Glad stakes out Redfern

By John Moyle

In its latest grab for public land, Glad the Impaler’s government is staking its claim on the rail corridor between Redfern Station and North Eveleigh Street.

The 12 hectare site is set to be sold to fund a $207 million Redfern Station upgrade, despite past promises that the cost of the upgrade would be sourced from the sale of the Australian Technology Park (ATP) land.

“The wholesale sell-off of public land around Redfern Station started with the Australian Technology Park, it is happening just down the road in Waterloo, and it’s clear that the Liberals’ privatisation agenda continues,” said Jenny Leong the Member for Newtown.

Redfern Station has long been the centre of community concerns over its fire risks and the lack of lifts to the connecting platforms.

Even though Redfern is NSW’s sixth busiest station, necessary upgrades have been neglected by successive state governments.

“It is an accident waiting to happen, you just need to go there at peak hour to see how crowded it is,” said Desley Haas, co-coordinator of the Redfern Station Community Group.

“A few weeks ago I was almost pushed off my feet going down the stairs.”

It appears the government is claiming that in order to upgrade a public station it needs to sell off public land.

“No decisions on these investigations have been finalised at this stage, so potential upgrades, costs and funding options are yet to be determined,” a Transport for NSW spokesperson said.

The lack of lifts to the platforms below the upper concourse has been a sore spot for accessibility advocates for years, yet a dedicated plan has yet to be implemented.

In 2015 one lift was installed but it serves only two of the 12 platforms.

“Transport for NSW has started investigations into improving access at the southern end of Redfern Station so that it can cope with the current and expected growth in the precinct,” the Transport for NSW spokesperson said.

“This will include improving access to platforms for customers with disabilities.”

There are fears CommBank will not get what was promised in terms of infrastructure to accommodate the 10,000 workers it will bring in to the bank’s new site at Australian Technology Park.

It also seems that concerns expressed by representatives of the University of Sydney have not been addressed.

This is highlighted by the fact the university missed out on a Metro station which was allocated instead to Waterloo, in part to service the retail premises and private apartments being built above the development.

Jenny Leong said “As a community we can see that there is such potential for the Eveleigh site and the corridor, but at the moment that potential is being negated by the fact that it is being done behind the scenes and in leaked document announcements with big companies rather than with community resident groups, and so the people that are having those discussions and negotiations are not living in the area.”

“There was no sell-off of public land to fund the Chatswood Station upgrade so why do we have that here?” asked Desley Haas.

The spokesperson for Transport for NSW said they “will negotiate with the community and stakeholders as plans develop.”

Geoff Turnbull’s local organisation REDwatch is even more concerned about the lack of any mention of affordable and social housing to be included in the areas where public land is being sold off in the area.

Geoff Turnbull said “This is a competition between Treasury getting income from land sales and or to pay for state infrastructure versus leveraging government land to generate public housing outcomes.

“Overseas it is common for government to use its land holdings to leverage affordable and social housing.”

His is a view shared by Jenny Leong and the Greens.

“One the important things is making sure that we can afford to live in our city and we should not be looking at any new developments in the area that doesn’t have a high percentage of affordable housing,” Ms Leong said.

“The Greens are absolutely looking at 30 per cent of new developments and even higher on public lands when it comes to targets, and we also need to look at the demands for childcare, schools, medical services and recreational needs.”

The three options for the Waterloo Estate development allocate affordable housing at just five per cent, but REDwatch and other community groups are calling for a mix of five per cent dedicated to Aboriginal affordable housing and five per cent for other affordable housing.

It appears that Glad the Impaler’s government is treating the inner city public lands and assets as a cash cow to top up an already $3.9 billion surplus.

“The priorities of this Liberal government are more interested in having corporate mates as buddies and also the broad scale sell-off of public land than community services and affordable housing that our inner city desperately needs,” Jenny Leong said.