TRANSCRIPT – 2GB Drive with Clinton Maynard
TRANSCRIPT – 2GB Drive with Clinton Maynard – Local Green Space, Daily Political Issues
CLINTON MAYNARD: There is a lot happening in Federal Parliament when it comes to the Liberal Party. My next guest is Paul Fletcher and I've asked the former Minister to come on the program. Of course he is still in Parliament to talk about a local issue affecting northern Sydney. But I will get to this issue regarding Scott Morrison and the revelations we've heard today about the extra powers that the former Prime Minister effectively gave himself during the pandemic. But I do want to talk about overdevelopment in Sydney and this is particularly an issue on the upper north shore around Gordon, but I think this is a problem right across Sydney and it has been for years. But it doesn't matter where you look at the moment, there are unit buildings going up and I just wonder whether our city can support that much development. Tomorrow night, Ku-ring-gai Council will hold a vote on rezoning the site of the former Gordon Bowling Club. Now, if it passes, they'll allow the old lawn bowls facility to be dug up and residential buildings to be built on top. Now, if you live in this area, how do you feel about that? If you live around Gordon Ku-ring-gai, can your area support more homes? Can they support more residential towers? 131973. I think if we've learned anything from COVID is green space parks are vital because we can't have a situation where there's no where to go outside and breathe the air. Paul Fletcher is the local federal MP in the area and he's passionate about development in Ku-ring-gai and joins us on the show. Paul, thank you for your time.
PAUL FLETCHER: Good to be with you Clinton.
CLINTON MAYNARD: Well, I am a little bit confused about this because and I'm from a different part of Sydney, but I take an interest in this because I think it affects all of Sydney. The council says this particular site, the old bowling club, is not suitable to be used as a park in the future. They've cited cost, I think as one of the reasons and crime. But if it's been a bowling club for years, surely it could be converted to a park.
PAUL FLETCHER: Yeah. The facts are, Clinton, that it was a bowling club. It operated, I think, until about 2017, 2018. And then, as is the case, sadly, with quite a number of bowling clubs across Sydney. Membership fell below the critical mass and it ceased operating. Now what's happened since then is a lot of community members have used it for recreational space. I was down there on Friday with a group of community members. Probably about 40 people turned up with about 16 hours notice of it, I think shows how passionately people feel about it. And the point that a lot of the people made to me was, well, this is a space which is conveniently accessible to the homes around it. It's been used as a green space for 70 plus years. So could it not be repurposed into another kind of green space? You know, there are some really great examples elsewhere in my electorate. So in Waitara for example, a bowling green there was repurposed as part of the overall development involving police, citizens, youth Club and a bunch of other elements. So I guess the point the community is making is this has been greenspace, community greenspace accessible to homes in Gordon and the surrounding area for 70 plus years. And so there is a strong community call for it to remain as green space and I've supported that call.
CLINTON MAYNARD: Is it a civil position that the council believes they need more apartment buildings, more medium density in the area?
PAUL FLETCHER: Well, look, I'll leave the council to comment on their position. And I do want to respect that this is a responsibility of the councils. And obviously they have the task of delivering services to the people of Ku-ring-gai and also planning out recreational facilities and other things, but the community desire for community greenspace I think is a significant one and council I think should be weighing that up as they deliberate on what is to be done here.
CLINTON MAYNARD: You played a key role in the former government in terms of infrastructure. Do you think we are doing, particularly with the complications that come between having councils responsible for some issues, state governments and then federal governments, are we doing enough in this city in Sydney to ensure that we've got enough outdoor space when we, we put up these apartment blocks everywhere.
