This page of our website contains all the media articles
(15) about issues relevent to the Block for the year 2007
Article Index - [2008] - [2007]
- [2006] - [2005]
- [2004]
2007/Oct/06 Sartor silent about
his host at grand final - SMH
2007/Oct/02 Re: Critics face loss
of raison d'etre - SMH
2007/Sep/13 Redfern, a map of
our diminished vision - The Age
2007/Sep/07 Pemulwuy to test Government
- SSH
2007/Sep/07 Square shelved after
RailCorp pulls pin - SMH
2007/Sep/07 In different corners
- SMH
2007/Jun/25 Meanwhile,
Redfern tackles violence at grassroots - SMH
2007/May/09 Mick Mundine celebrates
- more to come - SSH
2007/May/04 Block edging closer
to rebirth - ABC
2007/Apr/17 Big plans for Redfern
- SMH
2007/Apr/13 Improving
Indegenous People's Living Conditions in Australia - HULIQ
2007/Apr/06 It's no syrah to Abbott
on drop for Block rock - SMH
2007/Apr/04 Block safer than George
St - The Daily Telegraph
2007/Mar/09 Policewoman named
NSW Woman of the Year - SMH
2007/Mar/09 Defend the Redfern
Block, abolish the RWA - Green Left
Sartor
silent about his host at grand final
October 6, 2007 - SMH
By Andrew Clennell State Political Editor
FRANK SARTOR had a premium seat and accompanying hospitality at Sunday night's rugby league grand final - possibly courtesy of developer interests.
But the Planning Minister refuses to say whose box he was in.
Mr Sartor could have spent the night in the Labor Party's box, where he was not seen, or in Telstra Stadium's box, given he is the minister responsible for Sydney Olympic Park. Instead he chose to be with a mysterious third party.
When the Herald asked who Mr Sartor spent the evening with, his spokeswoman would say only: "He attended the grand final as a guest. The minister declares gifts, as required, on the pecuniary interests register."
Under pecuniary interest register rules, the minister need only declare gifts worth at least $500 - more than the cost of a couple of grand final tickets, drinks and food in a corporate box.
When asked whether the minister was with developers, his spokeswoman would say only that it was a private box.
Initially the office of the Premier, Morris Iemma, would not comment. Later a spokeswoman said he, the Minister for Roads, Eric Roozendaal, and Mr Sartor were Labor Party guests.
But several senior ALP sources confirmed that Mr Sartor was not seen in Labor's box all night and that he was in another box.
The Deputy Opposition Leader, Jillian Skinner, said that Mr Sartor's refusal to say who he was with at the grand final aroused suspicion.
Yesterday Mr Iemma was forced to dismiss speculation from an anonymous colleague of Mr Sartor's that the Planning Minister could lose his job in any future reshuffle.
BACK TO TOPRe: Critics face loss of raison
d'etre
October 2, 2007 - SMH
By Michael Mundine
Dear SMH Editor,
In response to the article Critics
face loss of raison d'etre by Gerard Henderson October 2.
Mr. Henderson clearly has not been paying attention to, or simply chose
to ignore, the ground swell of overwhelming condemnation of the takeover
of Aboriginal land, from Aboriginal communities and organisations around
the country. I guess this shouldn't be a surprise considering the Howard
government and most of the mainstream media is ignoring them as well.
Then again Mr. Henderson may have been referring to the lack of interest in this issue from mainstream "white" Australians, in which case this perfectly illustrates Schultz's point that Australia is complacent.
If Australians can ignore a Government who has removed the Anti-Discrimination Act so it can blatantly abuse the human rights of our most disadvantaged, in our own backyard, then what else can we call it but gross complacency?
All of Australia should be outraged but as Schultz said Australians have found "solace in perfectly appointed homes bursting with appliances", and they are content to ignore the rest of us.
In Aboriginal communities the sense of injustice is rife. It's not an understatement to say that Indigenous people feel like their world is crumbling at their feet.
Regards,
Michael Mundine
Redfern,
a map of our diminished vision
September 13, 2007 - The Age
By Robert Reynolds
Calling Australia home should be about self-knowledge, not self-love, writes Robert Reynolds.
I EXPERIENCED a nasty jolt recently as I walked down the main strip of Redfern. Emblazoned on the side of a parked utility I spied a sticker of the Australian flag with the exhortation "Love it or leave it".
I couldn't help but note my location. If there is a suburb in Sydney where many of the residents have good reason to feel ambivalent about Australian nationalism, Redfern is probably it. And if one of the local Aborigines took this sticker to heart, where exactly might he or she go?
I felt even more dejected a few blocks later as I trudged past Redfern Park. Here, in December 1992, Paul Keating gave his famous speech to Redfern's Aboriginal community, with its reappraisal of Australia's troubled racial history. Penned by that formidable wordsmith, Don Watson, the Redfern speech was an elegant expression of white regret, black-white reconciliation, and, crucially, a shared hopefulness.
It was also a paean to the power of empathy, as these few sentences illustrate: "We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us. With some noble exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and enter into their hearts and minds. We failed to ask: how would I feel if this were done to me? As a consequence, we failed to see that what we were doing degraded us all."
While the distance between the parked utility and the site of Keating's speech is short, the difference between these two expressions of Australian nationalism is huge. Fifteen years on, Keating's aphorism that to change the government is to change the country appears pretty accurate. It is quite possible that a "Love it or leave it" sticker could have been slapped on a car during the Keating years — governments cannot be held responsible for the actions of each citizen — but my hunch is that there is something about the present political culture that makes such strident nationalism more likely, and more acceptable.
