As a progressive, vibrant and engaged community, we know that the big challenges are and are committed to ending coal and gas by 2030, cutting rents and banning unfair evictions and stopping the special treatment given to the big corporate, developers and the gambling industry. The Greens have a plan for all of this and more.
Locally, we want to ensure that we have a community that works for all of us - and that starts with protecting public assets, public housing and public land - as well as ensuring our public transport is accessible.
Here's just a handful of the things we have been working with the community on locally and will continue to prioritise:
Revitalising Newtown Tram Sheds
Like so many in our community, we believe the Newtown Tram Sheds are an incredible heritage asset and public space that shouldn't be left empty and in a state of disrepair. We won't let it be sold off to the highest bidder and go the same way as public housing, public buildings, and public land before it.
Following a lively town hall at the end of last year that revealed huge local appetite for revitalising the space, we're developing a community-led, proactive proposal to transform the site into a buzzing community and cultural space that's accessible to everyone. Get in touch if you want to share your ideas - or stories of this iconic building from the past.
100% public housing on public land
We've long spoken out against the highly flawed Communities Plus model, under which sites that are currently 100% public housing are demolished and rebuilt as 70% private and only 30% public housing. When plans to redevelop public housing at Explorer Street, Eveleigh as a Communities Plus project were announced in 2021, we stood with the community in opposition to the plans - and are continuing to watch closely for updates after the site was included on a November 2022 list of areas identified for the new "Rezoning Pathways Program".
We're also working with Shelter NSW, Action for Public Housing, and other housing justice activists to call for 100% public housing on 600 Elizabeth Street Redfern, vacant land that was previously the site of public housing.
Making Lewisham Station fully accessible
Public transport should be accessible for everyone. Over the years since being elected as the Member for Newtown, we have worked to amplify grassroots community campaigns which have been successful in achieving accessibility upgrades at almost every station in our electorate – now, it's Lewisham's turn.
We're calling on the NSW Transport Minister to make urgent accessibility upgrades to Lewisham Station, including lift access to both platforms. The long overdue upgrades would finally make the busy station accessible to everyone and stop those with mobility issues, prams, or who use a wheelchair or other walking aid from having to struggle up and down steep stairs just to catch a train.
Sign the petition to give Lewisham a lift here!
Keeping Eveleigh public housing and public land in public hands
Over the past year, the NSW Department of Planning and Environment has put forward several proposals to rezone public lands along the rail corridor between Eveleigh and Central. They also have plans to ‘redevelop’ (demolish and privatise!) the public housing in Eveleigh.
Working closely with local groups like REDWatch, Friends of Erskineville and Alexandria Residents Action Group, we've made formal submissions to the consultation processes for these proposals, joined public meetings, supported community campaigns and raised many concerns. We need to kick the Liberals out and continue to build strong community campaigns to stop their de facto privatisation of public land for developers, lack of adequate regard for heritage, and failure to address the worsening housing crisis in our local area. We will continue to call for the inclusion of public housing in proposals of this kind for public land - and specifically for Aboriginal housing and other recognition of the deep First Nations ties to Redfern and surrounding areas.
We also back the community push to connect North and South Eveleigh with investment in a bridge and green space over the train line - improving accessibility and delivering much needed passive recreational space in our city.
Ensuring barrier-free access at Redfern Station
For years, community members in Redfern and Eveleigh have called for a pedestrian bridge connecting either side of the rail corridor. The new southern concourse at Redfern Station could provide this active transport link and drastically reduce the commute between Alexandria and Sydney University - but under the current plans, pedestrians will have to tap on and off at Opal gates on either end just to cross.
In line with campaigns from local groups Friends of Erskineville and Alexandria Residents Action Group, we’ve written directly to the Minister for Active Transport, Infrastructure and Cities, Rob Stokes, urging him to reconsider the Opal gates and allow barrier-free passage across the concourse. We will continue to advocate for this change.
Restoring ramp access to St Peters Station
Although we welcome the long overdue lift and accessibility upgrades at St Peters, we - like many in the community - were outraged to see the ramp entrance on Goodsell St replaced by stairs as part of these upgrades.
The new ramp undermines the whole purpose of the accessibility upgrades - and forces commuters with prams, wheelchairs, or accessibility needs that make using the stairs impossible to take a lengthy 900m walk to the May St entrance. We’ve written directly to the Minister for Transport, David Elliott, urging him to work with Transport for NSW to resolve the issue and restore ramp access to St Peters Station as a matter of priority.
Cycling and Active Transport
In our connected inner city community, you shouldn’t have to own a car to access essential services. Improving our active transport networks will reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality, reduce carbon emissions and improve the overall health of communities.
It will also make our streets more safe, inclusive and accessible.
We want to remove the barriers that stop so many of us walking, wheeling or cycling between our homes and workplaces, shops and cultural places. We will introduce requirements for quality paths to connect urban spaces, including curbs, ramps and platforms, enabling everyone to move through our public spaces safely, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and those with wheeled mobility aids and families with prams.
We will also make it easier to ride to where you need to go, by introducing an extended network of bike lanes and racks, creating end-trip facilities at transport hubs, and improving road safety.
We will also make public transport free, fast, and reliable. And we’ll end the privatisation disaster and bring our inner west buses back into public hands.
Standing with the Waterloo community
Since plans to redevelop the Waterloo public housing estate were announced just before Christmas 2015, we've stood in solidarity with residents opposing the demolition of their homes and fragmentation of their communities.
Throughout the extended planning process, we've criticised the plans to privatise vast swathes of the site - which is currently 100% public housing - and supported local public housing tenants and groups taking action to protect their homes.
Despite Waterloo no longer falling within the electorate of Newtown, we remain committed to working with locals, experts and activists to protect public housing and public land in our city.