Human Rights and Water Canons

eCouncillor is a well known supporter of a Human Rights Bill for Australia. (Read post on launch of campaign at Town Hall http://ecouncillor.blogspot.com/2005/10/launch-of-campaign-for-human-rights.html )

A charter of rights for NSW seems (reported in today's SMH and below) a step in the right direction balanced with the news on the same day that the government is to purchase water canons for Police to manage football riots. Using water canons seems like resignation to managing the issues giving rise to football riots and other riots like Cronulla, Redfern and Macquarie Fields. As the anger rises and riot violence escalates will the politicians be forced to escalate the responses with tear gas and South African apartheid era armoured troop carries? The government needs to invest real resources in identifying the underlying causes for social unrest and get in there to address them before explosive riots. We certainly do not want to be confronted with violent civil unrest as bedevils France.

Charter of rights plan to be put to cabinet
By Jonathan PearlmanMarch 20, 2006
THE NSW Attorney-General, Bob Debus, has declared his support for a charter of rights for the state that would allow courts to consider whether laws infringed basic human freedoms.
Mr Debus told the Herald he would take a proposal to cabinet to invite public consultation on the values and rights Parliament should protect.
It could guarantee freedoms such as the vote, a fair trial, freedom of assembly, property rights and freedom from torture and racial discrimination.
The charter - similar to those in Victoria, the ACT, Britain and New Zealand - could also bind government agencies, including the police service, over their treatment of employees and the public.
Mr Debus said a charter would not go as far as constitutional bills of rights, such as those in the US and Canada, allow courts to declare laws invalid.
Instead, Parliament would be required to ensure laws complied with the charter and provide human rights impact statements. If the courts believed basic freedoms were infringed, they could declare laws were incompatible with the charter and send them back for review. This would not bind Parliament when reconsidering any legislation.
Mr Debus said the terrorist threat had forced the Government to pass "extraordinary laws", and this prompted the need to declare the values and rights that Parliament should protect.
The charter would enshrine fundamental freedoms and ensure the Government protected human rights, while responding to terrorist threats, he said.
"The times we live in are causing us to pass some laws that intrude on traditional freedoms in ways that we have not experienced in recent times.
"I support our laws on terrorism as they have been drafted - and the community does too - but they potentially restrict freedoms. This is a process by which the whole community discusses what it thinks are our basic values and tells the Parliament that it wants them protected."
Mr Debus said a charter could promote tolerance in the wake of the Cronulla riots. "A charter would hopefully help to remind the community that all people in a society have equal rights," he said.
Australia is the only common law country without a bill to protect human rights, prompting the ACT and Victoria to develop their own bills.
The federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, has criticised Victoria's plan to introduce a charter, saying it would create a "lawyers' feast" and transfer power to unelected judges.
But a constitutional expert, Professor George Williams, who helped draft Victoria's charter, said a similar bill introduced in Britain in 1998 had resulted in almost no increases in litigation.
"It is about improving government and preventing human rights problems," he said. "When you look at recent events in Sydney, there is obviously a strong need for education about our democracy and the values we need to adhere to."
The former premier Bob Carr strongly opposed a bill of rights, saying it transferred too much power to the courts and would lead to litigation concerning "naked strollers" and "vegetarian menus".
However, Mr Debus said the process would "not merely be the property of civil liberty activists".
A similar consultation process in Victoria under a committee chaired by Professor Williams attracted more than 2500 public submissions.

Weekend Rally to save Sydney's working harbour

A small but enthusiastic crowd turned out to protest against the State Labor Government's short sighted sale of the working harbour foreshore assets around Darling Harbour. I was pleased to lead a team of local Liberals (pictured) as we heard speakers from many walks of like including Barry O'Keefe, President of the National Trust, green Bans veteran Tom Uren and John Coombes from the Maritime Workers Union who criticised the Labor government's shortsighted agenda. To make the government sit up and listen to this protest will require more support from the community.

See blogs below for state Liberal Party Position.




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Rally to Save Sydney's Working Harbour

Save Sydney Harbour will be officially launched on Saturday 11th March 2006

A public rally will be held at Observatory Hill starting at 11am.

Speakers will include Tom Uren, Robert Coombs and Phil Jenkyn.

Make sure your voice is heard on this important day of action.

"We want to support a working harbour in Sydney. It's a part of life of Sydney. The plans the government have put forward simply don't add up."- John Brogden

Sydney Town Hall Forum Wednesday 24 August 2005 - John Brogden

"We want to support a working harbour in Sydney. It's a part of life of Sydney. The plans the government have put forward simply don't add up."- John Brogden
Thank you Judge, Councillors, to my fellow panelists, Comrade Coombes, to those who've taken time out of your evening to be here. Firstly may I apologise for being late - I got caught up in Sydney's traffic on the way down.