I don't want to wallow in left-liberal nostalgia. These past 12 months, the musical Keating! has attracted thousands of political malcontents, who leave the theatre on the imaginary high that their hero actually won the 1996 election.
But when I saw the musical with a good friend (a former wife of a Keating minister, by the way), we were both left cold by its smug and cloying wish-fulfilment. Intermission, my friend confided with a shudder, was like one of the interminable ALP social functions she had been expected to grace.
After more than a decade of populist right-wing government, it is hard not to pine for Keating's big picture of a confident, cosmopolitan and progressive Australia, even if his vision was imposed with an impatient superiority that proved electorally fatal.
What we have now is a political culture that is short on empathy and even shorter on tolerance for ambiguity. George Bush's post-9/11 dictum that, in the war on terror, you are either for America or against it, is simply a stark international summary of our contemporary political climate.
It is a long way from Washington to Redfern, and I doubt that President Bush was whisked down Everleigh
Street during APEC, but there was something in that sticker's insistence that reminded me of our national and international leadership. "Love it or leave it" is an extreme injunction — it brooks no dissent, in a manner similar to the nostrums of Bush and our own John Howard.
What is lost in this approach is an appreciation of ambivalence. You see, there are qualities of Australia that I love and others that I don't. In fact, some I admire and distrust at the same time, like our capacity for ruthless pragmatism.
The same could be said of my attitude to the United States. I adore that country's dynamism and the sunny, naive friendliness of many Americans; I loathe the Bush Administration and the oblivious insularity of its acolytes.
Before Tampa and the Twin Towers terror attacks, there was a sentiment afoot that Howard and his Government were mean and tricky. What is meanness but a refusal to enter into the hearts and minds of others?
This lack of empathy has reaped fresh degradations, from children overboard and the incarceration of refugees on a sweltering Pacific island to the striking down of gay marriage and civil unions.
In the final days of the Keating government, our then-alternative prime minister promised us a nation that was relaxed and comfortable; what we got instead was a decade that diminished us all.
Robert Reynolds is a historian and Australian Research Council fellow at the University of New South Wales.
Pemulwuy
to test Government
September 7, 2007 - South Sydney Herald
Under the leadership of John Mant, the Aboriginal Housing Company will submit a development application for its Pemulwuy Project under the guise that it is “just like any other developer’s application” and not a special or ‘Aboriginal’ project reports Ben Falkenmire in the South Sydney Herald of September 2007.
Mant, a lawyer-cum-planner to assist the AHC, said at a recent community consultation meeting that he wants to put the onus on the Department of Planning by submitting a “complying application.”
The AHC, Mant and chief architect Peter Lonergan, informed the community that a number of landmarks had been achieved in their attempt to comply with the Department of Planning’s planning control requirements, which they say are more superfluous than usual.
Owner’s consent has been obtained from the City of Sydney and other groups with the Department of Housing, which owns three small sites near the AHC’s offices – the only vested entity yet to ratify the draft plans.
Talks with RailCorp about a potential bridge extending from Lawson Street onto Eveleigh Street have also ceased, reflecting the NSW Government’s hands-off approach until, presumably, the Department of Planning approves the DA.
Minor changes include the addition of car parking with the mix of residential to non-residential space still averaging around 50-50, said Lonergan. “Height, foor-space-ratio and the residential and non-residential mix summate to a good vibrant development,” said the principal architect.
The biggest hurdle John Mant anticipates is Pemulwuy’s straying away from shop-to-top housing, where retail shops sit under residential premises. Mant told the SSH that the Department-preferred model creates a conflict of interest between residents, business owners and commercial workers and considers it “inappropriate and unsafe” for Pemulwuy.
The Department of Planning will be keen to learn of the type of businesses and residents the AHC is considering for the space. “We encourage Aboriginal businesses to apply but we will be charging commercial rents and they will be competitive,” said the AHC’s Peter Valilis. “Residents will be one hundred percent Aboriginal.”
Interest from middle-income Aboriginal families far exceeds the number of vacancies available, Valilis told the SSH, based on an independent survey undertaken by Sydney University. This detail will not accompany the DA.
John Mant said the 15,000 square metres of building planned is financially manageable, but the AHC will wait until approval has been obtained before approaching lenders. He did say the residential component can be built in stages and that the AHC can strata them for sale or for rent.
Mick Mundine, CEO of the AHC, reminded the 30 plus crowd of the project’s espirit de corps, “The next generation is suffering and caught in a vicious cycle. We need to break that cycle and pave the way for its future.”
The AHC plans to submit the DA to the Department of Planning at the end of August.
John Mant with architect Peter Lonergan Photo: Ben Falkenmire
Source South Sydney Herald September 2007
Square
shelved after RailCorp pulls pin
September 7, 2007 - SMH
Joel Gibson Indigenous Affairs Reporter
A PLAN for a large public square to open up the Block to greater Redfern and encourage Aboriginal and white residents to mix has been shelved because RailCorp would not meet the Aboriginal Housing Company to discuss the inner-city ghetto.
The company, which owns most of the land on the Block, expects to present its 400-page concept plan for a $40 million redevelopment of the troubled area to the NSW Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, next week.
But it was forced to jettison the plan's centrepiece because RailCorp cancelled several meetings and pulled the pin on discussions without explanation, the project director, Peter Valilis, said.
