Conspiracy or cock-up?
- Author:
- Shant Fabricatorian
- Posted:
- Thursday, 22 October 2009
When it comes to governments, said the famous American economist J. K. Galbraith, what looks like a conspiracy is usually a cock-up. It’s safe to say he’d never been to New South Wales. Over here, sadly, the government specialises in both.
Look at the Heads of Agreement that Leichhardt Council is being asked to sign in return for taking over the bulk of Callan Park. And keep in mind that this government’s aims for Callan Park have always been to shut down the site’s public mental health facilities, and sell off portions of the park for development.
There are two sleepers in the Agreement that the jousting over the financial swindle involved in the deal has diverted attention from. Both of these ‘landmines’ would, in fact, advance the government’s traditional agenda.
The first is the shrinking of the area originally offered to Council. Last October the NSW Planning Minister, Kristina Keneally, promised Council 40 of the 61 hectares at Callan Park. Since then, the ambulance service has put in a bid for the most modern mental health buildings on the site and more than 10 acres (or 5 hectares) of open space adjacent to these buildings. Apparently they want it for administration and car parking.
The Heads of Agreement asks Council to accept this shrinkage. The ambulance service may have a plausible argument for this takeover, but we haven’t heard it. And it’s hardly likely that their case is better than that of people with a mental illness. The targeted buildings are state-of-the-art cottages and wards, built in the 1990s for people who were recovering from the worst of their mental illness before they returned to the community.
Everyone, except apparently the NSW government and its bureaucrats, knows that these beds are needed – and needed now. Emergency departments are overcrowded with mentally ill patients and there are just not enough beds at Concord, the smaller psychiatric hospital which was supposed to replace Rozelle Hospital at Callan Park. The consequences of this shortage are homelessness, imprisonment and premature deaths for hundreds of our fellow citizens.
You have to ask: is the ambulance administration takeover meant to be the final nail in the coffin of a humane approach to mental health at Callan Park?
The second trap in the proposed Agreement is just as bad. In return for the shrunken portion of Callan Park, Council has to prepare a plan of subdivision of the site as a precondition of the 99-year lease. The Agreement claims this is necessary to secure the leases of the other tenants. This is simply not true. The University of Sydney and the NSW Writers’ Centre have leased parts of the site for 15 years without subdivisions.
Carving up the site would open the door to disposing or selling off chunks of the site – something which state governments have wanted to do for the past two decades. Yes, the Callan Park (Special Provisions) Act now prohibits any sale of Callan Park land, but dividing it up into disposable parcels would simplify any later change to the Act and future sale.
The community and Council have opposed subdivision in the past. The last example was three years ago when NSW Health and the University of Sydney proposed subdividing Kirkbride, the sandstone complex in the heart of the site, into six separate lots. The reasons for that subdivision were never explained.
It is conceivable – just – that these two clauses in the Agreement are the work of some over-ambitious bureaucrats in the ambulance service or Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, involved in the drafting of the document.
But whether the clauses are conspiracy or cock-up now scarcely matters because the dangers are out in the open. The opposition to them will grow and not go away. That, unfortunately for this government, is very NSW too.
by Hall Greenland. Hall is President of Friends of Callan Park
Bridge over troubled waters? The Heads of Agreement for Callan Park shrinks the area offered to Leichhardt Council and proposes subdividing the site
Like this article? Register as a subscriber here. It's free! We'll keep you up to date with new stories on the site.
October 24th, 2009 @ 10:01 am
It’s great that this newspaper has been brave enough to publish the views of Mr Greenland. We don’t hear nearly enough from him or about Callan Park in our monopoly News Ltd controlled inner west media.
But over a year ago, when Leichhardt Council and Mr Greenland’s band of Callan Park warriors announced VICTORY – “This land is all ours!” I knew it was too good to be true.
Anyone who spends 15 years of his life like Mr Greenland has, would never let anything go with a mere VICTORY.
No, it has to be total capitulation. Abject surrender by those hated socialists in the Labor Party, the people Mr Greenland once stood shoulder to shoulder with, back in the 70s when he and they were both fighting for the same thing. Social justice, equity, anti racism, an end to poverty, all that tired old peace ’n’ love, red hippie stuff.
Mr Greenland, like all of us, has grown up since those days. Nowadays he wants us to vote for the Liberal Party.
