After many years of community campaigns, the greyhound racing track at Wentworth Park in Ultimo will be closed and converted to parkland.
NSW Labor, however, has spun it as a win for “housing”, by which it means private developers, sidelining locals who have not been consulted on its upzoning in already dense suburbs.
Closing the racetrack is a significant victory for the Greyhound Community Action Group, Animal Justice Party, Greens, City of Sydney Mayor Clover Moore, independent MPs and resident action groups.
Former NSW Premier Mike Baird, in 2016, announced a ban on greyhound racing after the industry’s cruel practices came to light. He later backed down under pressure from the racing and gambling industries.
Since then, campaigners have focused their attention on shutting down the Wentworth Park site, NSW’s most prominent greyhound racetrack, located in a densely populated area close to the city.
The Coalition, in 2022, decided to close the racetrack in 2027 when the lease expired. But NSW Labor appeared to have left open the possibility of it continuing.
Campaigners protested at the publicly owned site annually during the “Million Dollar Chase” event, and at many other times, holding picnics and gatherings.
The campaign gained strength from local resident group endorsements, such as Friends of Ultimo, Pyrmont Action and Friends of Erskineville.
As Premier Chris Minns announced the closure on December 9, his government said it would allocate $10 million to pay for upgrades at other greyhound tracks.
While the decision to close Wentworth Park is a significant victory for communities, Labor has sowed confusion by claiming it is linked to an upzoning for private homes in the area.
“Wentworth Park to support thousands of new homes” was its media release headline. Subsequently, the Sydney Morning Herald came out with “Popular greyhound racing track to make way for new homes”.
Many online comments expressed disappointment that housing would be built in the park, even though the official announcement makes no mention of such a thing.
They echoed the concerns around the conversion of Moore Park Golf Course to public parkland and whenever improvements to public and active transport are proposed, namely that such plans are trojan horses for property developer handouts.
NSW Labor has often claimed that the WestConnex toll road project “created” new parklands. This is not true. New parklands and artworks on exhaust stacks were an attempt to build community support for an unpopular project.
In these exchanges, the net losses usually outweigh any public benefit.
Communities should demand that parks and essential services be expanded before more private housing is built, ensuring amenity and the public/private balance is maintained or improved.
While Labor wants us to believe that private developer handouts are contingent on substantial public domain improvements, they are not.
A quick look at the large up-zonings being rolled out under the Transport Oriented Development Plan and the Inner West Council’s “Fairer Future Plan” illustrate this.
In exchange for those developer handouts, almost nothing is being offered back to the community in exchange. High hospital waiting times, underfunded public schools and lack of public housing have become the norm. Car dependency is a city-wide problem, because governments refuse to invest public money to upscale and renovate the infrastructure.
In the Inner West, Leichhardt is set to get 10,000 extra dwellings while the government refuses to support a new Parramatta Road light rail proposal. The introduction of artificial grass in overused sporting fields also indicates an under-provision of parklands.
If Labor was serious about linking new housing to such services, it would need years of reversing the shortfall before densification begins.
The Wentworth Park decision is a victory by, and for, the community. Real political leadership supports community campaigns and recognises their victories. We need to challenge Labor’s spin that wins only happen when trade-offs can be made with wealthy interests.
[Andrew Chuter is the treasurer of the Friends of Erskineville. This piece is written in a personal capacity.]