The proposed 500-square-metre "Red Square" would have featured markets and linked Redfern station and Lawson Street to Tony Mundine's gym, an indigenous art gallery and the residential areas of the Block.
But its construction would require a triangular truss to be built over the railway lines as they approach Redfern station from the north. The wall that partially hides the Block from view would then be demolished and the area opened up to Lawson Street and the station.
RailCorp executives initially supported the idea, provided it cost it nothing and was structurally safe, Mr Valilis said. An engineer's report found the plan to be sound, but discussions stalled in September last year.
The housing company has since filed a freedom of information request in an attempt to learn RailCorp's intentions for Redfern station. "We had a very good relationship with RailCorp but suddenly, out of the blue, about 12 months ago they pulled the pin [on our discussions]," Mr Valilis said. "We've heard they are planning to close off the Lawson Street entrance to the station and that their plan was to build another station on the Eveleigh goods yards side … They were concerned about the safety of their staff."
The company's chief executive, Mick Mundine, said it was common sense to create a public space at the top of the Block.
"We want to open it up. We have got to be part of the community. We've had problems on the Block because we were isolated. It will be better for the railway station, for the police, and for people [who want] to walk through and mingle."
Geoff Turnbull from the REDWatch activist group said the greater Redfern community wanted an end to uncertainty over the future of the Block. The ambitious plan for the symbolic heart of Aboriginal Sydney includes 62 dwellings for 300 to 400 Aboriginal people - about the same number as in the 1980s.
Residential and commercial buildings will be separated, with businesses located around the now-truncated Red Square.
The floor-space ratio of the housing is 0.8:1, which the company hopes will be close enough to the 0.75:1 stipulated by the Redfern-Waterloo Authority's built environmental plan. Elsewhere in the City of Sydney municipality, developers are only asked to meet a 1:1 ratio.
Consultants have given $5 million worth of pro bono services to prepare the plan, which will be funded by private equity and commercial rents, according to Mr Valilis.
But Mr Mundine remains sceptical about whether the Government will approve it.
"Do you honestly believe that anyone would object to 62 houses being built here for white people? No chance. It's the colour of our skin that divides us. It's such a shame."
Due to the relevant person being unavailable, RailCorp was unable to respond to the company's claims last night, a spokesperson said.
In
different corners
September 7, 2007 - SMH
There are fears in Redfern that plans for the area are not about improvement for all, writes Sunanda Creagh.
'No slackin' off now, girls."
The Aboriginal Housing Company chief, Mick Mundine, has a reputation in government circles for being a tough nut; in discussions over the future of Redfern, politicians and bureaucrats have found him stubborn and uncompromising.
They think that's bad. Try taking the women's circuit class at Mundine's gym on the Block. "Come on!" he barks at a girl easing off during sit-ups. "One! Two! Three! Up to 10 now!"
Mundine's gym looks like a scene out of the Bronx: peeling posters of boxers past and present adorn the walls, including plenty signed by his famous nephew Anthony "Choc" Mundine.
Pugilists practise on each other in the ring while other men slouch on weights machines watching. Everything smells like sweat and old metal.
People pay $8 to get in - if you're broke, it's free.
"The idea," explains Mundine, "is to get people in this area keepin' fit."
Recently, he says, government funding to the gym was cut off because
too many non-Aborigines were going. The shifting demographics at Mundine's gym hint at the rapid change happening all over Redfern.
Just who is controlling that change, and who it benefits, is much debated in government and the local community.
In setting up the Redfern Waterloo Authority, the State Government handed itself a mandate to revitalise the troubled suburb. The authority wrote three blueprints for change - the Built Environment Plan, the Human Services Plan and the Employment and Enterprise Plan. The Built Environment Plan is about overhauling Redfern station, creating new shops and apartments where Eveleigh railyards used to be, bringing 18,000 jobs and 4000 new residents to the area.
To fund this plan, the authority has brokered the sale of a local hospital, a school and other assets.
The Employment and Enterprise Plan sets out strategies to train and place local people in jobs, while the Human Services Plan is aimed at addressing disadvantage in the area.
"Most people I speak to in Redfern and Waterloo want to see the place change for the better. They want to see economic growth, jobs and training opportunities, new community facilities, better community safety and improved human services," says the Redfern and Waterloo Authority chief, Robert Domm. "The challenge, as always, is to properly manage the change so that the desired social outcomes are achieved."
Domm is right about the locals wanting change. However, many in the community fear the plans will lead to a change that benefits only newcomers.
"We are a small example of what could happen if the people don't get listened to," warns Michael Gravener, the co-ordinator at Redfern's 100-year-old community centre, the Settlement. He was getting on with his work - trying to keep local children out of the juvenile justice system - when in 2002 some newcomers wanted change.
"Some very powerful locals got on the Settlement's committee and sold this building, sold the house next door, sacked the board. They wanted to get rid of their own neighbourhood centre," he says. "That's what I see as the future."
Gravener sees Redfern's social disadvantage at its most heartbreaking.
"Sixty-eight young people I know have died of unnatural causes - drugs, alcohol, abuse, murder - that's in the last few years. They are Aboriginal," he says. "I've got 20 kids I have to pick up from the pool this afternoon. At least 50 per cent of those kids will probably serve time."
That could be prevented, says Gravener, if more of the $300 million funding for the Built Environment Plan were diverted to long-term early-intervention strategies.