He also wants more open space and parkland for some of the richest people in Sydney. And to be fair, he himself (and a few of his followers) have tacked on the demand for a hospital. Not one which actually has any buildings over one story high, or any fences or out of bounds areas. But some sort of hospital none the less, with lots of parklands where locals can peacefully stroll and exercise their dogs. Unbothered by anything like an ambulance siren.
The newspapers and local politicians like Mr Jamie Parker and his deputy Ms Michele McKenzie, and most of Leichhardt Council who join with these people have announced where they stand. With rich people who want to get richer. They are asking for a massive transfer of funds from Blacktown to Balmain, from impoverished rural NSW to well-off Rozelle.
And these are the same people who claim to be opposing a Metro to Rozelle because the rest of Sydney isn’t getting one. What hypocrites. What absolute total frauds.
Many well meaning people stand with the “friends”, some with a genuine sense of compassion for the mentally ill in their hearts. Their goodwill and efforts have been abused by cynical politicians. Many more locals look on that land with the same dollar signs in their eyes as those they accuse of “developers greed”. Only they do so with the added luxury off being “right”.
And who was their most latest campaign against? Students. Poor people, generally, who often need inexpensive accommodation in one of the most unaffordable cities in the world. But not just any students. “International” students. Interesting how often THAT was emphasized during the fight which they “won” last year.
Any similarity with the victory Camden property campaigners also “won” against a bunch of students “not like us” is purely co-incidental. That battle too was all about “inappropriate development” residential amenities and lifestyle.
If you stand with these people, so be it. Everyone is entitled to their views and to press their interests. And you can expect to be judged by the company you keep.
October 24th, 2009 @ 5:43 pm
Since I don’t live anywhere near Callan Park, I tend to agree. And since Leichhardt Council appears to be paying for this publication, and the Mayor has another full page pleading for a massive handout from all of us, it would be good to hear from someone from Council or the Friends explain why WE should be paying for THEIR “Centennial Park.”
They got what you asked for – control of the site. If they couldn’t afford to pay for it, what was their campaign really all about?
Calling them frauds might be a bit strong. But the most of Sydney now regards Leichhardt Council and its cynical mayor as very, very selfish.
October 25th, 2009 @ 3:34 pm
COCK UP
How about the one whereby Leichhardt ratepayer’s find themselves responsible for Callan Park? Why did Jamie Parker put us in that position? Was he so completely beholden to the “friends” that he allowed himself to be cornered? I’ve heard both him and his mate Hall Greenland on ABC702 radio recently talking about this. The mayor sounded like a cooked goose, and he was whining and moaning, trying to get out of his corner by asking for hand outs. Leichhardt Council WANTED community control of the ground and fought alongside the “friends” for more than ten years for just that result. But now doesn’t actually want to pay for it.
CONSPIRACY
What about the one whereby Leichhardt rate payers pay for this publication? One which gives Jamie Parker unlimited space to bitch about what a cock up he has gotten us into over Callan Park. Interesting reading, but only for masochists and anyone else who likes watching gooses being cooked.
October 25th, 2009 @ 8:02 pm
A few comments about the article and Callan Park issue.
Council didn’t ask for control of Callan Park but always campaigned for a Trust to manage the site such as Centennial Park or Parramatta Park. When the government announced that were seeking to hand it over to the Council for 99 years the first question was how will it be paid for? Centennial Park for example is provided millions by the State government and can run the full range of commercial activities on the site. The government is proposing to transfer the costs from state to local government.
Russell improperly implies the campaign against the Sydney uni overdevelopment was a racist attack against international students. That is a lie. The massive development of the site was eventually even rejected by the government due to its impact on heritage, traffic and the need to over ride the Callan Park Act. The fight has always been to retain the mental health hospital on the site and oppose the sell off of the hospital grounds. See the Council web site for all the resolutions.
It is well known that Council and the community is fighting to get the facilities back to Callan Park and keep this site in public hands. In face we recently held a day long workshop on the issue of returning mental health facilities to the site.
Oh and I notice even the local ALP Councillors have to their credit changed their position on the cbd Metro.
October 26th, 2009 @ 7:33 am
Thanks for that Jamie
The capitulation by the State government whereby they betrayed Sydney Uni was a political act. It had nothing to do “overdevelopment” as the Mayor well knows. It was a pathetic one too, pretty much the same as a prior one designed to keep Sandra Nori in place. That did had had some success. I’m sure the Mayor remembers, as he was standing for the seat.
