secrecy with which the Baird government has gone about selling off its Rocks properties.
Reporters have been told that real estate agents have been gagged from speaking to the media and that all information must come from government spokespeople. Under instruction from the government, McGrath Real Estate also refused to reveal the location of the first auctions in August.
But Labor's upcoming candidate for the local seat of Sydney, Edwina Lloyd, has had a field day firing up not just Rocks residents but any believers in public or mixed housing. Lloyd described actions towards the evicted residents as "disgusting" and "bullying".
The fight for the Rocks – there are still 280 homes to go — comes at an awkward time for the government. The battle for the Sydney Harbour Park headland, following the cave-in to shooters in National Parks, questions the government's environmental credentials. The historic Callan Park hospital site in Rozelle is now also under review by the government. More importantly, the Rocks hardline stance taken by Goward and Baird, putting profits before people, threatens not only the notion of heritage and mixed housing but also the perception that developers have won over the Liberals just as they did Labor in their worst period.
Peter Manning, a journalist and academic, wrote the book Green Bans with Marion Hardman for the Australian Conservation Foundation in 1974.
RESOURCED: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/public-housing-at-what-price-20141213-125uxj.html
Peter Manning
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| Proposals to sell off public housing in The Rocks area are controversial. |
On Monday and Tuesday the Baird government will auction off three more houses in Kent Street from the public housing estate at The Rocks.
Families that have lived there for three and five generations or more – some paying rent for more than 100 years – will compulsorily lose their homes, their friends and their community.
The 293 families involved can thank Pru Goward, now the NSW Minister for Planning, for she was the minister who replaced the disgraced Greg Pearce when Barry O'Farrell sacked him over a perceived conflict of interest more than a year ago.
When the Housing Corporation that deals with public housing – and The Rocks has been Australia's first and oldest such project – was transferred to Goward as then Minister for Community Services, Goward took the opportunity to ignore its recommendations to build a new facility to avoid evicting the elderly tenants.
Goward made the decision to evict the lot from Millers Point. Her office ignored the fact that the public housing was protected under the NSW Heritage Act, which included its residents not just the buildings, and failed to consult the Heritage office.
Sydney historian Shirley Fitzgerald described Goward's actions as "appalling" and "rapacious".
When O'Farrell fell on his sword in April this year following an ICAC hearing, the new Premier lifted Goward to Planning Minister and Gabrielle Upton was given Community Services and responsibility to see Goward's project through.
Upton has yet to produce a business plan for the Millers Point sell-off but last week rejected a report to her from a leading economics consultancy (commissioned by the residents) stating that the original idea of Pearce – purpose-built accommodation to house the elderly long-term residents – would be the cheapest solution.
Upton at first said she would consider the report and then changed her mind and rejected it outright. It seems there is simply too much money at stake for investors, and the Baird government, for putting residents before investors and developers.
This is not the first time there has been a battle for The Rocks. Labor and Liberal governments have came up with reports in 1930, 1953, 1960 and 1970 to develop the area and move the residents out. But every time the community housing argument won the day.
The Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority met its match in 1970 with a spirited resistance from the Rocks Resident Action Group led by feisty local resident Nita McRae. She called on Jack Mundey's Builders' Labourers' Federation to stop the bulldozers.
I interviewed Nita in 1974 and she told me she rang Jack and said: "Is it the policy of your union to have members pull down other unionists' houses?". It was a rhetorical question. The BLF slammed a "green ban" on this working-class area, full of maritime workers and their families, and the project was dropped. Nita died 12 years later.
The success of the BLF action – one of more than 40 "green bans" around Sydney halting projects worth more than $3000 million – may well explain the excessive secrecy with which the Baird government has gone about selling off its Rocks properties.
Reporters have been told that real estate agents have been gagged from speaking to the media and that all information must come from government spokespeople. Under instruction from the government, McGrath Real Estate also refused to reveal the location of the first auctions in August.
But Labor's upcoming candidate for the local seat of Sydney, Edwina Lloyd, has had a field day firing up not just Rocks residents but any believers in public or mixed housing. Lloyd described actions towards the evicted residents as "disgusting" and "bullying".
The fight for the Rocks – there are still 280 homes to go — comes at an awkward time for the government. The battle for the Sydney Harbour Park headland, following the cave-in to shooters in National Parks, questions the government's environmental credentials. The historic Callan Park hospital site in Rozelle is now also under review by the government. More importantly, the Rocks hardline stance taken by Goward and Baird, putting profits before people, threatens not only the notion of heritage and mixed housing but also the perception that developers have won over the Liberals just as they did Labor in their worst period.
Peter Manning, a journalist and academic, wrote the book Green Bans with Marion Hardman for the Australian Conservation Foundation in 1974.
RESOURCED: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/public-housing-at-what-price-20141213-125uxj.html
