Comments to Charter for Good Planning

Comments to Charter for Good Planning launch as a Candidate for Newcastle on 11 September 2014.

I would like to acknowledge the ongoing sovereignty of Aboriginal people over these lands and pay my respect to Elders, past and present, including the children of today who are the elders of tomorrow.
The Socialist Alliance believes that good planning and strong sustainable communities are created by the people themselves and not by a rich person calling him or herself a developer and claiming to know all about what is good for our community.
At our meeting last night the Newcastle branch of the Socialist Alliance voted to support the charter and I intend to sign it tonight.
We are quite comfortable supporting a charter which advocates a planning system based on "fairness, equity and … Ecologically Sustainable Development”. These ideas are entirely compatible with socialism.
Socialist Alliance has two concerns, firstly, we would have liked to have seen more attention to issues relating to the first peoples of the land who seem to be left out of the charter.
Secondly, the charter does not really address jobs and I will return to this point.
I am privileged to live in Newcastle East. In the early 1970s the then Askin Government along with the Newcastle Council wanted to rip down all the historic terraces, drive out the workers, students and pensioners, and turn the East End into a concrete jungle of high rise and expensive apartments.
However, the community fought back in a way that has lessons for us today.
The Newcastle East Residents’ Group, in alliance with the NSW Builders Labourers’ Federation, (organised by people such as Tony O’Beirne) and Newcastle Trades Hall Council (lead by the late Keith Wilson) came together and fought for community oriented planning.
The residents won and thanks to them we can all enjoy the wonderful heritage of the East End today.
Back to the question of jobs. The example of the East End residents and BLF working together shows what can be done by strong community alliances.
Despite the fact that developers and politicians always claim to be in favour of jobs they are really interested in profits.
With the ongoing impact of the global financial crisis the super-rich are relying on two quick ways to make a dollar – property speculation and coal.
Hence in Newcastle the ‘developers’ claim that we need
• High rise buildings and torn up rail lines
• More coal mines and new coal loaders - an extractive, polluting industry that offers minimal jobs in the long run.
The T4 terminal, closing rail lines and allowing high rise buildings that no one will be able to afford to rent or shop in, will not create jobs.
Planning should be about community and guaranteeing real job futures.
Coal is on the way out and our planning needs to reflect that. We need to shift the local economy to the manufacture of renewables (wind turbines, rail carriages, ferries).
I worked at the steelworks for over 10 years. I know what it means to work in a dying industry. We need to learn the lesson of the BHP closure.
I am an optimist. If we learn from our history and rely on the power of community – and this is what my campaign wants to emphasise – we have a better chance to create a clean and sustainable future. Thank you for the opportunity to comment.