"We do a program where we try to prevent kids going to prison. We take kids at risk of homelessness … we took [some] up the bush and Aboriginal people ran a program on horsemanship, relating to horses and learning basics like a healthy, trusting relationship," he says.
"They are expensive things to do but it's cycle-breaking stuff."
One of the main complaints from people such as Gravener is that the Human Service Plan, the authority's blueprint for addressing social disadvantage, has no new funding. There will be a new health centre where the courthouse used to be, but otherwise welfare services are being told to find money from within existing budgets.
Domm says many of the services already receive government funding and "simply throwing more money at problems is no guarantee of success". He points to the authority's Employment and Enterprise Plan as a cycle breaker. "For those who may have a degree of welfare dependency, this means creating training, enterprise and job opportunities which are leveraged off the new developments," he says.
Won't those jobs help lift those locals Gravener is worried about out of poverty? "There's a lot of really well-intentioned focus on employment. Well, one of the huge issues is that lot of people round here are not employable," Gravener says. "It's OK to talk about employment, but do people have a roof over their head? Do they suffer from trauma or an abuse problem? You are not addressing the real issues here."
The focus of the authority, he says, has been on providing a revitalised Redfern for future residents, rather than addressing the problems of current inhabitants.
A Redfern resident and co-ordinator of the activist group REDWatch, Lyn Turnbull, has watched the suburb evolve over 25 years but the authority's changes will be the most significant. "The change in the demographics is already happening round here. The place has been slowly gentrified over a long period of time. When governments force that ahead you end up with a very socially disparate community," she warns. "The contrast between lifestyles becomes even greater and the social tensions are likely to increase rather than decrease."
As executive officer of the Redfern Legal Centre, Helen Campbell was asked to sit on a committee to advise the Minister for Redfern-Waterloo, Frank Sartor, on issues that needed to be addressed in the Human Services Plan.
"We have committed a lot of time and energy in participating in the various advisory committees. I am very disappointed that in two years of sitting on the Human Services ministerial advisory committee, the minister has never attended a meeting," she says.
She takes a dim view of government instructions to community groups to find money from existing budgets to fix social problems.
"This idea that we can find some efficiencies - what, sack a few secretaries? We never had any secretaries," she says, adding that most of the groups rely on volunteers. Campbell has seen the place change, too, and getting a better social mix is a good thing, she says.
"But if you look at what they call East Redfern - Chalmers Street and Elizabeth Street - the new developments there are almost gated communities. Nice new units with very high walls, very secure gates," she says.
Back near Mundine's gym, locals hang out in front of some of the oldest, most decrepit houses in Sydney. One, Rodney, who doesn't want his last name used, has been in the area 23 years. He wants to see it change.
"I hope it's different in 10 years' time," he says. "Like Sydney itself, it's been brought down by a big increase in crime and drugs, and any employment for locals is good but a lot of us have criminal records so it's hard."
"We have to accept responsibility that we set the standard for our kids. But I hope they do rebuild Redfern with new and better houses."
Like the apartments planned for Wilson Street?
"Nah," he says, sweeping an arm up at the crumbling places. "Inside all these the interior is coming apart. They could do with a paint job, at least. Changing this could help people a bit."
Unfortunately for Rodney, that's not part of the $300 million Built Environment Plan or any State Government plan.
Meanwhile,
Redfern tackles violence at grassroots
June 25, 2007 - SMH
By Joel Gibson
WHEN Redfern erupted in violence against police on the night of February 15, 2004, it might have been just a few days away from a solution to the drugs and antisocial behaviour that had plagued the Block.
In the days before the riot, a violent sexual assault by a known heroin dealer had prompted a group of Redfern's mothers and aunts to say "enough is enough". They organised an anti-violence rally at the Block for Thursday, February 19. The Sunday riot put paid to those plans. Later, a rescheduled rally drew 100 people who set about publicly shaming those responsible for the sexual assault. Within weeks, the alleged rapist had left the area, as had his brother and alleged partner in crime, said Rob Welsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.
So began the Blackout Violence campaign, which won a NSW Violence Against Women Prevention Award in 2004 and has now received federal funding to employ a part-time officer.
Designed to inform assault victims of their rights and educate offenders, it was launched at the 2004 NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout, the state's biggest annual gathering of indigenous people, where all 85 teams wore purple armbands as an anti-violence gesture and about 2000 information kits were handed out.
The NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Catherine Burn said the campaign hit home. "I noticed it particularly with the women in the community. They became more willing to talk about it and confront domestic violence," said Ms Burn, who was the local area commander for Redfern until December last year.
Dixie Link-Gordon, one of the pioneers of the campaign and a survivor of violence, said it showed indigenous people were "taking care of business".
"No one's lying down, taking being beaten," said Ms Link-Gordon, mother of the South Sydney rugby league player Yileen "Buddy" Gordon and a co-ordinator at the Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Women's Centre.
Mr Welsh used to play with the Redfern All Blacks rugby league club and now coaches the All Blacks boys teams.
Blackout Violence is one of 15 programs highlighted in Success Stories in Indigenous Health, a book launched last week by the Federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott, and the Opposition health spokeswoman, Nicola Roxon, and published by Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation.
Other programs featured in the book include one by Marie Stopes International, which gave red, black and yellow condoms to indigenous teenagers in regional Victoria and claims a 30 per cent reduction in unsafe sex practices.
Gary Highland, the national director of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, said the book showed the appalling state of indigenous health - evident in the 17-year life expectancy gap with non-indigenous Australians - could be fixed with "bottom-up" programs.
