The stench of corruption wafting from NSW Labor

A very important article ran in today’s Sydney Morning Herald.  Entitled ‘The Circle of Influence‘, it details the connections between Labor Party MPs and apparatchiks, unionists, developers, and even links with the mafia!

This article shows how closely linked the modern Labor Party is with developers in NSW.  No wonder our planning laws are an absolute shambles.

“A common interest in property development crowds Labor’s political stage in NSW, writes Kate McClymont.

Forget about six degrees of separation. If you are a Labor mate, it takes just three degrees to be linked to everyone else. If you throw in property speculation, the odds are even shorter…”

It reminds me of learning about how the Indonesian Military works at university.  When a class of Indonesian military officers graduate, they set up companies and use their positions in the military and network of links to expand their business interests and grow powerful and rich.  That’s why when you hear about illegal logging in Indonesia or West Papua, there are often close links to the military.

It seems the same system operates in the NSW Labor Party.  You graduate from Young Labor with your factional mates and allies.  As you gain party positions or union positions and slots in parliament, your web of business interests and links to a network of developers expands.  You grow rich and powerful.

This might be good and well for senior members of the Labor Party, but it is not acceptable in a modern democracy.  The current crop of Labor politicians clearly have unhealthy links to the development industry.  The flow of donations from developers to the Labor Party has institutionalised these links and made the chief instigators very powerful.

We not only need an election in NSW, we need a Royal Commission to investigate the types of links uncovered in this article.

RTA keeps M4 East extension reports under wraps

Media Release  9 October 2009

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon today slammed the Minister for Roads and the RTA for refusing to release key reports relating to the contentious M4 East Extension project, despite the NSW Upper House voting for their release and some already been leaked to the media (RTA refuses to release M4 papers, Sydney Morning Herald today).

Two weeks ago Ms Rhiannon won Upper House MPs’ support for the release of key reports, including a discussion paper on the motorway prepared by the government for community consultation and a report by UK transport consultant Jim Steer which slammed the project.

“Premier Rees claims the days of the secret state are over, but this shows it’s thriving,” said the Greens Roads Spokesperson.

“The government has stamped all documents as cabinet-in-confidence even though some have already been leaked to the media.

“Keeping these documents under wraps means Inner West residents are denied critical information about where the motorway and its polluting stacks will go.

“This is a project with legs. The Rees government says it would love to build it and the federal government is contributing $300 million for planning and preconstruction work.

“Before we know it contracts will be signed and Sydney will have a new motorway built by stealth, with no community consultation.

“The government should be investing in world class public transport, not building new billion dollar motorways that lock us in to a car-dependent future,” Ms Rhiannon said.

For more information: 9230 3551, 0427 861 568

Why so Shy? Labor Councillor Tsardoulias bans photos and video from Marrickville Council chamber

Shy? Councillor Emmanuel Tsardoulias (pictured here in the chair) moved to stop the public taking photos or otherwise recording Council meetings after seeing this photo on our website

Tonight Labor Councillor Emanuel Tsardoulias moved a motion to ban the public (including other councillors) from taking photos or otherwise recording Marrickville Council meetings.

Councillor Tsardoulias was apparently upset that his photo had appeared on this website accompanying this account of what happened during debate on a motion relating to the Lewisham Towers development.

The shy Councillor’s motion to ban recordings was successful, and now any member of the public who attempts to take a photo (even with a mobile phone) or otherwise record what happens in the public chamber will likely be ejected from the chamber or public gallery – although Councillor Hanna inserted an amendment to allow the big corporate media to record events without even needing to seek permission (so don’t worry Rupert!).

This is a strange move by Labor.  Most politicians, even at the lowly local government level, usually seek out publicity.  Perhaps Labor are ashamed of their support for overdevelopment in the Marrickville area?  Perhaps they aren’t proud of the arguments they put to support retrograde decisions such as the installation astroturf at heritage sports grounds or knock down heritage buildings to expand car parks?  Perhaps they just have thin skin?

Federal Parliament and State Parliament are streamed live on the internet.  Question Time is broadcast on TV.  In America the CSPAN network devotes 24/7 coverage to parliamentary events.