I guess the proposition I start from is that there's not a person alive who can remember Sydney as anything other than a working harbour. This is not a proposition that we have to restore Sydney to what it was ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years ago. In fact if anything the capacities of Sydney to be a working harbour have diminished in recent times. On a personal note, as somebody who was born in Balmain and lived there till I was five, whose grandmother has lived in Balmain all her life, and spent a couple of my teenage years living in Balmain, the sounds of the Harbour, the sounds of the working harbour, are part of the life of Sydney. So, in one sense this is not seeking to eliminate an intrusive, disruptive new development - this is a case of keeping in place part of the character of Sydney.

This was a decision made by the former Premier, therefore with a change of leadership in the government the new Labor leader actually has an opportunity to reverse the decision that has no personal embarrassment to him. I don't wish to make a political point or political tack in this, it's actually an opportunity, and I'm sure Clover would agree, for the current Premier to make a statement that he disagrees with the previous Premier on this issue. It's actually an opportunity, ladies and gentlemen, for the working harbour policies of the year 2000 to be restored and maintained into the future. I'd encourage Maurice Iemma to do exactly that. I'd encourage him to say "this was a decision of my predecessor with which I strongly disagree" and restore the policy to its original position. That opportunity exists and it's an easy thing for him to do. He won't in fact be criticized - he'll be praised.

In terms of the position that I take to this, I from the initial announcement of the policy by Bob Carr was unable to make sense of why this actually needed to happen. So the first question is "What is the motivation. Why reduce the capacity of the working harbour?" If it is nothing other than to send more opportunity, more business, more development, more jobs north and south of Sydney in to the other ports then in that sense I think it is short-sighted. If, as Clover says, this is a policy of sending over 100,000 vehicles to Wollongong, only to have half of them come back to Sydney on a road structure that is completely unable to cope with that, and on a rail line equally unable to cope, then that will not benefit the people of the Illawarra. In fact it will be a curse for them in terms of the lack of infrastructure investment. If it's a policy about changing the character of Sydney Harbour for the better, then he ought to scrap it because I don't see the benefit. The character of Sydney Harbour is a character that is appropriate, that is long-standing and that is universally welcomed and received. If it's a policy about turning over the foreshores for housing, and for private ownership and private development, well I can only but echo the comments of Tom Uren - why do we have to go through this fight all over again and why should we be turning the foreshores of Sydney, more of the foreshores, over to unprecedented private development? Yes, we'll get the sweet at the end of the meal that will return walkway or some parkland to the fringes of Sydney but it will change the character of Sydney and reduce the public open space and in my view reduce the quality of life for the Sydney we see here today.

We want to support a working harbour in Sydney. It's a part of life of Sydney. The plans the government have put forward simply don't add up. If this is about the government pleasing significant development interests, and I think that's very short-sighted as well, I'd have to say now with a change of status in the government I don't know if it will be the former Lord Mayor, the Minister for Planning Frank Sartor responsible, whether it will be Michael Costa or whether it will be Maurice Iemma himself. It's not clear yet and Clover I don't know whether you've got a clear view on who is now responsible for this process, this programme (Clover: I think it's Frank Sartor). Right - that will be an enjoyable meeting of you and him- we should sell tickets to raise money - I'd prefer to be on your side!

If it's Frank Sartor, then that's disappointing because it will be regarded as a political fight and a "get square" rather than planning for the future of Sydney. Our position is that it will damage the shipping industry, it will damage employment opportunities; if there is a capacity to expand port facilities, particularly in Wollongong and Port Kembla, then they should be for the overflow from Sydney. On the advice I've received, some eighty percent of the cargo that comes in to Sydney goes no further than 40 km from Sydney Harbour. Why make it go 120 km? Why actually add to the problems and Sydney's traffic problems, and Greater Sydney's traffic problems even further?
So our commitment is to work with you for a working harbour, happy to look at opportunities for the overflow and for the growth of exports and imports in to Sydney and Port Kembla. I don't think anyone here is asking for an expansion of Sydney as a working harbour but for a sensible maintenance of Sydney as a working harbour.

As somebody who was born in the inner city, grew up in the parts of the inner city and who's family is closely associated with the working shores of Balmain, as far as I'm concerned the city we have is the city we love; it's a city we can live in because we want to be here, and I do encourage in a genuine sense Maurice Iemma to take the opportunity that is now afforded to him by the fact that he is now the new Premier and that the old Premier made the decision, to reverse this and to maintain the policies of the working harbour.