But these had been inadequate to cope with the scale of the problem, largely because of insufficient funding.
Mr Abbot said: "It's important that we don't just dwell on the bad news but acknowledge the improvements on indigenous health. We also need to celebrate the people who have made this happen."
Labor policy has drawn on programs in the book.
Mick Mundine celebrates - more
to come
May 09, 2007 - South Sydney Herald
The Aboriginal Housing Company's Mick Mundine recently celebrated his 60th
birthday in style in what could be a festive year for the Redfern figurehead.
The development company is on track to have their Pemulwuy Project approved
by the Department of Planning later in the year after spending the bulk
of 2006 jockeying around planning requirements.
The Pemulwuy Project is a mixed-use development plan for an area that includes
the area known as the Block. The plan will provide residential units for
home ownership by Indigenous people, an Elder's centre, respite and health
care facilities and an art gallery, in addition to commercial facilities.
The AHC's intention is to "restore a strong and healthy Indigenous
community to Redfern" correcting for its media-savaged reputation.
Since lodging a proposal with the Department of Planning last April, the
AHC has made three amendments to conform with changes to local plan'ning
requirements and enhance their prospect for approval success. The AHC was
to submit its final Concept Plan by the end of April, which if approved
by the Department, will make way for the submission of the Project Application.
While not wanting to speculate on Sartor's likely sway, the man they call
"Uncle Mick," and the eldest of six Mundine brothers, is adamant
the project will be approved - whether by the NSW Government within the
legislated 42 days of receipt of the Project Application, or sometime later
in the courts if the AHC is forced to take action.
"Redfern is like the Opera House or Harbour Bridge for our people,"
said Mundine. "It's our God-given right to be a part of the (State
Government's) vision for the area."
His fervent conviction is further grounded in the AHC's compliance within
the letter of Sartor's planning laws. The AHC has since consulted with the
community as demanded by the Department, and enlisted the advice of some
pre-eminent thinkers on planning related matters such as internationally
acclaimed architects Cracknell and Lonergan, Smyth Planning and planning
lawyer John Mant.
The City of Sydney Council provided consent for the project last month,
subject to some ownership provisions, while the Office of Community Housing,
private landowners in Lawson Street, Redfern Police and community group
REDWatch have all indicated their support. The support of two Aboriginal
companies and a school are outstanding before the Department of Planning
will consider the Project Application.
The Department of Planning did not care to comment on the progress of the
plan, but did say that all information relating to the Pemulwuy Project
is available on their website.
Mick Mundine, who has been with the AHC for 32 of its 34 years, said the
implementation of the Pemulwuy Project would be his career highlight, after
celebrating his 60th birthday and his brother Beau's 50th in March with
a party that still fondly reverberates around AHC's corridors.
"Everyone wants to reach the top of a mountain in their lives, and
my mountain is right here in Redfern with the Pemulwuy Project," said
Mundine. SSH
Block
edging closer to rebirth
May 04, 2007 - ABC
By Caro Meldrum
For years there has been talk about revitalising the area of Redfern known as the Block.
Over the past two decades it has developed a reputation for crime and decay.
Many houses have been demolished to make way for promised improvements to the area, which is home to the highest density of Indigenous communities in Australia.
Now it appears redevelopment is closer than ever, with two separate formal plans for the Block.
One plan - the Built Environment Plan - has been developed by the Redfern-Waterloo Authority.
It proposes to spend $32 million on, among other things, a community health centre, pedestrian bridge, a new town centre and upgrades to Redfern railway station.
Sixteen million of the $32 million will be spent over 10 years to provide affordable housing for Aboriginal residents.
The Authority could not confirm how many houses the project includes, or whether it will offer home ownership or tenancy.
The other vision for the Block is the 'Pemulwuy Project'.
It has been created by the independent Aboriginal Housing Company, led by Mick Mundine.
The Pemulwuy project includes a business college, spiritual centre, art gallery, and a gymnasium.
Peter Vallilis is the project manager for the Aboriginal Housing Company.
He says most of the houses on the Block are infected with mildew and infested with vermin, because of cracked flooring and ceilings, and inadequate sunlight.
Mr Vallilis says the only option is to tear down the houses and start from scratch.
"The simple fact is, these places are over 100-years-old and they're well past their use-by date. And the mildew is because sunlight doesn't get in to them," he said.
"The new design will have three sides light, cross ventilation. Just the basic design will be incredibly healthy in comparison to this. It will be 1,000 per cent better."
"Everything is shocking in these places. People shouldn't be living in these places, it's as simple as that."
Part of the Pemulwuy Project is called the 'Home Clinic'.
It has been designed specifically for Aboriginal residents of the Block, by Col James, who is the Director of the IB Fell Housing Research Centre at the University of Sydney.
Mr James says he has spent seven years visiting almost 5,000 Indigenous communities across urban and regional Australia, to find ways to improve their living conditions.
"The origins of the home clinic and wash room really came out of workshops that were conducted by the Aboriginal Housing Company, where we had a lot of health professionals," he said.
"And we were probing the idea of what is special about what is needed on the Block to maintain health as a priority, and also to relate to the lifestyle that Aboriginal people talk about."
Mr James says when it comes to housing, there is a common misconception about Indigenous people.
"The common complaint is that Aboriginal people don't know how to live, they don't know how to look after that," he said.
"That's crap."
"It's the designs and the fittings. If you've got eight kids and you're washing to make sure they don't get cross-infection, the machine won't handle it. There has to be better commercial quality washing machines."