The Public Eye: Keating wasn’t shy like Marrickville Labor

The Rudd government is currently studying how to bring web 2.0 features to our democracy – Minister Lindsay Tanner calls it ‘Government 2.0‘.

However, Labor Councilors and the Labor aligned conservative ‘independent’ Councillors Hanna and Macri (who seem to vote with Labor 99% of the time), voted to make decision making at Marrickville Council more secretive.

The Greens voted against this motion arguing that as elected public officials in a public chamber debating decisions that affect the public, we should be willing to be subjected to public scrutiny – including through recording of sound and images.  If certain Councillors object to other opinions of their conduct or voting records, they should argue their case in the public sphere.  It is frankly embarrassing that they resort to implementing stricter Council regulations to shield themselves from scrutiny.

The Greens moved a matter arising that Council ‘receive a report into the logistics and cost of filming council meetings and making it available on the council website under a General Public Licence (GPL)‘.

Warringah Council stream their meetings live on the internet so that residents don’t have to sit in the council chamber to keep an eye on their elected representatives.’  In ten years this will be a basic function of most councils – some of whom still record onto magnetic tape.

I’m happy to report that this motion succeeded with the five Greens Councillors, plus Councillor Hanna and Mayor Iskandar’s support.

The three other Labor Councillors voted against this mechanism for better transparency and accessibility, with the support of the ever loyal so-called Independent Councillor Macri (did I mention he almost always votes with Labor?  Well he does!)

Giving the public access to media of their elected officials conducting public business is becoming a more important part of democracy with the advent of YouTube.  The recent US election saw many politicians rightly exposed when old footage was placed on YouTube pointing out hypocrisy or blatant lies.  President Obama was forced to give a pivotal speech on racism in America  and his beliefs after footage of his controversial pastor Reverend Wright went viral on YouTube.

Overall, I believe it is a good thing for democracy that any person with an iPhone and a blog can be a journalist.  Remember Twitter and the Internet almost caused a revolution in Iran recently.  While some of those in power don’t like it and will try and stop it, ultimately information will get out.  It is better to embrace these new technologies than try to hide from them through laws and regulations.

When the Greens get the numbers on Marrickville Council, we will open up the Council Chamber to any citizen reporters who wish to come and report on events, among other measures to make council decision-making more open, transparent, inclusive and accessible.

Councillor Max Phillips

Planning in NSW – back to the days of Askin

Last week’s Stateline included a devestating critique of the NSW planning system.

Tim Robertson, a barrister whose work includes advising developers, stated that the state Labor government had taken NSW planning back to the bad old days of the infamous Askin government.  He says that local democracy, community participation and checks and balances have been severely curtailed and power concentrated in the hands of the planning minister.

This comes as no surprise to many people when you consider the NSW Labor Party has taken over $10 million from developers over the past few years (democracy4sale.org).

Marrickville is suffering from this new undemocratic planning system, with the massive Lewisham Towers overdevelopment being considered under Part 3A, and three big development applications being referred to the newly formed and unelected Joint Regional Planning Panel (the minister appoints 3 out of 5 members of these panels).  The controversial plans for the Marrickville RSL site are one of the developments going to the unelected panel for decision.  Read the transcript below to find out why!

The whole transcript can be found here.  I’ve reproduced the interview with Tim Robertson at length as it is highly informative.

NICK GRIMM: Tim Robertson is a leading Sydney barrister, a senior counsel specialising in environmental law. His clients include government, residents groups and property developers.

He’s familiar with the Catherine Hill Bay case, having once represented Lake Macquarie Council in action against the developer Rosecorp. But he says that case just highlights the bigger problem with planning in this state.

TIM ROBERTSON: The changes that have been made since 2005 have concentrated enormous power in the hands of one person, the Planning Minister, and it has returned the state to the position we were in in about 1965. If you remember, the Premier of the day then was a fellow called Askin. We are now in a position in our planning system that we have returned to the days of Bob Askin.

NICK GRIMM: So in a nutshell, what’s wrong with the way the planning and development is conducted in this state?