I congratulate the Trust and the organizers for bringing this together. I think it is an important public meeting and I indicate very clearly that I am pleased to work on a continuing basis with the Coalition and with the Trust and the Sydney City Council and with other parties to ensure that we can have a fighting coalition if you like on this issue.

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Harry Seidler leaves a great legacy for Sydney

I was saddened to hear of Harry Seidler's death yesterday. At age 82 it is a great tribute to his work that even today his buildings are being constructed around the town including Council's own $40 million Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre on Harris Street Ultimo and just down from Town Hall on George Street the Meriton Tower half finished but showing it's signature sensual Seidler curves. I think Harry is one of Australia's greatest architects and he has certainly left his mark for a century to come. When I moved to East Sydney more than a decade ago controversy was flaring over Seidler's Horizon Apartment tower complex on the old ABC radio site. The member for Bligh and consistant NIMBY was campaigning against it as usual but I was thrilled by the powerful assertion of the proposal. Today towering over William Street the building is an iconic Darlinghurst landmark and very popular with its vertical village. I never fail to be impressed each time I visit.

In a break from my office career I was running a small garden shop on the corner of Bourke and Liverpool Streets in the shadow of the growing tower. One day I looked up from my garden design desk deep in the shop to be greeted by non other than Harry Seidler himself who wanted to discuss the design of pots for the balcony of one apartment he had purchased. We had some dialogue and a transaction eventually occurred - the proceeds of which I used to purchase the definitive Harry Seidler book - Four decades of Architecture by Frampton and Drew.

The last time I spoke to Mr Seidler was at the 2005 Opera House New Year's eve Party. He was standing alone in his familiar bow tie licking a giant traditional single vanilla ice-cream cone looking contently across the harbour towards his Blues Point Tower. I interrupted his solitude and reminded him of our earlier meetings and my admiration for his work and he asked after my current career. With forewarned trepidation I informed him I was now a City of Sydney Councillor. The response was a broad sword swipe that 'no great architecture can be built in this country whilst local Council's exist'. Then back to his ice cream. Such was the creative power and force of opinion of the man.

Tim Dick in today's Sydney Morning Herald pays a person on the street tribute whilst Elizabeth Farrelly gives another architects opinion.

Sydney's towering dynamo dead at 82
By Tim Dick
March 10, 2006

Know him by his works...Harry Seidler, who died yesterday, transformed Sydney.Photo: Michelle Mossop
Photos: Seidler's buildings
FOR a memorial to Harry Seidler, look around Sydney.
This is his city.
You could look for one around Australia, or the world, but it his adopted home town that he changed the most.
The country's most celebrated architect had more standing memorials in Sydney at the time of his death yesterday than most great people ever do.
His legacy to the city is the greatest since Francis Greenway built his sandstone marvels for Governor Macquarie two centuries ago.
It is in Australia Square, the MLC Centre, Grosvenor Place, the Horizon, the Cove, the contentious Blues Point Tower and the celebrated Turramurra house that he built for his mother, Rose. It will also lie in his final works - the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre in Ultimo and Meriton Tower on George Street.
Together, his buildings pay testament to his place as the influential founder of modernist architecture in this country.
Harry Seidler died at his Killara home with his family by his side, aged 82. He had been ill since suffering a stroke in April. He is survived by his children, Tim and Polly, and wife, Penelope.
"Harry was a passionate Australian and his genius was recognised internationally. He was a loving husband and father, and will be sadly missed," Mrs Seidler said. The family plans a private funeral, with a later public memorial service to be arranged.
Seidler was born in Vienna in 1923 but fled to England in 1938. He was interned in a camp in Canada during the war and on his release stayed in the there to study, finishing his work at Harvard. In 1948 he came to Sydney.
The University of Sydney's chair of architecture, Tom Heneghan, said Seidler pioneered a new wave of Australian architecture. "I tried to imagine the Horizon located in London and it's out of the question. It epitomises all that's optimistic, energetic and fresh about the Australian spirit, and everything about its climate."
Seidler was never "seduced" by technique, he said. Instead his work was about emotion. "He carried the flame of expressionist architecture." Another architect, Glenn Murcutt, said he brought art to architecture. "Whilst he wasn't everyone's cup of tea ... he actually brought a level of architecture that few architects have seen in this country."
A former occupant of Blues Point Tower, the federal minister Joe Hockey, defended Seidler's most contentious work: "That building's ageing a hell of a lot better than many people."
Seidler's run-ins with councils, bureaucrats, Luna Park and other detractors - even a cartoonist - are well known, but Bob Nation, president of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, said behind the manner was a determination to avoid compromise. "So much of the work that we see today ... dilutes the strength of the original idea and Harry would not subscribe to that," he said. "We're all the richer for it. He was a great character and we'll miss him greatly."
Even in illness Seidler could still make news. Last July, he discovered the Government had revoked his citizenship, even though he was a Companion of the Order of Australia. It was taken because he had been bestowed Austrian citizenship, a gesture for the wartime wrongs suffered. The damage was swiftly undone when the matter became public.
Seidler won many awards - five Sulman Medals and the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal - but he will have the longest of last words, and a short walk around Sydney will show that.

