Statement on the Block and the Aboriginal Housing Company

Ms Keneally met with an employee of the AHC, Mr Peter Valilis, as well as local residents Trevor Davies and Geoff Turnbull, last Friday.  A journalist from the South Sydney Herald was also present.  Mr Valilis gave Ms Keneally an extensive briefing on the AHC’s proposals.

“I offered to be briefed on the AHC’s proposals last March, and unfortunately received no response,” Ms Keneally said.

“I am glad that when I re-issued the offer via Mr Davies last month that the AHC agreed to provide a briefing.”

“I look forward to the AHC lodging their development application,” Ms Keneally said.

On the same day, 8 September 2006, Ms Keneally published a letter in the Sydney Morning Herald correcting several errors of fact that appeared in an article by Elizabeth Farrelly two days earlier:

Errors of fact

Elizabeth Farrelly ("No favours for Aboriginal developer", September 6) makes a number of errors of fact.

She incorrectly states that I am the local member for the area known as the Block. The local member until next year is Clover Moore. My electorate covers Waterloo and will cover parts of Redfern, but not the Block, after next year.

She is incorrect in stating that I have never visited the Block. I have been there for several community events. In addition, I sought an on-site meeting with the Aboriginal Housing Company for a briefing on its proposal in March but it did not respond.

Ms Farrelly claims that I cancelled a meeting with the AHC. In fact, the meeting was postponed for a week with no objection from the AHC. We are meeting today.

She also implies that I had read or ought to have read the Redfern Waterloo Built Environment Plan before its release last Wednesday. This is a planning instrument and for probity reasons under legislation I could not - and did not - have access to it before its release.

Her other unkind characterisations of me are just silly.

Kristina Keneally, MP Rosebery