In different corners

'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.

Photo: Dallas Kilponen - Just trying to keep them fit … MIck Mundine running a circuit class in his Redfern gym, which has had its government funding cut.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/in-different-corners/2007/09/06/1188783415586.html