TIM ROBERTSON: Well, we’ve taken a huge area of development decision-making which previously – where power had been previously diffused amongst the community and in community leadership nodes such as local government, and we’ve concentrated that power in the hands of one person. And that person’s decision-making is essentially ungovernable. The court can only police the boundaries of it, it can only police legality. But there is really no merits review of that decision any longer, because the Government has cut out merits review by appointing panels or by requiring concept plans to be prepared, both of which are steps taken for the purpose of preventing judicial review of the Government’s decisions. And in the case of major infrastructure projects, which the Government decides are important enough to classify as such, there is no right of appeal by anybody for any reason and the implementation of those projects, even in breach of conditions applied by the minister, him or herself, is uncontrollable by the courts.

There’s a further problem with the system, and that is in the process of development decision-making, the system now is, under Part 3A, that the developer writes its own conditions. In other words, they’ve contracted out the process of regulation so that when the developer makes what is called a statement of commitments, then that statement represents the controls that the minister implements over the development. So it’s a case where the poacher has effectively become the gamekeeper.

NICK GRIMM: And moreover, we’re talking about a concentration of power in the hands of a minister who’s a member of a party which is a recipient of very large political donations from property developers.

TIM ROBERTSON: Well you see none of my criticism depends upon that. My criticism is of process and policy. Because what I see now are bad decisions being made, and they’re being made because the kind of controls over the decision-making process have been eviscerated by Part 3A of the Planning Act.

NICK GRIMM: Tim Robertson, you also act for property developers. Now, given what you’re saying about the planning processes in this state, what sort of advice do you give your clients when they come to you with a project that they’re having difficulty getting off the ground?

TIM ROBERTSON: Oh, I tell them to go to Part 3A, go to the minister. You never advise your clients to go to counsel if they can avoid it. So if they fall within the description of a major project or if they have some – if there’s some flexibility in the description, they should go off to the minister or the minister’s department and persuade them to treat it as a major project.

NICK GRIMM: OK, so exactly why do you tell property developers to go to the minister?

TIM ROBERTSON: First of all, there’s far less scrutiny; secondly, the public don’t have a look in; thirdly, there’s a possibility of getting an approval faster, although recently it’s been very difficult to get quick approvals from the department. And finally, if there is anything dodgy about the development, then it’s not likely to be looked at with the same degree of scrutiny as if they went the local government route. And I think possibly the most important thing is that if the minister does appoint a panel or has a concept plan requirement, then that cuts out the court. So if objectors have rights of appeal because it’s what’s called designated development, they can’t exercise those rights of appeal. So it makes it – it tidies it up for property developers. It reduces the risk of development and makes the – makes development easier because they don’t have to comply with planning controls. Planning controls are just out the window, unless there’s an actual prohibition, and even then the minister can get over the actual prohibition by rezoning the land, at the same time as granting a project approval under Part 3A, and has done so and did so in several controversial cases, including the Rosecorp development at Catherine Hill Bay.

NICK GRIMM: So, essentially, if a property developer has a project that may lack merit, their best option is to go straight to the Planning Minister?

TIM ROBERTSON: There’s no planning lawyer in the state who would give different advice.

NICK GRIMM: That’s a pretty damning indictment of the way planning is conducted in this state, isn’t it?

TIM ROBERTSON: It’s a reflection of the actuality, that is, that power has been concentrated in the minister’s hands and for the purpose of facilitating development approvals, certainly not for purpose of enhancing environment scrutiny of development and certainly not for encouraging community participation in development or implementing well-worked-out planning controls that local government apply to small people, small developers, who still have to go the local government route.

NICK GRIMM: Kristina Keneally told the Parliament this week that she wants the NSW planning system to be the best of any state or territory in the country. Now, in your view, what is going to need to overcome to achieve a goal like that?

TIM ROBERTSON: Oh, she’ll have to sweep away the last five years of legislation, which has reversed the progress in planning by 30 years. And – but, you know, the Government’s been telling lies about what its intentions are in relation to planning for years. They claimed that Part 3A would increase public participation, whereas it’s only reduced it. To some extent, it’s vitiated community participation altogether by giving the minister power to ignore plans and controls that have been developed in cooperation with the community. So it has, I think quite deliberately – and the Government’s known what they’re doing – quite deliberately taken these steps to avoid community scrutiny of controversial development.

Where is today’s Jack Mundey?