Mr James says he and his team of researchers were instructed to build a facility that would cater for elderly and disabled residents, and was separate from the main living areas.
"Elders are a very fundamental part of the family. We want to house the whole family, we don't want the elderly to go off to nursing homes because they are the people who look after the kids."
The cleaning room includes special flooring, a toilet and shower in an adjoining space, secure medicine cabinets, large basins for washing children, a combined washer-dryer machine, and doors and windows that open to outside areas.
The design is incorporated into the 62 proposed new homes in the Pemulwuy Project.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Housing Company, Mick Mundine, says the cleaning room also has the potential to reduce the rate of child sexual abuse.
He says the majority of the troublemakers at the Block are visitors.
"At a lot of parties, the toilets are inside. Men then go inside in to the toilet, and that's where you get a lot of interfering with young children," he said.
"So with the home clinic outside, when they have parties there is no reason for any of the adults to go in to the house, where the bedroom is."
The Planning Minister Frank Sartor will have the final say on which project, or if a combination of the projects, goes ahead.
The Pemulwuy project is expected to be submitted by the end of May.
Legislation requires the Department of Planning to make a
decision within 40 days of a submission.
Big
plans for Redfern
April 17, 2007 - SMH
BY Harvey Grennan
AFTER Pyrmont, Homebush Bay, Green Square and Rhodes, the next big urban consolidation challenge for Sydney is a curly one - Redfern.
Redfern/Waterloo is home to a good slice of Sydney's indigenous population, the Block, high-rise public housing and the Rabbitohs. This is no greenfield or brownfield development site and this time the emphasis is on high-tech commercial as well as residential development.
There are big plans for the area. Applying ministerial planning powers to eight strategic sites is expected to generate more than 400,000 square metres of business space, creating employment, and up to 2000 new homes. Channel Seven has committed to the largest commercial development in Redfern in a decade.
The Redfern Waterloo Authority has put together $300 million in new investment, including direct state funding of $76 million, for a community health centre, a pedestrian and cycle bridge to the Australian Technology Park and affordable housing for Aboriginal residents.
There will be a new town centre around an upgraded railway station and further adaptation and re-use of heritage railway buildings.
"Redfern will be restored to a beautiful and historic inner-city village," says Sydney's Lord Mayor, Clover Moore.
The publicity and celebrity agent Max Markson, who has moved his operation into the clock tower in the old post office, says Redfern is "the next big thing".
Amid all this planning activity City of Sydney is trying to rebuild Redfern's heart and soul. The council is outlaying $42 million for streetscape improvements to the main thoroughfares of Redfern and Regent streets and to Redfern Park. Workmen are busy putting powerlines below ground, removing concrete walls, widening and repaving footpaths, installing new lighting, "smart poles" and street furniture and planting trees.
The council has introduced an Aboriginal employment scheme to involve indigenous apprentices, trainees, labourers and tradesmen in the street upgrade. "We're taking the stigma away from Redfern and giving it a facelift.
"You'll see a new Redfern soon with new shops and restaurants. Redfern has really turned a corner," says a local bricklayer, Jack Dunn, who lives at the Block.
On the social front the council is sponsoring a midnight basketball competition at the new Alexandria Park Community Centre to keep young people off the streets, other activities at the new community centre and a public art project.
The midnight basketball is based on a US scheme that had success in diverting young people from crime and anti-social behaviour. Matches are played on a Saturday between 7.30 pm and midnight.
More than 1000 people a week are visiting the new community centre. Programs include health and fitness classes, hospitality training, breakdancing and art workshops, elders' lunches, an IT room and after-school and holiday care.
Other offerings include an Aboriginal men's art group, a recording studio and an online talent agency, Lights Camera Action, which has placed more than 250 people in theatre, film and television.
As part of the streetscape works Cope Street Reserve has a new sculpture by Susan Milne and Greg Stonehouse, inspired by the bowerbird, which borrows blue objects during courtship. Earlier this month residents were invited to bring a favourite object for inclusion in a glass cast to be set in the footpath.
The council is also working with the Redfern Chamber of Commerce to get art into shopfronts and schools in time for the completion of the upgrade work.
Improving
Indegenous People's Living Conditions in Australia
April 13, 2007 - HULIQ
Over the past seven years, Sydney researchers led by Paul Pholeros and Col James have visited more than 4600 Indigenous Australian households across urban and regional Australia looking for ways to improve people's living conditions.
Of the homes they have seen, only 33 per cent had a working shower, 26 per cent had laundry facilities and 56 per cent had a working toilet.
"Aside from food and shelter, there are three key areas to our health: that we wash once a day, that we are able to wash our clothes, and that we can remove waste. The people aren't the problem, it's the design and maintenance of the equipment," says Professor Pholeros from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Sidney, Australia.
As a result of their research, Professor Pholeros and Mr James have developed a prototype home clinic and wash room for the indigenous community in Redfern.The prototypewill be unveiled this coming Monday at the University of Sydney, and it is to be incorporated into 62 proposed new dwellings at The Block in Redfern.
Details of the room's design arose from extensive research and workshops with health professionals, architects and Aboriginal leaders, with special attention given to disabled access. The room features a combined toilet and hobless shower, a medicine cabinet, a ceramic tub and bench with access from the inside and the outside, a wheelchair and a laundry trolley, and a combined washing and drying machine.
