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REDWatch Supports Rally to keep The Block in Aboriginal Hands

“REDWatch supports the planned rally to keep the future of The Block in Aboriginal hands and to protest against intervention by the NSW Government to limit the development of Aboriginal Housing on the Block,” Geoffrey Turnbull REDWatch spokesperson said today.

“We have been advised that the NSW Cabinet has signed off on a final Redfern Waterloo Built Environment Plan which will determine what can be built on The Block,” Mr Turnbull said.

“The Plan has been passed to the Department of Planning to draft up the SEPP (Planning Law) for the area and it was supposed to be released by mid July but we understand it has been delayed”.

“In the draft Plan the RWA proposed halving the quantity of housing that would be allowed to be built on the Block and introduced a planning incentive for commercial development of the area,” Mr Turnbull explained.

“The controls however for both commercial and residential development proposed for the Block were below what the RWA proposed for Government owned land in the area.

We expect the government to push ahead with this attack on the block when the Plan comes out in the next couple of weeks. If they relent then the protest can be the biggest celebration in the area for many years,” Mr Turnbull said.