Time running out for Cooks River fig trees

Time is running out for two large fig trees near the Cooks River Mackey Park after an amendment to ensure their retention in the park’s renovation was defeated by a combination of Labor and Independent Councillors at Tuesday’s Council meeting.

The two magnificent fig trees by the Cooks River at Mackey Park Marrickville that are proposed for removal

Council officers have drafted plans to expand the size of the soccer pitches and claim the trees must be removed to stop their roots interfering the with ground and that their limbs might shade part of the pitch from new flood lights.

The gallery was full of residents concerned about aspects of the draft design, including the loss of the central path through to Tempe train station, the location of a large water tank, and the threat to the two large fig trees.  The Greens moved a suspension of standing orders to allow all the residents who registered to speak a chance to speak, but this was voted down by the usual combination of Labor and conservative councillors (who vote as a block 99% of the time).

The two Hills Figs are in excellent health and are not yet fully mature.  All Greens Councillors voted to have the park plans altered to protect the trees.

Draft Plans for Mackey Park

Greens Councillor Peter Olive pointed out that a turf renovation was carried out at Steel Park recently with fig trees located only 5 – 7 metres from the pitch, yet in Mackey Park the pitch will be 12 metres from the fig trunks.  It seems strange that in 2009 Marrickville Council is incapable of redesigning a park to protect some of its grandest trees.  It seems strange still that not all Marrickville Councillors seem to realise the value and community attachment to trees, especially large trees and those by the Cooks River.

Labor appoints elephant killer to chair Game Council

The Sydney Morning Herald has exposed the depravity that is the State Labor Government in today’s newspaper.

Mr Borsak, appointed head of the Game Council in NSW, poses with a elephant he has just killed

They’ve appointed Robert Borsak as head of the ‘Game Council’ who earns $342 a day when the council sits.  The ‘Game Council’ was set up as a fob to the Shooters Party, whose two MPs the government relies on (along with Fred Nile) to get the numbers in the NSW Upper House.

Today the Herald revealed that Mr Borsak bloged about his hunting trip in Zimbabwe to kill elephants.

Below are some extracts from Mr Borsak blog on his ‘hunting trip‘:

“”My reflexes took over as the rifle fired … he went down, as if in slow motion,…It was awesome. He did not know what had hit him…

The 500 grain Woodleigh solid had found its mark, above the left eye, angling across the skull, through the lower brain, cleanly and instantly killing the bull. The fun was now only about to start, there in front of me lay 4 tonne of elephant meat, with tusks weighing in at about 45lb a side…

Then all too soon it was over, in a flash, 37 years of shooting and hunting experience brought to bear with a shot at the bull just on a trunks length away. I could still see that small hazel eye, looking at me, without recognition, before the bullet put out his lights forever…”

Read the blog yourself.

Mr Borsak even posted photos posing with the dead elephant on the blog.

Now is this the kind of man you want advising the government on matters related to shooting?

The government recently lost the support of the Shooters Party after it refused to back a private members bill that sought to allow hunting in National Parks.

The government has recently been looking for ways to get the Shooters Party back on side, with a proposal to allow them to assist in culls within national parks.

The Greens have long been critical of the ‘Game Council‘ which Labor has funded to the tune of $11 million of public money since 2002.  Read this report from April 2009.

Max Phillips

Peter Garrett & the ultimate sell out

By Max Phillips

Providing conclusive evidence that he has made a Faustian bargain Peter Garrett, long time environmental activists and anti-uranium campaigner, now Minister for the Environment in the Rudd Labor government, has approved a new uranium mine.

Let me type that again.  PETER GARRETT HAS APPROVED A URANIUM MINE.

Yes, I didn’t believe in the devil until I heard this news.  But obviously the devil must exist, otherwise who would Peter Garrett sell his soul to in return for power?

Still don’t believe me?  Peter Garrett, who once ran for the Senate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party, has approved a Uranium Mine.

Greens Leader Bob Brown said of the decision:

“Peter has sacrificed himself to Labor politics,” Senator Brown said.

“It is as if the Howard government was not voted out of office – it’s just changed its name.”