"Aboriginal people experience disability at an earlier rate than non-Aboriginal people because of endemic poor health. We don't want architectural disablement," said Dr Catherine Bridge, senior lecturer in the Discipline of Occupational Therapy at the University, and a consultant in the design process.
"Anything we can do to improve resources is fundamental to people's quality of life and to the community," she said. "The sort of thinking that went into this wash room is needed nationally," added Professor Pholeros.
The wash room includes an 'eco-metre' which measures the water, electricity and gas output, and translates that use into a monetary amount and carbon dioxide outputs. Hugh Snelgrove, a third year architecture student, and Gabriel Ulacco, an architecture graduate, spent six weeks sourcing materials, including the eco-metre, and building the prototype.
"Col gave us a 5cm by 5cm thumbnail sketch. Gabriel brought it to scale by generating a computerised visualisation, after which we could assess what we needed," explained Hugh.
By Kate Rossmanith -Source: http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=2&newsstoryid=1667
It's
no syrah to Abbott on drop for Block rock
April 6, 2007 - SMH
Joel Gibson
WHEN the organisers of a music festival at the Block in Redfern asked the
Health Minister, Tony Abbott, for his support, they were hoping for a donation,
some resources, perhaps even an appearance by the man himself.
Instead they were offered a signed bottle of wine.
It was an odd contribution given that the Rock the Block festival on May 5 is alcohol-free and that alcohol abuse is a scourge in Aboriginal communities, the organisers said yesterday.
"We don't believe it is appropriate for the Minister for Health to send alcohol to an Aboriginal community. We believe it sends the wrong message, especially seeing that Rock the Block is a dry, family-orientated event," said Mick Mundine, chief executive of the Aboriginal Housing Company. "They just don't think."
The festival organiser, Joel Beasant, sent a fax to Mr Abbott's Sydney electorate office asking for "modest donations to support equipment hire and promotion for the event and/or confirmation that you can attend".
On Wednesday, a telephone call came from a staffer at Mr Abbott's office in Manly offering a signed bottle of wine for auction.
Not being a drinker, Mr Beasant said he could not recall what sort of wine it was. "But the way they described it, it sounded like a nice bottle," he said yesterday.
He reported the offer to the housing company, which said a money donation of equivalent value might be more helpful.
Mr Abbott's spokeswoman did not know the vintage or the label either yesterday. She said it was an event worthy of support but that it was unfortunate that organisers have sought to embarrass Mr Abbott and the office in this way. She said there had been nothing to suggest it was a dry event.
Block
safer than George St
April 04, 2007 - The Daily Telegraph
By Justin Vallejo
PEOPLE are now more likely to be mugged, bashed or sexually
assaulted on George St than in a notorious part of Redfern.
The number of late-night revellers leaving the city's CBD in the back of
an ambulance has made what was once the no-go ghetto of Eveleigh St look
safe.
Three years ago the Block was the scene of an ugly riot when youths threw petrol bombs and bricks at police after the death of local boy TJ Hickey.
The Daily Telegraph revealed this week that ambulance crews
were called to George St 126 times to treat victims of alcohol-fuelled crimes
over the past eight weekends - almost eight times a night.
Over the same period, ambulance crews were called to Eveleigh St on 30 occasions,
with just two of those for victims of assaults.
That was compared to 50 assaults, brawls and bashings in George St on Friday and Saturday nights in February and March.
The majority of calls to Eveleigh St were for drug overdoses, which accounted for half of the triple 0 emergency calls to the area.
Redfern residents say Eveleigh St reached a turning point after the 2004 riots, when police and council re-engaged with the community.
Redfern Residents for Reconciliation convenor Lyn Turnbull, who has lived near Eveleigh St for 30 years, said there was no doubt where she felt safer.
"We would have to go back to the 1980s to remember a time this calm and peaceful before the drug culture really set in in the 1990s,'' she said.
"Things have turned around and, after the council opened the community centre there has been a lot more through foot traffic for positive reasons.'' A police spokesman said comparing the CBD with anywhere else was like "apples and oranges''.
"The number of people in the CBD is far greater than any other suburb, and that number increases by around 100,000 every weekend as people pour into the city,'' he said.
"There is also a much higher number of licensed premises, restaurants, hotels and clubs in the CBD, so the potential for anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related crime is greater.''
Central Metro Region Police Mark Walton said he wouldn't compare Redfern to other areas but agreed the suburb was beginning to change. "Overall our impressions in the past couple of years are that the incident of violence and crime at Redfern has reduced and there are some tangible statistics to support that,'' he said.
"It's pleasing that the work that has been done is having an impact. Some of the crime is down and the feeling of safety and relations on all accounts is improving.
"The local community feels more engaged with the police and we hope to continue to develop and work on that to end up with a community we can be proud of.''
Policewoman
named NSW Woman of the Year
March 9, 2007 - SMH
Assistant Police Commissioner Catherine Burn has been named NSW Woman of the Year for her work with the embattled aboriginal community in Sydney's inner-city suburb of Redfern.
NSW Police Minister John Watkins, who was among three people to nominate Ms Burn for the award, said no nomination had been more important than that of Redfern Aboriginal leader Mick Mundine, head of the Aboriginal Housing Company.
State Labor MP for the Redfern seat of Heffron, Kristina Keneally, also nominated the 22-year police veteran.
Ms Burn spent 15 months as local area commander of Redfern until December last year, when she was promoted to assistant commissioner.
She took over after the 2004 riots, which were sparked by the death of local teen TJ Hickey, who was impaled on a fence in Redfern when he fell off his bike.