More profiles by Elizabeth farrelly who always raises a few heckles from eCouncillor readers..

When Harry met Sydney
People either loved or hated the architect and his work. But then Harry Seidler was never one for dithering over opinions, writes Elizabeth Farrelly.

Outsourcing Hyde Park has failed the City.

A resident's pictures of Hyde Park's decline under outsourced contractors...







When former Lord Mayor Frank Sartor launched his territorial expansion plans on the former South Sydney City Council at the so called 'independent' Sproatts Inquiry he promoted the City's high levels of service delivery standards. I recall a promise that under contractors there will be no grass longer than 10cm in the city's parks and no rubbish bins more than 60% full. The list went on. Now that I am a member of the Council I am appalled at the state of so much of our outdoor contracted oipen space. The pictures below were taken by a CBD constituent Mr Edward Mandler on a recent Sunday morning at Hyde Park. They show quite clearly basic maintenance short comings. I walked through Hyde Park yesterday afternoon and the bins were full and rubbish strewn across the lawns - clearly after the lunch period 4 hours earlier. The gardens, trees and lawns have that 'unloved' look about them. Outsourcing Hyde park's ongoing maintenance and development is short sighted and budget focused and not in touch with the expectations of the city's residents and visitors. We would not accept the outsourcing of the gardeners at the Botanic Gardens. I have argued this at Council but Clover Moore seems too busy to look at the basics of the City's services and told me to 'take it up with the CEO'. Maybe we need Frank back for the sake of our parks and trees!

Sunday Telegraph reports Clover Moore's Spin City

Clover chooses PR over people
March 5, 2006

SYDNEY Lord Mayor Clover Moore is facing an angry backlash within her own council over her decision to spend more than $1 million on her public relations team at the expense of much-needed community projects.
Ms Moore, who already has 10 media staff and spends $30,000 a month on an external public relations consultancy, now wants to hire a new panel of communication consultants.
The panel comprises seven public relations companies that would be on call to manage special projects.
A council meeting last week approved the extra staff, but funding for maintenance at a local pre-school, a community centre for people with disabilities and a public school was knocked back.
Ms Moore's opponents, including Deputy Lord Mayor Verity Firth, have attacked Ms Moore for her excessive spending.
"On Monday night, the council approved a new panel of media advisers," Ms Firth said.
"At the same meeting, eight capital funding requests from church groups and public schools were knocked back.
"We are spending about $1 million on media advice, when we could be spending it on services for local residents."
The Sunday Telegraph understands former lord mayor Frank Sartor spent about $250,000 a year on media advisers.
In response to questions on notice, Ms Moore said media consultancy firm, Cato Counsel was being paid $30,000 a month.
Liberal councillor Shayne Mallard said his estimate that $1 million was being spent this year on spin doctors was conservative.
He said the unprecedented spending on media and communications officers was part of a plan to help the Lord Mayor get re-elected.
"A new director as part of a new communications department has been created and he is paid at least $150,000," he said.
"Five staff have been built around him, each with salaries of at least $60,000 each, totalling at least $300,000.
"There is also a communications manager for the Officer of Lord Mayor, who is on at least $100,000 and he has one media adviser at about $75,000 and is looking for another."
Among the community projects denied funding at Monday's meeting were a $3080 common area for people with disabilities at the Euralla Community Service and $5000 for urgent maintenance at Green Square Community Church hall.
The Darlinghurst Public School P & C also asked for $5000 to restore the school's fence, install ceiling fans and paint the assembly hall.
The Sunbeam pre-school's request for less than $3000 to provide grass and shade for children was also rejected.
Ms Moore said the communications unit helped promote the city.
"The community projects were thrown in at the meeting when we were dealing with setting up a panel of consultants," Ms Moore said yesterday.
The Sunday Telegraph