The new mine will inject sulfuric acid into the ground to extract the uranium.  Sound safe?  Garrett thinks so:

“Following this thorough assessment and careful consideration, I am certain this operation poses no credible risk to the environment.”

One wonders where the line is for Garrett?  Has he sold out all his values just for raw power and position?  Or is he waiting to surprise us with some magnificent decision that will justify his disgrace?

The REAL Peter Garrett sang his thoughts on Uranium Mining in 1986:

Dead Heart

[...]We don’t need protection
Don’t need your land
Keep your promise on where we stand
We will listen we’ll understand

Mining companies, pastoral companies
Uranium companies
Collected companies
Got more right than people
Got more say than people…

Banning bottled water? How Marrickville Labor Councillors blocked it

By Max Phillips

I’m watching with interest as the Southern Highlands town of Bundanoon has decided to ban the sale of bottled water and Premier Nathan Rees sniffs a populist moment and bans bottled water in NSW government departments.

In April, The Greens moved a motion on Marrickville Council that would have banned Council from distributing bottled water, educated the community about disposable plastic containers, and installed modern drinking fountains for people to fill containers with filtered tap water.

Unfortunately, the Labor Councillors and conservative independent Councillors Macri and Hanna voted against this amendment.  The vote was tied and the Mayor Sam Iskandar used his casting vote to defeat the ban on  bottled water. 

From the minutes of the April Council meeting:

The MOTION was put to the vote and was TIED.
For Motion: Councillors Olive, Byrne, Kontellis, Peters, Phillips and Thanos
Against Motion: Councillors Iskandar, Macri, O’Sullivan, Wright, Tsardoulias and Hanna
The Chairperson used his Casting Vote and the MOTION was LOST.

The main reason Labor articulated that they would vote against the motion seemed to be Councillor Wright’s distrust of Sydney tap water and the fluoride that is added.  That and their penchant to vote against anything The Greens put up.

Now they look pretty foolish, when even the Labor Premier says that we should be discouraging the use of bottled water!

Labor in Marrickville like to say they are progressive and ‘Labor Left’, but often their decisions make you wonder.  Expanding car parks in Petersham, cutting the bike budget, laying astroturf at heritage Arlington Oval in Dulwich Hill, and voting against the motion to ban bottled water.  There isn’t much that is ‘progressive’ on display!

Stopping Marrickville Council from stocking and distributing bottled water is a no-brainer.  Those who really want it can always bring their own.

Bottled water is bad for the following reasons:

• Litter and land fill
• Oil use in production
• Carbon emissions in the transportation of bottled water (water is a heavy product)
• Plastic finds its way into the oceans where in some areas there is more bits of plastic than plankton!
• Economic – it is an unnecessary product
• Health – lack of fluoride for younger people can cause problems.

Many cities and councils around the world have banned the use of bottled water in their institution.  Paris, Florence, New York, Los Angeles, Liverpool (UK), San Francisco, Toronto.

A modern filtered water fountain in the Manly Corso, Sydney

Even the Local Government Association of NSW wants to discourage the use of bottled water.  But does Marrickville Labor listen?  No, they’re stuck in a reactionary anti-green rut and are looking pretty foolish now.

Manly has installed excellent filtered water fountains encouraging people to refill empty bottles.  The motion moved by The Greens would also have seen similar fountains installed in public places in the Marrickville LGA.

For more information read the motion Distribution of bottled water and public water fountains that went before Marrickville Council in April.

The Greens will move another motion to stop the distribution of bottled water at Council events at the July Council meeting.

Vote in the smh.com.au poll on bottled water.

Video on plastic accumulation in the oceans:

“Every piece of plastic ever made since the 1950s still exists…”

update someone sent me these facts:

In 2004 154,000,000,000,000 litres of bottled of water was sold worldwide. It took 81,000,000,000 barrels of oil to make the bottles that held that water and released 2,500,000 tonne’s of CO2 into the atmosphere.
•       It takes three litres of water to make every litre bottled water.
•       86% of plastic water bottles end up in landfill.
•       Bottled water costs about 10,000 times the cost of tap water. I’ll say that again – bottled water costs about 10, 000 times the cost of tap water. I can’t think of any other product on earth that we get pretty much for free but that we choose to pay a 10,000 mark up on.
•       Humans spend $100,000,000,000 dollars a year on bottled water. It would cost roughly 1/3 of that to provide clean and safe drinking water for every person on earth.
•       Bottled water is not better for you. We have some of the best tap water on earth here in Australia and tap water faces far stricter quality standards than bottled water does. In fact 40% of bottled water is just tap water with additives.

