SYDNEY MORNING HERALD OPINION BY JILL L’ESTRANGE
18 February 2020
See full story here: www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/this-could-be-the-final-chance-to-protect-our-harbourside-heritage-20200217-p541hs.html
TEXT:
This could be the final chance to protect our harbourside heritage
Some of Sydney Harbour’s most iconic and historically valuable locations are under increasing threat from redevelopment and commercialisation. With the Sydney Harbour Trust’s unveiling of support for 49-year leases over landmark sites around Sydney Harbour, we must ask, is this in line with its goal of ensuring Sydney Harbour remains in public hands?
A 49-year lease seems nothing short of a thinly veiled attempt at commercialising Sydney’s iconic harbour foreshore. Not only that, if the Cockatoo Island Foundation gets its way with its plans for a lease over the entire island, it will set a precedent for other trust sites. It will be a slippery slope down a line of “de facto privatisation” as federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese put it.
The sites managed by the Harbour Trust include Cockatoo Island, Sub Base Platypus, Headland Park (Chowder Bay, Georges Heights, Middle Head), North Head, Macquarie Light Station and the Marine Biological Station. All these sites are at risk from private control and development if the granting of long-term leases is allowed.
What is concerning is that the current requirement of Parliamentary approval will no longer exist with only Ministerial endorsement required for 49-year leases to be entered into. This will erode the current checks and balances.
The Headland Preservation Group is calling on the government to ditch plans to alter the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust Act in a way that would allow for greater commercialisation of Sydney Harbour.
The trust was first formed after John Howard gave the lands to all Australians to mark the anniversary of Federation.
Unfortunately, funding for the trust has run out. A government review is focusing on how it could become "self-funding" by amending the act to generate funds by private investment.
Parliament never intended the Trust to be "self-funding", and the concept is not in the act. The act charged the Trust with the restoration and rehabilitation of the land and to date it has achieved great results keeping the spaces open to the public and turning them into some of Sydney’s most iconic landmarks.
The Commonwealth government should fully fund the capital works needed to restore and rehabilitate these assets.
Why do we want to protect these lands?
These lands are our heritage. They define Sydney Harbour and all Australians. They define our place on the world stage. These lands are of Indigenous importance and are vital parts of our military’s history.
The lands boast views unmatched anywhere else in the world with a pristine natural environment that has not changed since Governor Arthur Phillip sailed through the heads.
This issue may never again come before the people of Australia for comment or input we must speak up now.
Would New Yorkers let this happen to Central Park? I suggest not. Once these precious assets are gone, they are gone forever.