Ambivalent regional planning decision leaves crucial eco-link land in limbo

The fate of the last significant ecological link between Newcastle’s Blue Gum Hills Regional Park and the Hunter Wetlands lies in the balance, after a recent ambivalent state government planning panel decision that is likely to stimulate further attempts to rezone the site for housing development.

On 9 November, the Hunter & Central Coast Joint Regional Planning Panel (JRPP) rejected a request to proceed with a controversial rezoning proposal for the 26 hectare site between Wallsend and Minmi known as 505 Minmi Rd, Fletcher.

Newcastle Council had previously rejected the rezoning proposal in December 2015 and in July 2016.

The recent JRPP decision was made under relatively new changes to the NSW planning system that allows developers to request JRPPs to review local council zoning decisions.

Despite its commitments to strengthen local government control over land zoning, the NSW Coalition government introduced these changes in August last year in response to pressure from the development lobby.

The announcement of the changes referred to a “strengthened strategic merit test” that would apply to proposals lodged under the new system.

According to the NSW Department of Planning, JRPPs would be required to assess whether the rezoning proposals were consistent with regional strategic plans and local planning strategies, or were “responding to changes in circumstances…not recognised by existing planning controls”.

The then NSW Planning Minister, Rob Stokes, said that the new system would “end the absurd situation of proposals rising like zombies again and again in an endless cycle of amendments and resubmissions during the review process”.

In the case of 505 Minmi Rd, the effect is likely to be the opposite, with the proponent indicating to local media that the panel’s rejection was “just another step in a very long process, but we’ll certainly continue to pursue it,” and that “we just need to finesse or amend the current proposal so it’s acceptable.”

Part – though certainly not all – of the problem lies in the system itself, and the way the panel has applied the strategic merit test.

According to the minutes of the panel meeting (which can be found on the JRPP website), the panel did not support proceeding with the rezoning review proposal because the current proposal lacked sufficient “site-specific” merit, another assessment filter in the new system.

However – and more worryingly - the minutes also record that the panel agreed that the proposal met the “strategic merit” test.

The minutes provide very little insight into why panel members thought this. Presumably, they accepted the case argued by the developer and the NSW Department of Planning that the proposal complies with various regional and local planning strategies.

But herein lies a key part of the problem. These strategic planning documents (such as the Hunter Regional Plan 2034) make very broad statements about broad objectives, such as the need for housing and infrastructure, and the need to protect natural areas and biodiversity.

They indicate areas of land already committed for either development or conservation, but unprotected bushland areas beyond the current reach of the Hunter’s urban expansion, are vulnerable to development.

Developers and land speculators can find plenty in these broad strategic documents to justify pretty much any rezoning in unprotected bushland near the urban fringe that might suit their financial objectives.

Environmentalists can also point to the need identified in these strategic plans for conservation lands, and for corridors and “green grids” linking various significant vegetated areas.

The fact is that these broad strategic planning documents provide support for entirely contradictory alternatives for the future of any bushland sites in urban fringe areas such those in or near Blue Gum Hills and Fletcher.

In the case of 505 Minmi Rd, the proponent naturally focussed on those elements in the strategic planning documents that support housing development. 

But these documents, including the most recent Hunter Regional Plan, also provide plenty of strategic grounds for conserving the 26 hectare site for conservation purposes.

Given that almost all the land between the Blue Gum Hills Regional Park and the Hexham Wetlands has been developed for housing, and that 505 Minmi Rd provides the sole remaining significant vegetated link between these two natural areas, it’s hard to see how any reasonable consideration of the relative strategic merits of using the site for housing development or conservation would not come down very much in favour of conservation.

However, there is little evidence of this kind of thinking in the recorded deliberations of the JRPP meeting, at which the panellists apparently agreed unanimously that the proposal to rezone this crucial environmental site for housing had “wide strategic merit”.

It’s highly likely that we’ll hear more about 505 Minmi Rd over the next year or so. Let’s hope that panel members, who are ostensibly there to apply planning principles to protect the public interest, manage to see beyond facile arguments put by vested interests.

Labor wins Newcastle Council election

The recent Newcastle Council election has given the city its first Labor controlled council since the early 1990s.

