[Greens-Media] (Sylvia Hale MLC) The Block – first cab off the rank for compulsory acquisition?

[Christopher Holley]

The Block – first cab off the rank for compulsory acquisition?

The first victim of Frank Sartor’s proposal to compulsorily acquire
land and on-sell it to developers would undoubtedly be the Block in
Redfern, say The Greens.

“Developers have long cast greedy eyes on the Block,” said Greens
MP and planning spokesperson Sylvia Hale.  

“The Property Council of Australia and the Urban Taskforce are about
the only groups to wholeheartedly welcome the draft changes to the
planning act.

“In 2004, when the Frank Sartor established the Redfern-Waterloo
Authority to redevelop the area, the property industry was delighted.
Ken Morrison of the Property Council of Australia told the ABC’s 7.30
Report in December 2004, ‘If that Redfern station area is going to be
the hub of a new commercial zone, then the Block will just have to
go’.

“The Redfern-Waterloo Authority already has the power to override
local councils and heritage laws, and to grant concessions to private
developers. It can compulsorily acquire land, but not on-sell it out of
public ownership.

“Now the Minister has come up with a proposal to get over that
obstacle.

“How better to fulfil two of the Minister’s long-term ambitions –
move Aborigines out of Redfern while simultaneously assisting those
generous donors to the ALP, the development lobby.

“Surely it is time for sanity to prevail, for the Premier to stand
Minister Sartor aside, and to quietly abandon the planning act
changes,” concluded Ms Hale.

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