This particular maneuver was more cynical, and it won’t work. The Mayor is right in saying that it is cost shifting. It was also a wedge which was too clever by half, and it has justifiably backfired.
It deserved to. It was a gutless act which betrayed not only the uni students, but also anyone interested in a long term viable solution for Callan Park. Verity Firth will loose the seat in 2011, and many people will say she deserves to loose, because she is a minister in a visionless, cynical and exhausted government.
Weather they will be happy with one even more wedded to the big end of town, the development imperative and the privatisation of essential services and infrastructure projects remains to be seen. I suspect they are in a shock.
The Mayor may also remember one meeting when Callan Park was being discussed. A Council staffer complained that SHFA had not provided a “demographic analysis” of the uni’s plans. Carolyn Allen, the then Mayor (who was not so opposed the uni) was exasperated, and asked, “What’s the difference between students and nurses?”
The silence in the room was deafening, and for me, at that moment, the penny dropped. I do know that in the campaign, this issue was gingerly side stepped. Some of the callers to talkback radio were not so careful. One was so blatant that she even embarrassed poor dear old Deb Cameron, who was up till that point happily stoking “community outrage.”
The campaign against the so called “Meritonisation” of the North Shore also has the same features. My warning stands. Be careful of the company you keep.
October 26th, 2009 @ 6:24 pm
I was a supporter of Sydney uni at Callan Park. I had a number of conversations about it at the time, and many people did express concerns about the international students “fitting in” (whatever that meant). One neighbour who was passionately opposed to the uni argued that international education was “a scam” and a back door immigration tool for “rich asians”.
Funny, and she was so liberal about refugees coming here. But I guess she didn’t mean to Lilyfield.
So I did wonder what the problem with the Uni’s plan really was and why everyone got so excited. I live nearby and I supported it for a whole lot of reasons, and so did many others. It seemed such a win-win situation.
The uni had money to maintain the grounds and take care of the heritage issues.
The Mayor wrote a letter to a local paper at the time, full of hope and optimism, outlining his Council’s plans and the bright future ahead. That was almost a year ago, and none of them have come to anything.
As he now admits, Council never had the ability to do anything, and Hall Greenland also concedes that too in this article.
All up, a very sad and dismal result.
October 26th, 2009 @ 6:31 pm
Further to my earlier comment – rather than wringing our hands and point scoring (which I am guilty of too, because I did think the uni could be Callan Park’s salvation), we do need to be constructive and move forwards. Perhaps what now needs to happen is that the Local Government Act can be amended especially for Leichhardt. After all the Callan Park Act was a specific special purpose amendment too.
Leichhardt Council should be allowed to raise a special rates levy – specifically for fixing up and maintaining the Callan Park Hospital parklands they fought for for so many years. This would be above the rates cap they operate under now.
Many locals did oppose Sydney Uni. They just wanted parks, and the Council responded to their wishes at the continual urging of Hall Greenland the Friends. And in the end they did get the land to do whatever they wanted with (within the existing Act).
That was a local “victory”, and local people are still celebrating it. However few people outside the local area are and it is a bit rich to expect them to pay for it all.
“We” (not me, but Jamie Parker’s version of “we”) got what “we” wanted. That turns out to be a great big financial liability.
October 28th, 2009 @ 12:35 pm
Russell’s suggestion that country of origin of the students had anything to do with our objections to the uni is totally bizarre, and wrong. I have been interested in the Friends of Callan Park campaign for a long time, and never heard any such sentiments. I’m surprised that no one, except the Mayor, hasn’t quickly rebutted them.
There is nothing wrong with subsidies. That’s what governments do, to their political friends maybe. If Barry O’Farrell is going to give us public money for parklands, a city farm maybe, then thats fine. He’s got my vote, and that certainly does seem to be what Hall Greenland is suggesting.
The Labor Party has totally given up on us in Balmain, Hall is right on that too. Surely they know by now that we don’t want housing for poor uni students, a bus lane on Victoria Rd or an underground Metro system. We want parks, and more parks, and ever increasing property values. I take my hat off to the Friends and Hall Greenland in particular. He has been a tireless and forthright fighter for our cause. Thanks very much to all involved, especially Leichhardt Council.
Cheers