The following statements were received in response to Charles Turnbull’s request that each lord mayoral candidate provide up to 300 words in response to the question: As Lord Mayor what do you identify as the major issues of concern to our readers and how would a Council you lead address them?
Linda Scott (Labor)
As the first Labor candidate to be selected in a community preselection, I’ve been knocking on doors and talking with residents for many months to hear from the community what they want Sydney to be.
Time and again, whether chatting at my local park or outside the supermarket at Waterloo, residents are telling me and my Sydney Labor team that they feel left out, and that the City has lost its sense of community. My vision for the future is a City for everyone.
Living in Erskineville, I know how important South Sydney is. I will advocate for a return to wards to ensure we have true local representation for South Sydney. And I’ll fight for the creation of important local services like council-run childcare and community transport between suburbs.
I live and raise my two small children in the City, and strongly believe it must be a safe place for all of us. We need to put an end to alcohol-related violence in our City’s nightlife. Sydney Labor will work to ensure the City is a place for fun, promoting live music and community festivals, but not at the expense of our personal safety.
In stark contrast to the Liberal State Government, I’m committed to ensuring the community has a say on local developments. Sydney Labor will push for community developer accords to ensure the community has a seat at the table at the start of the planning process – not at the end when the deal has been done.
Sydney Labor will also implement a tree-planting program across the City to make our streets greener and attract wildlife back to our suburbs.
I’m proud of Labor’s history of strong representation for South Sydney, and I’ll fight to ensure we return to a policy of local jobs for local people.
Angela Vithoulkas (Living Sydney)
I share the very serious concerns of the people of the LGA of Sydney. The most pressing issue is the 24-hour liquor licences and the alcohol-fuelled violence that affects our local residents.
As Lord Mayor, the Council I lead will not approve any 24-hour liquor-licensed venues and we will ensure that ALL applications for licensed venues MUST go before the full Council and not be dealt with under delegated authority.
We will also ensure that conditions of consent are in line with community objectives, will be closely monitored by dramatically increasing the number of compliance officers and heavy fines issued to those in breach. The conditions of consent will be required to be displayed prominently at each venue entry.
Living Sydney believes that the current Council philosophy of approving residential developments without parking or having minimal parking is contrary to the needs of the existing residents. Residential developments MUST have adequate parking and as Lord Mayor, the Council I lead will not approve any DAs without sufficient parking.
I do not support high-rise development in areas where it is clearly unsuitable and contrary to the amenity and heritage of the existing residential community, particularly in regards to loss of light, lack of regard for existing infrastructure and traffic flow.
Irene Doutney (Greens)
There are different issues for different areas but I believe the overall concerns for residents of the City of Sydney LGA are inappropriate and over-development, associated traffic and transport issues, a lack of meaningful input into the decision-making of Council particularly around new development, and the lack of affordable and sustainable housing.
If elected as Lord Mayor the first initiative I would introduce would be a system of precinct committees based on the successful examples of LGAs like North Sydney, where residents would be given access to all development applications and policy documents that relate to their precinct. Such committees would be supported by Council but would be independent and have a stronger input into Council decision-making.
These precinct committees would be made up of residents/tenants, local business and community service providers and would look at how we can protect the unique nature of individual precincts and how we can make all development sustainable, well designed and environmentally friendly.
All large-scale development would need to provide holistic Social Impact Assessments which would include traffic and transport impact studies.
My Green Sydney would prioritise the creation of sustainable streets and innovative, green development with an emphasis on green roofs and walls, and increased urban forest corridors with high biodiversity values.
The Greens would also prioritise the development of affordable and alternative types of housing that would support low-income residents and ensure that Sydney is a city for everyone not just the wealthy. We would encourage the development of co-operatives and community land trusts and investigate other forms of alternative housing. We would also work to protect and improve conditions for public housing tenants and boarding house residents.
Our priorities would be grassroots democracy, social and economic justice and environmental sustainability.
Denis Doherty (Housing Action)
As many as 20 per cent of our residents are living in housing stress and often have to choose between rent and food. Housing stress contributes to family and social breakdown, poverty, poor health, unemployment and other problems.
Our new Sydney City Council would use its resources to address this housing crisis, believing that a home is a human right, not a source of profit.
A major first step would be to invest heavily in public housing and public infrastructure, increasing the proportion of public housing in Sydney to 20 per cent, and to end all privatisation of public land.
Our Council would work for sustainable, socially balanced development to meet our city’s housing requirements and to stop private profit from winning out over community needs and wishes.
Our Council would resist the heavy pressure coming from a heartless State Government – that does not even have a housing minister – to cut public housing even further and socially cleanse the poor out of the Sydney area.
We would also need to be a fighting council to resist the pressure from the big end of town and protect our community from over-development. We would re-introduce wards and hold regular ward meetings to ensure there is transparent and participatory democracy. We would support a referendum on any Council issue as long as 10 per cent of residents call for it.
Housing Action is made up of people from local resident action groups and has a mix of gender and indigenous – a snapshot of the diversity of the City of Sydney. Our new Council will fight for the interests of everyone in our City, not just the rich.
Clover Moore (Independent)
When the Independent team was elected in 2004 we developed Sustainable Sydney 2030, a long-term vision for the city. Now we’re carrying out the work.
We’ve upgraded about 90 children’s playgrounds and open spaces throughout the city and built award-winning facilities like Surry Hills Library, Waterloo Youth Facility, Paddington Reservoir Gardens, the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre and the soon-to-be-finished Prince Alfred Park Pool.
We’ve planted 7,000 trees – part of our plan to increase the canopy by 50 per cent. We’re retrofitting our buildings, reducing waste, improving energy and water performance across the city and installing LED street lights.
We care for our diverse communities, free rates to pensioners, expanding aged and community services, providing 32 per cent more childcare places and more for homeless people than any other council in Australia.
On Oxford and William streets, we’re providing affordable space for creative and start up businesses. We’re investing in the city’s major creative and cultural festivals.
We’ve championed small bars and have seen a renaissance in live music and cool places for people to meet friends.
We have done this with debt-free budgets and investments to finance future projects over the next decade.
Our plan is to take the city off the coal-fired grid, with low-carbon precincts powered by trigeneration.
Green Square is Australia’s biggest urban renewal project. We’re investing in community facilities so it works for the people who live and work in the area.
Traffic congestion costs our city $4 billion a year. Unchecked it will double by the end of the decade. We’re investing in transport options including a bike network and car share. We’re campaigning for a light rail network – with $180 million for the George Street light rail project.
My team are residents and business people who are active champions for their communities and passionate and experienced in governance, planning, business and creative culture – a team that gets things done.
Edward Mandla (Liberals)
Edward has been an information technology professional for nearly three decades, holding leadership roles in a range of Australian and multinational organisations, including the Australian Computer Society, Alt-U Asia Pacific Executive Search, Computer Associates, Resumix (now Yahoo) and AST Computers (now Samsung).
He has spent more than 10 years making voluntary contributions to the broader community, with a special emphasis on improving computer literacy for school children, broadband internet access to households and work-life balance within the information technology sector.
Edward was the Liberal candidate for Sydney in the 2007 NSW state government election and narrowly missed being elected to City of Sydney Council in 2008. He has extensive knowledge and experience of community and business issues in Sydney.
Edward is passionately committed to getting City of Sydney Council back on track as a lean, efficient government which supports all businesses, large and small.
Edward is a father of four and is married to Georgina.
