You are here: Home / Media / Political Profile - Ben Spies-Butcher, Greens’ Heffron community-minded candidate

Political Profile - Ben Spies-Butcher, Greens’ Heffron community-minded candidate

The Greens party has nominated the community-minded Ben Spies-Butcher to take on the ALP’s Kristina Keneally in the district of Heffron in next March’s State elections reports Ben Falkenmire in the December 2006 issue of the South Sydney Herald.

While it may be Ben Spies-Butcher’s frst nomination as a candidate for a State district, his experience and qualifications suggest his nomination for the seat of Heffron is an evolutionary and ethereal step.

Born in Redfern to a father who was a former Catholic priest, Spies-Butcher’s family engendered him with a strong sense of social and environmental justice in the community.

Ben soon joined the Greens party and then co-founded community advocacy group REDWatch in response to the State Government’s actions in the Redfern Waterloo area.

In the past year Ben has acted as Secretary for REDWatch, in addition to his lecturing role at Macquarie University, and his research roles for Sydney University and the Edmund Rice Centre. He has also completed a PhD in Economics.

The move into nomination for Heffron was a response to Spier Butcher’s growing consternation about the Labor’s party’s actions in Heffron and at a State level.

He lists the Port Botany, Metro Strategy and Redfern Waterloo developments in Heffron as three major areas for local concern.

The State Government approved a staged expansion of Port Botany last year. Spies-Butcher closely followed the development approval, including the Committee of Inquiry, and says the expansion will create an extra 2,000 trucks on suburban roads around the clock.

“I am still struggling to understand why it’s a good idea,” Spies-Butcher contemplates. “Newcastle and Wollongong are crying out for more freight yet the State Government wants to create more traffic for a community that already has far too many trucks driving through the middle of it.”

“The State Government has moved backwards on basics, such as building energy efficiencies and the opening of coal fired power stations. It’s unacceptable.”

On the State Government’s Metro Strategy Ben accepts urban consolidation as a short term solution but said he is not pleased with the scale of development and the lack of public infrastructure.

“There is currently a development before Council which will see 5,000 people, the size of a small country town, move into an area that borders Waterloo and Alexandria,” explains Ben. “This is without any meaningful investment in public transport facilities and sustainable development policies.”

Spies-Butcher believes excessive development can be partly attributed to developers being allowed to donate to political parties. “Developer donations must be out of politics. It’s not transferable, it’s not accountable, it’s not democratic,” argued Ben. “Current plans suggest to me the Government’s priority is about making money out of developments and squishing in as many people as they can.”

Public housing is a key issue for the Heffron district given the Government is seeking to scale back its offering of welfare housing to only those with ‘high needs’.

“As an economist I can say public housing is the most efficient way of establishing affordable housing, which will be essential to buffer the inevitable gentrification of the area,” explains Spies-Butcher.

Climate change is another key talking point.

“So much of what needs to happen to address climate change are State issues, not Federal,” asserts Ben. “The State Government has moved backwards on basics, such as building energy efficiencies and the opening of coal fred power stations. It’s unacceptable.”

The Heffron district has been a Labor stronghold since 1991 with the Greens recording one of their best performances in 2003, counting 12.7 % of the vote.

On his strategy for the entrenched ALP voters in the Heffron district Spies-Butcher said: “There’s more than enough to hold the Government to account on”.

Source: South Sydney Herald December 2006

[REDWatch note Originally this article incorrectly referred to Ben Spiers Butcher rather than Ben Spies-Butcher. The name has been corrected for ease of searching]