A public meeting at the Balmain Town Hall on September 29 discussed NSW Labor’s Bays West precinct development plan and voted for community consulation and for any housing at the site be public.
Bays West includes public land at Glebe Island, White Bay and parts of Rozelle and Lilyfield. Labor’ wants to hand this to developers to build high-rise apartments; it proposes only 10% be reserved for “affordable” or “essential worker” housing.
The 150-strong meeting was organised by the Better Future Coalition (BFC), comprising resident groups which oppose NSW Labor and the Labor-dominated Inner West Council’s (IWC) pro-developer planning schemes.
Many community and housing groups supported the meeting including Leichhardt Matters, Save Dully, Action for Public Housing, Save Marrickville, Hands off Glebe, Friends of Erskineville, Doing Density Better, Mosman Matters and others.
Judy Mundey, a long-time activist and barrister set the framework for discussion by outlining the historic decline in public housing across NSW and the consequent rise in homelessness, housing insecurity and expensive rents and house prices.
“It’s not as if the government is not aware we have a housing crisis; there is no shortage of announcements and promises … but almost all proposals involve the private sector.”
Mundey said there are “almost daily” reports on dodgy developers, to whom Minns is handing over public land.
“If we’re going to address the housing crisis, we need less privatisation of public land and more well designed public housing,” Mundey said.
“In opposition, Labor said any surplus land would be subject to a mandatory requirement for 30% of social, affordable and universal housing. But now in government, at Bays West, it has reduced that to 10% for affordable and essential worker housing.
“There is no commitment for public housing to be any part of the plan. This is a failure to utilise public assets to address the social injustice inflicted on so many, a failure to ensure a decent, safe, secure home, essential for health and wellbeing.”
Architect and urban designer Eddie Ma gave details about what is known about the Bays West plan. He said Minns had commissioned international architecture firms to make proposals.
Ma emphasised that the plans could be changed — for better or for worse. “It should be the community that decides what we do with Bays West, not the government and certainly not architects.”
Former independent Inner West councillor John Stamolis said that the inner west was one of the country’s highest density areas and that it was ridiculous for Labor to accuse people who want better planning of opposing any development. He said there needed to be more public housing now because of the security it brings.
Greens MP for Balmain Kobi Shetty said it was hard to know a lot about Labor’s plan as it has been vague. She said the Greens welcome Labor’s commitment to delivering the Glebe Island Bridge as an essential walking and cycling link.
Ben Radford, a town planner and Green Left journalist, MCed the meeting, which voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution opposing Labor’s plan, calling for community consultation and to add a sixth point calling for any housing at Bays West to be public.
BFC had invited Philippa Scott, Labor’s candidate for Balmain and deputy mayor of IWC, to come and listen to the concerns. She did not reply.
[Isaac Nellist is a member of the Better Future Coalition and is the Socialist Alliance candidate for Balmain in the NSW elections.]