Log in


Forgot your password?
 
You are here: Home / Other Government Involvement in RW / NSW Government / NSW Cabinet / Introduction to the Cabinet Documents

Introduction to the Cabinet Documents

Some brief retrospective comments on the Cabinet Documents in the light of subsequent events.

Introductory Comments on the SMH Articles

The SMH articles need to be seen in the context of the earlier RED Strategy. You will notice that many of the issues raised in the RED Strategy consultations (details elsewhere on the REDWatch website) are also referred to in the Cabinet Papers seen by the SMH.

Minister Sartor has argued that the RWA is not bound to implement any of the material from the RED Strategy or the documents sighted by the SMH. We do not know what NSW Cabinet actually decided based on the documents presented to it. Clearly some decisions were made that have guided the RWA legislation and the RWA’s work in the absence of the Redfern Waterloo Plan which is supposed to guide the work the RWA.

It is not clear if the documents seen by the SMH are the final cabinet submission or if they are a slightly earlier copy. The SMH said the documents were dated October 2004. The announcement of the RWA was made by the Premier on October 26th 2004, so the documents sighted by the SMH must have been very close to final if they were not the actual documents submitted to cabinet.

It is known that the one element the Government expected to be able to include in the announcement that was not there was the arrangement they hoped to negotiate with the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) for the development of The Block. The SMH articles expected that the development would go ahead however REDWatch has been told that Cabinet had decided against supporting the project.

A recent article in the University of Technology paper Southside News Issue 3/2005 p14-15 quotes from advice from the Crown Solicitor’s Office about these negotiations with the AHC. It seems to indicate that the Government did not proceed with anything on the Block because they could not negotiate arrangements that gave the NSW Government control over the Block and what might be done there.

This would be consistent with the change by the NSW Government in going from working with the AHC in 2004 on the Pemulwuy project to opposing the project with the establishment of the RWA.

The second area covered in the SMH articles which created great concern for the NSW Government was the material on the redevelopment of public housing. There was quite widespread concern among public tenants to the articles and Minister Sartor and the NSW Government have been quick to deny that any plans exist for the re-development of the areas public housing. At a meeting in July 2005 with public tenants Minister Sartor said that if any redevelopment of public housing happened it would be a long way off and he said it may never happen.

Interestingly, the Redfern PCYC, the location of the Minister’s assurances has recently been included in a Department of Housing proposal for the redevelopment of public housing in Elizabeth Street. So while such developments may "never come" from within the RWA this does not mean that public housing redevelopment will not persist in the area as part of the Department of Housing’s plans with all the potential problems experienced in other proposed public housing developments such as those at Minto.