There was speculation he was being pursued by police at the time.
Ms Burn was known for her hands-on approach to her job, mixing with the Redfern community on daily walks through neighbourhoods and developing programs to reduce family violence and promote relations between Aborigines and police.
She also accompanied Aboriginal children to the State of Origin rugby league matches as part of the community's Youth Mentor Program.
Mr Mundine hailed her efforts.
"A lot of people in the Redfern-Waterloo area, they really respect her because she really came in at the grass roots level and really mingled with the people and she's got a lot of respect," he told reporters.
Mr Watkins said Ms Burn was a "model for police in NSW and women throughout the state".
Ms Burn said she had been humbled at receiving the award on International Women's Day.
"I'm also very honoured and I think it's wonderful that I've been recognised and it's a reflection about what can be achieved when police work closely with the community, such as the Aboriginal community, and I think that their recognition is fantastic," she told reporters.
© 2007 AAP
Defend
the Redfern Block, abolish the RWA
March 9, 2007 - Green Left
By Pip Hinman, Sydney
The reason for the existence of the Redfern-Waterloo Authority (RWA) can be summed up in just two words: corporate greed.
Greedy developers have long been eyeing Redfern, a Sydney suburb one train stop away from the CBD with city skyline views, sandwiched between rapidly gentrifying inner-city suburbs. Standing in the way of billions of dollars of corporate profit is the Redfern community, and at the heart of it the historic Indigenous community, the Redfern Block.
The NSW Labor government has been trying to disappear this community for years and the RWA, set up under the infamous part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Infrastructure and Other Planning Reform) Act 2005, is its final solution.
Under this law, NSW planning minister Frank Sartor can assume “development authority” for any development he deems “state significant”, bypass local councils and regulations and just do it.
And there can be no doubt about what Sartor aims to do. Just a year after dramatic TV footage of the “Redfern riot” bounced around the world, Sartor walked into the offices of the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC), which owns the Block, and bluntly said he didn’t want any Aboriginal housing there.
A shocked director of the AHC, Peter Walker, told the media: “I believe … the government, for whom Mr Sartor represents, are wanting no, to be blunt, no black faces on the Block. That’s the position pushed by some property developers.”
This is corporate greed-driven racism in its most naked form. The Socialist Alliance totally opposes the formation of the RWA, the purposes for which it was formed and the structures and processes established for its operation. We call for the abolition of the RWA and the repeal of the legislation that forms and empowers the RWA.
The RWA is just one example of the trend by all state governments to remove major development projects from regulation and scrutiny by local government and other regulatory authorities charged with protecting community and environmental interests. This has been a device to advance the privatisation and profits-first agenda against the interest of the community and the environment — as the experience of the first two years of the operation of RWA confirm.
Sartor has not delivered on promises of community consultation, and the RWA plans that have been announced reveal that this is another private-public partnership (PPP) scam like the notorious Cross City Tunnel and the airport rail link.
PPPs mean public subsidies for private corporations undertaking infrastructure developments that go against the interests of the community and the environment. The NSW Labor government has set up nearly $15 billion worth of these PPP scams, and already the public has seen some of their terrible costs, including:
•$800 million in taxpayers’ funds squandered on the airport rail link — a project we were promised would cost taxpayers nothing;
•$25 million already paid to the builder of the Lane Cove Tunnel for the government’s tardiness in narrowing Epping Road to push drivers into that tunnel; and
•the still-to-be-discovered public financial cost of the bankrupt Cross City Tunnel.
But this is probably just the tip of the iceberg because many of these cosy deals between state governments and their private “partners” remain hidden on the pretext that it is commercial-in-confidence.
The Socialist Alliance believes that all development projects, big or small, should be fully subject to public scrutiny, democratic control and regulation in the interest of the community and the environment. All major development projects should be under the control of the public and their governing boards should be elected by the community; accountable to the public; and subject to recall by the electorate; and provision should be made for major issues to be submitted to community-initiated referenda.
Therefore, Socialist Alliance calls for direct community participation (through direct democracy, not just “consultation”) in the development, finalisation, implementation and ongoing evaluation of any plan for Redfern-Waterloo. We are committed to fighting for a future for the area in which the most marginalised have decent housing, and not just those who can afford to live in a gentrified inner-city.
We would support a plan to assist the Redfern community develop cooperatives and other enterprises under their control. Such a plan should also include quality public housing.
The Socialist Alliance wants to see the number of public housing units sharply increased and public housing extended beyond “welfare housing” to more broadly available public housing that steadily replaces the private housing market that is increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible for most of the population.
The Socialist Alliance opposes the current government position of reducing the proportion of the population in public housing in Redfern-Weterloo by doubling the local population while maintaining the same number of public tenants. We totally oppose public private partnership redevelopment of existing public housing.
The Socialist Alliance opposes the sales of parts of North Eveleigh and the former Rachel Foster Hospital site to fund the redevelopment of the area.
The notion that it necessary to privatise public assets to preserve other public utilities is dead wrong. It is a refrain the NSW state Labor government repeats ad nauseum, and it is driven by the close relationship between the state government and its developer mates (the NSW Labor Party and the Coalition have received over $7.7 million dollars between them in donations from developers over the last three years).
The Socialist Alliance repledges its support and solidarity with the Redfern Block Aboriginal community and the broader Redfern-Waterloo community and stands alongside these communities in their fight to determine a future that is in the interests of the community and the environment, not that of the developers.
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