After their bitter experience of Jeff McCloy’s brief and dramatic stint as Newcastle Lord Mayor from September 2012 until his ICAC-induced resignation in August 2014, Newcastle voters returned to what they knew in the subsequent 2014 Lord Mayoral and 2015 Ward 3 by-elections.

In September’s election, Labor’s Nuatali Nelmes was reelected Lord Mayor, and Labor won one seat in Wards 1 and 2, and two seats in Wards 3 and 4, increasing their council representation from five to seven.

Sitting Labor councillors Declan Clausen (Ward 3) and Jason Dunne (Ward 4) have been joined by newcomers Emma White (Ward 1), Carol Duncan (Ward 2), Peta Baartz (Ward 3) and Matthew Byrne (Ward 4).

Depending on who you’re listening to, Labor’s electoral success was either a ringing endorsement of Labor’s management of council over the past three years, or a consolidation of voter retreat to the devil they know, the least worst alternative after the debacle of the McCloy experiment.

The expected close challenge from the key conservative Independent group led by Lord Mayoral and Ward 2 candidate Kath Elliott didn’t materialise, with Elliott achieving less than half of Labor’s 42.6% in the Lord Mayoral contest.

The Elliott election campaign was clearly not as well bank-rolled as Jeff McCloy’s 2012 campaign, and almost certainly suffered from its association in voters’ minds with the discredited McCloyal bloc, despite the involvement of local “celebrity” candidates such as former NBN news-reader and Liberal candidate John Church, who won a seat in Ward 1, and former jockey Allan Robinson, who retained his Ward 4 seat.

They are joined by Elliott, who won a councillor seat in Ward 2, and Andrea Rufo, who held his Ward 3 position, making them the second largest political bloc on the new council.

The big losers were the Liberals, whose council representation dropped from four (one in each ward) to a solitary Ward 2 position, held by Liberal council stalwart Brad Luke.

The Liberal Party’s council campaign imploded very publicly, due partly to procedural and internal factional issues which resulted in the party disendorsing its Lord Mayoral candidate and its entire Ward 3 and Ward 4 teams, and partly from growing voter dissatisfaction with State and Federal Coalition governments. They, too, almost certainly suffered from their close association with the McCloyal bloc.

The Greens council representation fell from two to one, though their vote was relatively stable - slightly up from their 2012 result in the Lord Mayoral contest and in Wards 2 and 3, and slightly down in Wards 1 and 4.

Locally, The Greens have struggled to match the electoral successes they enjoyed in the 1990s and early 2000s, when they achieved 3 and 4 council seats, and drove a policy agenda that placed Newcastle Council at the forefront of local government innovation and achievement. In the 2008, 2012 and 2017 council elections they won 1, 2 and 1 seats respectively, and their influence on council policy setting and organisational culture has declined commensurately.

The sole Greens representative on the new council will be John Mackenzie, who took over the safe Ward 1 seat from retiring three-term councillor Michael Osborne.

Dr Mackenzie is an experienced and skilled environmental campaigner and policy advisor, but has little experience with either local government or the grassroots Newcastle community. How he manages the complex internal and external political and strategic challenges associated with his position as the new local public face of The Greens will play a key role in the future of The Greens in Newcastle.

One sad consequence (at least from my perspective) was the loss of Greens Councillor Therese Doyle, who, after internal factional ructions in the local Greens group, ended up taking on the difficult challenge of holding her Ward 2 councillor seat.

Despite a tremendous campaign effort by her and her community support group that improved The Greens’ Lord Mayoral and Ward 2 vote from the 2012 election, the numbers didn’t fall her way.

In her five years on Newcastle Council, Doyle was a diligent and principled community representative who worked closely with grassroots community groups across the city to give voice to their aspirations and concerns.

Unfortunately, this kind of work isn’t always visible to the great mass of voters, particularly in large council areas such as Newcastle, and elections can be cruelly unjust in failing to appreciate such a contribution.

Tourism and Community, or Tourism v Community?

As I've travelled around much of Europe over the past year, I've had occasion to ponder the nature of tourism, and what makes a great tourist destination.

The places that stand out as tourist destinations usually base their appeal on some combination of beauty, history, and culture, and have managed to make something special from whatever their circumstances have bequeathed.