Enmore School sold for $2.8million

by Max Phillips

Audio of Enmore School being sold at auction.  Shame Labor Shame!

The state Labor government has flogged off another public asset.  Enmore High School was sold this morning at auction for $2.8 million.

Save Our School members hand out information at the Auction of Enmore School held at The Rocks

Enmore school was opened in 1887 and has been a public education institution in various guises ever since.  Now the hopeless Labor state government has sold it so a developer can convert it into 15 apartments.

The community group, Save Our School, and local Greens were out the front of the auction handing out information to potential bidders.

The auctioneer said the property was “a potential goldmine”, and that a developer could “make a squillion dollars”.

The auction room packed for the sale of Enmore School. Four bidders drove the price to $2.8 million.

Bidding started at $1.3 million, with four bidders driving the price up to $2.8 million.  Not a lot for such a large building.  The people of NSW, and in particular the Inner West, have lost a precious public asset and heritage building for a song!

The successful bidder was an older man whose identity is unknown at this stage.

The local member, Carmel Tebbutt should be ashamed at her government’s behaviour.  As should Education Minister Verity Firth, under whose watch this school has been sold.  How useless is the Labor Left if they are instrumental in flogging off public education assets to developers!

Read Green Councillor Cathy Peters press release on the sale of Enmore School.

Carmel Tebbutt has taken some media flack for her temper tantrum last Friday.  The Sydney Morning Herald has run this on the back page Diary:

TEBBUTT TANTRUM

It could be the pressure of holding down a marginal seat and the deputy premiership, but Carmel Tebbutt put on a turn fit for the bearpit when confronted by a group of local activists at Australia Street Infants School in Newtown. The Marrickville MP, whose seat is under attack by the Greens, had patiently listened to concerns about the proposed sale of Enmore Public School site last week, when she appeared to suffer a brain explosion. Having extricated herself from the throng relatively unscathed, Tebbutt suddenly stormed back to demand that the activists remove a modest collection of petitions tied to the school fence. “You are using this school for political purposes – it’s disgraceful,” a red-faced Tebbutt said. The outburst only served to incite the citizenry, one of whom proceeded to follow Tebbutt down the road for some 20 metres, while returning fire.

Some of the letters & petitions that annoyed Carmel Tebbutt. Perhaps she doesn't want to know what the community actually thinks?

While the Inner West Courier ran a front page story on the same incident (will post when it is online).

Read all about Enmore School here.

Enmore School - Metropolitan Road, Enmore NSW

Public school property flogged off for bargain basement price

Media Release                         7th July 2009

The NSW Education department today auctioned off the former Enmore School for a mere 2.8 million dollars.

Save Our School members hand out information at the Auction of Enmore School held at The Rocks

“This is an appalling result for the community and a disgrace” said Clr Cathy Peters “this valuable property is worth far more than this and to sell it off at this bargain basement price shows the bloody mindedness of  Minister Firth and local member and deputy Premier, Carmel Tebbutt.”

“When the costs of the sale and the refusal of the Government to lease the School over the six it has been vacant are taken into account, the school, a valuable public asset, has effectively been given away.”

“This shortsighted grab for cash has not yielded enough money to build another school in the Enmore / Newtown area or anywhere for that matter, nor does it represent the value of this building for the many young families and TAFE students who need its equivalent now and in the future”.

“Minister Tebbutt was recently praising the sandstone restoration occuring at the Australia Street Infants School and seemed to miss the irony that while she was grandstanding in front of this work, her
government was preparing to sell off the Enmore School site  – an important heritage site that has played a major role in education for over 120 years”.

“All Marrickville Greens councillors condemn this sale and will continue to work actively to stop the Labor government selling off any more public property in the municipality.”

“Thanks to Carmel Tebbutt’s government, this
important public asset has been lost to the local community forever”.

Enquiries:  Clr Cathy Peters – 0419444974