14 December 2004

RWA CEO and Board

The Daily Telegraph reported today that Robert Domm is to be appointed as CEO of the new RWA and that he will join Lucy Turnbull and David Richmond on the Board of the Authority. As this article did not show up in Google and would have been missed by many people we have provided article below:

Ex-council chief wins plum post       Daily Telegraph 14 Dec 2004 Page 7

A FORMER Sydney City Council general manager, who left Town Hall just two months ago in controversial circumstances, will today be appointed head of a new State Government authority to control troubled Redfern.

State Government minister Frank Sartor will today reveal that Robert Domm has been appointed the chief executive of the Redfern-Waterloo Authority.

Mr Domm will be on a nine-person board, which includes former Sydney lord mayor Lucy Turnbull and former Olympic Authority chief executive David Richmond.

Mr Sartor said Mr Domm brought local government management skills to the board but also had a strong social conscience.

Mr Domm left Sydney Town Hall on October 1, after he sent an e-mail to senior staff which was scathing in its assessment of deputy lord mayor John McInerney.

Mr Domm later accused Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore of struggling to do two jobs at the one time and having a large "royal court" of personal staff.

Now Mr Domm has been appointed to a government agency which will substantially remove council planning powers in the Redfern and Waterloo areas. He’ll sit on the authority's board with Ms Moore.

The RWPP site has also posted the revised version of the Map of the Authority which includes the boundaries as given in the legislation for the operational area The Link is REDFERN - WATERLOO AUTHORITY MAP . The next step in the implementation of the RWA would be expected to be the making of the regulations necessary under the act.

Human Services Review

The RWPP has today posted the Human Services Review Fact Sheet on their website so there is now a easy to read overview of the Human Services Review. Please try and spread this information around prior to the information sessions starting Wednesday 15^th December so that people have a bit of an idea what the Review was is about wand why they should come along. In its absence the fact sheet the only information available to the community has been the initial press release or to read the entire report.

The links to the Human services Information is as follows:

• Human Services Review Fact Sheet (pdf ~563kb)
• Invitation to Community Meetings (pdf ~76kb)
• Government Human Services Review To Reshape Redfern Waterloo Social Services (Media Release)
• Human Services Report for Redfern-Waterloo (pdf ~1.2mb)

The RWPP site also contains details of the Community Justice Centres’ Conflict Resolution Service being offered on Tuesdays from 9.00 to 12pm at Poet’s Corner until March 2005. A mediation service conducted by and for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders begins in January 2005. The link to the pdf is http://www.redfernwaterloo.nsw.gov.au/oldsite/pdf/resolve_a_conflict.pdf  

Redfern Court House Proposed Closure

Last week the Sydney Morning Herald broke the story that the Redfern Court House is planned to close in 2005. If the court house is to close it would presumably be surplus government property in the area and the property would be come under the RWA. The possibility of the closure of the court house has raised some concern around the community and the Redfern Legal Centre has produced the attached comments about the need for the Court House to continue to operate. If you share these concerns please contact Elizabeth Morley.