Often - though certainly not always - this involves developing a signature event, that reflects, affirms, complements and reinforces the place's strengths.

In Newcastle, Surfest is an excellent example of such a signature event: it was developed and run by the local grassroots surfing community, and builds on the city's rich surfing history and beach culture. It helps to keep the city on the national and international surfing map, attracting competitors and media coverage from across the world, and showcases the city's beaches, our most striking natural asset.

Surfest represents a lot of what Newcastle is about, and it's proudly and quintessentially Newcastle.

The city's most recent signature event contender - the Supercars race scheduled for the East End in November - is quite a different beast.

The Supercars event was imposed on the city by the same state government that cut the city rail line, which now won't be available to deliver the crowds to the event.

The only relationship the event has with any local pre-existing Newcastle phenomenon is that it's in the same general area that was notorious for decades as a hang-out and informal speedway for out-of-town rev heads, until the council and the state government stepped in to stop it.

The Supercars event scrawls its signature across the East End landscape like a deep scratch .

I've written before about the enormous opportunities Newcastle has to provide what the tourism industry calls a "high quality tourism product".

Most Novocastrians would remember that Newcastle made the Lonely Planet's list of the world's 10 Best Cities to visit in 2011.

The Lonely Planet spiel muses on our beaches, our climate, our heritage buildings, our laid-back lifestyle, our arts scene and our history - strangely, not a mention of anything to do with fast cars.

In terms of developing our "product", the beaches pretty much do their bit just by being there. They'll do okay as long as we don't stuff them up with some of the silly pushes for privatising public space that we've seen over the years.

The climate also runs its own show, notwithstanding our fixation with exporting climate change to the rest of the world via our massive coal exports. But that's another story...

For the rest - the heritage buildings, the lifestyle, the arts and the history - they need help. Not a lot of help, mind. Just enough vision and political will to understand their tourism potential, and to foster the kind of environment that will allow this potential to thrive.

A lot of the spadework has been done. Community-based groups have pushed long and hard for the conservation of key heritage buildings and areas, and for formal recognition of the city's heritage assets.

They've often been dismissed, or even abused, as anti-development, and they certainly haven't always been heeded, but it's largely due to their efforts that Newcastle has what is generally recognised as the best collection of heritage buildings in Australia.

Cities elsewhere (such as Fremantle, in WA) with nothing like Newcastle's heritage assets, have managed to tap into the potential of their heritage much more successfully.

The key difference has been vision and political will.

Unlike Newcastle, Fremantle has had a succession of councils who understood both the conservation and tourism value of their city's heritage, and were prepared to commit the necessary strategic resources.

Newcastle is way behind in this regard, though there are some promising signs. The Council has a new "Destination Management Plan" that makes some promising - though very generalised - noises about the role of heritage in the city's tourism future.

The council election coming up in September is an excellent opportunity to ask aspiring candidates about their vision for heritage and tourism in Newcastle.

One of the obvious flaws in the new plan is its city-centric focus - it has little to say about heritage outside the Newcastle CBD, despite Wallsend's obvious assets.

In its own modest way, the Wallsend Winter Fair has become a signature local event for western Newcastle. Like Surfest, it arose from the grassroots community. It celebrates and respects the heritage, history and culture of its community, and showcases it to the local and regional community.

The Winter Fair represents a lot of what Wallsend, and Newcastle, are about, and its continued success is the perfect antidote to the Supercar Syndrome.

Long after the stain of burnt rubber from the Supercars has faded from Newcastle's streets, events like the Wallsend Winter Fair - events that are of the people, for the people and by the people - will still be there.

Long may they prosper.

Wherever you are, democracy needs awareness, vigilance and action

The different political cultures of different countries are always fascinating.

Australians tend regard politics as a taboo subject for casual or polite conversation, and many Aussies are surprised when travelling overseas, or when they meet overseas travellers, to find that this isn't the global norm, especially outside the English speaking world.

I've recently had the opportunity to experience three countries with very different political cultures and histories, and these experiences have convinced me that, for better or worse, 21st-century globalism will challenge the tendency in Australian political culture toward isolationism and apathy.