PAUL FLETCHER: I think the key point is if you if you've got outdoor space, that's precious. If it's in a built up area as this existing land that was hitherto used for the Gordon Bowling Club is within a built up area and once it's gone, it's very hard to get back. I look at, say, the Western Sydney city deal that I worked on as a Commonwealth Minister with New South Wales statement still kept apart all the development around the planned Western Sydney airport, the new rail, the new road. But very importantly to develop was called the Western Parkland city. And so the greenspace was planned in from the outset. Now, that's something you can do when you're starting with effectively a clean sheet of paper or an area that was not enormously developed. In an existing urban area where there is greenspace, I think certainly the relevant authorities in this case, council, do need to think carefully that, okay, once we've lost that, can it ever be recovered? You know, Ku-ring-gai is fortunate. There's a lot of greenspace in Ku-ring-gai, but the merit of this particular piece of green space is that it is close to existing homes. And as you said in your introduction, Gordon has seen a significant increase in the number of apartments. And so therefore to have an accessible space that can be used by people to walk their dogs and for the kids to kick a ball around, that's pretty valuable. And I think that's the view that the community has been putting in. I put up a petition on my website and I've had some 500 signatures in a pretty short space of time. So I think this is an issue where there's strong community interest. And look, I recognise this is an issue that sits within the responsibilities of Ku-ring-gai council, but I'd encourage the councillors to think about these issues as they weigh up how to deal with this.
CLINTON MAYNARD: It is critical in that council meetings tomorrow night at Ku-ring-gai Council. I'm speaking with senior federal Liberal MP Paul Fletcher. Now Paul, before I let you go, the big issue in federal politics today is the revelations that the former prime Minister Scott Morrison, during the pandemic and there would be reasons for this, but secretly effectively made himself Health Minister, Finance Minister, and What I thought is a little bizarre, Resources Minister. Where this is an issue, I think is without informing Cabinet or the public, other than a few select Ministers such as the Health Minister Greg Hunt, you sat in cabinet, when did you find out about this?
PAUL FLETCHER: I found out about it when the news stories emerged over the weekend and today. But can I just make the observation, you know, Anthony Albanese seems to have jumped on this was great criticism. They are now in government, they are not the opposition. They're in government. They've got a lot of things to be responsible for. You know, they're dancing to the tune of their union masters. We've got the CFMEU whose request for the abolition of the Australian Building Construction Commission being responded to with alacrity by the Albanese Government. And they're busy winding back scrutiny of superannuation funds, providing where they provide political donations because the industry super funds, the union affiliated industry super funds don't like that. So perhaps it's no surprise that Mr. Albanese leapt on this, but the point I'd make is, they're in government now, They need to focus on governing, not behaving like an opposition.
CLINTON MAYNARD: But the public also needs to have confidence, no matter which side of politics is in power, that the right thing is being done by them in terms of informing them who is in charge of decision making. For the resources issue, for instance, Keith Pitt, who was the resources Minister at the time, was not aware of of this. How can that be justified?
PAUL FLETCHER: Well, look, as I say, the first I heard of this is in news reports over the weekend. I’m frankly not going to comment on the merits of it, because I haven't seen the advice that was provided. It's been reported that there was advice provided, and that was the basis on which this was done. So look, I'll I'll leave it for the process to go through this. And Mr. Albanese said he's now going to get advice on it. But I would make the point he does seem to be behaving more like an Opposition leader on this than the Prime Minister. He's leapt on this with great joy. The fact is there's a lot of issues that the Government should be getting its teeth into to serve the interests of the Australian people and rather than behaving like an opposition.
CLINTON MAYNARD: Look, that's a fair point, Paul and I agree with the position on the Building Commission for sure. But just lastly, just on this issue and thank you for your time, Mr. Fletcher. If it was your portfolios that suddenly were taken control of by the PM and you didn't know, how would have you felt at the time?
PAUL FLETCHER: Naturally, if I was in that position, I wouldn't have been very happy about it.
CLINTON MAYNARD: Thank you, Mr. Fletcher. That tells the story.
PAUL FLETCHER: Good to chat.
CLINTON MAYNARD: Paul Fletcher, Liberal MP. And that issue in Ku-ring-gai goes to council tomorrow night. Now, it's obviously important if you live in the Ku-ring-gai area, but really this has implications for the whole of Sydney. Personally, I think there's too much development in Sydney at the moment. I think we'll see a glut of apartments on the market when the real estate market starts going backwards in the next six months. But more than that, long term, once the apartment building is there, it's not going to return to being Parkland any time soon. And we actually need to think about our kids and our grandkids, but whether they're going to have any space to play in.
