State Government Working With The Community To Deliver Redfern-Waterloo Plan

Minister for the new Redfern Waterloo Authority, Frank Sartor said the State Government's 10-year plan for the area is an ongoing package of initiatives, ranging from infrastructure to social services and community renewal.

"There is no magic solution for the entrenched problems in Redfern-Waterloo," Mr Sartor said.

"Redfern-Waterloo is a work in progress and we cannot expect these problems will be solved overnight.

"These are complex issues and that is why the government is taking a co-ordinated approach to find new ways to solve them.

"Essential infrastructure is in need of upgrading and complex social problems are in need of real solutions.

'We are going to achieve this is by taking the community with us,"

Mr Sartor said no decision has been made regarding the future of the site known as the Block,

"The State Government is currently working closely with the local community and the Aboriginal Housing Company on opportunities for the Block," Mr Sartor said.

The new Redfern-Waterloo Authority - modelled on the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority- would administer a Redfern-Waterloo Fund and manage public infrastructure, land and properties in the area,

"Our 10-year plan is not however, simply an infrastructure package".

"Earlier this month, the Minister for Community Services, Carmel Tebbutt and I released the Redfern-Waterloo Human Services Review.

"With a myriad of Government services in the area we wanted to ensure the right services are delivered to the right people - and that services work together to meet the needs of the community.

"We are now working with the community on a plan to implement the review recommendations."

Mr Sartor said the State Government had also put in place a Jobs Plan to address the high number of people in the area not participating in the labour force,

Waterloo is rated as the fifth poorest suburb out of 526 Sydney suburbs and Redfern is ranked in the bottom third. Nearly 60 per cent of Waterloo's residents are not in the labour force and are benefit dependent, while around 12 per cent of Redfern households in 2001 lived on an income less than $200 a week.

"We know the most effective way to combat poverty is through a job. This initiative underpinned by the new Human Services plan for the area, will address this important issue.

As the Premier announced on October 26, 2004 the Redfern-Waterloo Plan will see:

• • The major redevelopment of the Redfern Railway Station, including the development of a significant town centre, with commercial and retail activity within a railway concourse;
• A new pedestrian bridge across the southern arterial roads of Gibbons and Regent Streets at Redfern;
• A new bridge to link the Australian Technology Park with North Eveleigh;
• Extending the entry requirements for the Australian Technology Park to encourage further commercial activity;
• Optimising use of Government land;
• Increasing rental or home ownership housing opportunities;
• Investigating the renewal of public housing estates;
• Developing a cultural strategy to support economic and urban regeneration; and
• Working with the City of Sydney Council and the Commonwealth Government on community renewal.

Legislation establishing the new Redfern-Waterloo Authority has been introduced into NSW Parliament.