Parra news: draft bill sent to public inquiry.
Alliance for Public Parklands Suzette Meade was interviewed about the recent decision by the NSW Upper House to send the draft bill to a public inquiry.
Read Nicola Barton’s article here (page 3) or read the transcript below.
Impassioned pleas help send draft bill to public inquiry
parra news 30 November 2021
by Nicola Barton
The controversial draft bill for the Greater Sydney Parklands Trust will be sent to a public inquiry following a recent decision by the NSW Upper House.
The Greater Sydney Parklands agency was created by the NSW Department of Planning and seeks to overhaul three existing Trusts to collectively oversee and manage Centennial Park and Moore Park, Callan Park, Parramatta Park, Western Sydney Parkland and Fernhill Estate.
Critics believe this leaves the door wide open for commercialisation of our public spaces but the State Government assures the superagency will "better protect" green spaces.
A number of MPs made impassioned speeches, including Granville MP Julia Finn, Auburn MP Lynda Voltz and Blacktown MP Stephen Bali, outlining their distrust in the bill, effectively sending the matter to public inquiry in 2022.
North Parramatta Residents Action Group and Alliance for Public Parklands spokesperson, Suzette Meade welcomed the inquiry and said the bill is far more complex than meets the eye.
"This is far more complex an issue than coffee carts at Callan Park, the proposed parklands legislation would have allowed for more of our historic Parramatta Park to be taken for hotels and private use," she said.
"We hope the upper house inquiry into the Greater Sydney Park lands Agency Bill will shine a light on so many unanswered questions about the governance of public parks and how and why the Greater Sydney Parklands has already had unilateral powers to remove existing trustee boards of Centennial and Parramatta Parks and replace them with a new one size fits all board out of the Department of Planning."
