Back in March, a group of Sydney councils pushed back on the Greater Sydney Commission’s vision for Sydney, demanding more detail on funding for vital infrastructure projects, where problems have become chronic.
Now, the Mayor of Wollondilly Council on the South-Western edge of Sydney, Judy Hannan, has forcefully pushed back on the NSW Government’s plan to flood the area with homes and population, demanding the Government first build the required infrastructure. From the Camden Advertiser:
Judy Hannan last week said what many of us want to say.
The mayor of Wollondilly drew a very public line in the sand: “Wilton…a great new town – or no town at all.”
If we’re going to be hit with growth, let’s do it right.
It’s tempting to imagine Judy using the same tone of voice as Cuba Gooding Jnr in the film Jerry Maguire – “show me the money” – but this was no stunt.
Judy is known for her no-nonsense eloquence…
Wilton New Town is supposed to be “masterplanned” for an eventual population of 50,000, but – shock, horror – there are delays in finalising the plan to deliver public transport, health and education infrastructure. But, hey, let’s start building homes anyway. We’ll get onto those other pesky things like jobs, roads, transport and services a bit later on.
That’s the attitude faced by Wollondilly Council, and I suspect Cr Hannan knows what a load of garbage it is.
She just has to cast her eyes up the freeway to poor ol’ Campbelltown, where a track record of ‘hey, let’s start building homes anyway, and we’ll get onto those other pesky things like jobs, roads, transport and services a bit later on’ has passed as government planning policy for half a century. (Instead of a swan, Campbelltown’s coat of arms should feature a cart in front of a horse).
It continues to this day: a huge housing estate approved for Menangle Park with no extension of the electric rail. A housing estate for Gilead, next to a deadly goat track called Appin Road that the pollies won’t fix. A business park proposed for gridlocked Narellan Road, with no other exits or entrances. And so on.
I describe such policies as consecutive and repetitive asinine prevarications (or crap, for short). Judy Hannan is too diplomatic to use such a phrase; she describes the current approach as “ad hoc”.
This is Wollondilly Council saying it wants infrastructure and good urban design at Wilton BEFORE thousands of houses are built, or the council will withdraw its support. Hear, hear! Judy added: “I am sure the department of planning, the developers and [the council] will all use a bit of common sense”…
Cr Hannan made the point that there is only one public high school (bursting at the seams at Picton) in all of Wollondilly: “We have local children travelling to about 17 different high schools outside our shire.” So, this my question: If the government can’t provide for the students ALREADY HERE, why should we believe vows that future students will be catered for?
The government needs to do a Tom Cruise impersonation and show us the money.
Australia clearly needs more political representatives like Judy Hannan.
The fact remains that the mass immigration ponzi thrust by the federal government onto state and local governments is excessive, unsustainable, and often unwanted by residents in the areas effected.
Sydney (particularly in the West) is already choking under more than a decade of rampant immigration, which has seen the city’s population balloon by 821,000 (+20%) over the past 12-years, and is projected to drive another 87,000 people a year (1,650 people a week) into Sydney over the next 20-years – effectively a Perth to the city’s population:
Like the last 12 years, most of this growth in population is projected to occur in Sydney’s West in places like Wollondilly:
If the federal government is so intend on flooding Sydney and Melbourne with migrants then it simply must provide state and local governments with funding to pay for the necessary economic and social infrastructure. Otherwise, incumbent residents’ living standards will continue to be destroyed.
More state and local government representatives need to follow Judy Hannan’s lead and demand the federal government ‘show them the money’ or else slash Australia’s immigration intake to sensible and sustainable levels.