In Senegal, Africa's most enduring democracy, political awareness is relatively high, and political discussion very much the norm.

The family with whom I stayed in a village in the Casamance region of southern Senegal would regularly gather to watch the morning and evening television news and current affairs programs (both domestic and international) and engage in informed and energetic discussion with whoever happened to be around about what was covered.

The level of awareness about international issues, such as the conflict in Syria and significant political events in Europe and the USA, appeared to me to be much greater among these African villagers than among many Australians.

I had previously observed this high level of political interest and engagement when I visited Senegal in 2012 and observed the democratic election of its current president, Macky Sall, and his smooth transition to power from the country's former long time (but also democratically elected) president, Abdoulaye Wade.

For Senegal, this active political culture may be at least partly attributable to their French colonial tradition.

But there appears to be a similar level of engagement in Senegal's neighbour, the former British colony of The Gambia, Africa's smallest country. The Gambia's land borders are completely surrounded by the much larger Senegal, but it's post-colonial political culture and history has been quite different.

Gambian politics made news even in Australia late last year when its long time president, Yahya Jemmeh, who seized power in a military coup in 1994, was ousted in a surprise but decisive election victory by its current president, Adam Barrow.

The former president refused to concede, but reconsidered after intervention by the United Nations and a number of nearby countries (including Senegal).

When I visited this month, The Gambia was in the midst of subsequent parliamentary elections and many Gambians were donning T-shirts with political messages and slogans advocating democracy, and participating in vigourous political rallies, both of which would have been illegal, and ruthlessly suppressed, under the previous regime.

These political changes had imbued The Gambians with whom I spoke with a new spirit of hope and freedom, which swept the new regime to a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections, and reduced the former president's political party to a small parliamentary rump.

From what I know of the new leader and the state of his country, it's hard to be confident that he will be able to deliver on the hopes of his people, but his election may still be highly significant in the larger story of Africa's political evolution. Our Gambian taxi driver was convinced that democracy now had a firm and irreversible foothold in his country, and that the Gambian people would never again allow another dictator. Time will tell.

I'm now in France, in the run-up to the first round of its imminent presidential election. Few countries can claim such a decisive role in the history of modern democracy as France, and the Gallic fervour for political engagement is famous.

Just around the corner from where I am staying, a government building prominently displays the proud revolutionary cry of France's national motto: "liberte, egalite, fraternite", and even with my poor French I can discern the unmistakable signs of political engagement in overheard snippets of street and cafe conversations, and glimpses of posters and newspaper headlines.

France is a mature western democracy, and in the wake of Brexit, Trump, terrorism, and widespread conflict over national identity and the impact of refugees, the French presidential election will have international implications as a barometer of the global political zeitgeist.

Marine Le Pen, the far-right, anti-immigration leader of France's National Front Party, is tipped as almost certain to make the final round of the election - a run-off between the top two candidates from the first round - and may well become the next French president.

So much of politics is about momentum and morale, and the ripples of such a victory in a nation so symbolically significant as France, would certainly boost the political hopes and ambitions of right wing groups and parties around the world, including in Australia.

Unlike Australia, France doesn't have compulsory voting. Even so, more than 80% of eligible French voters turned up for the first round of the 2012 French presidential election, and if the size of the crowds for candidate rallies in the current election campaign are any indication, turnout will be similar this time around. This aspect of French political culture may well be the decisive factor in preventing a right wing victory.

Whatever the outcome, my experience here and in Africa has confirmed my conviction that, from Senegalese villagers, to Gambian taxi-drivers, to French cafe-goers, to antipodean Australians, the right and responsibility for building a better, more democratic world, belongs to all of us, and will require our awareness, vigilance and action.

Hamiton Carnivale celebrates Newcastle cultural diversity

Beyond the obvious appeal of the food, fun and fanfare of Beaumont Street’s annual Carnivale lies the more serious message of celebrating cultural diversity.

With the resurgence of right-wing jingoism around the world, it’s hard to think of another time when that message has been more necessary.

Statistically, Newcastle doesn’t rate highly on the cultural diversity scale.

2011 census figures indicate that less than eight percent of the Newcastle council area’s population come from a non-English speaking background, compared to more than 18 percent for the whole of NSW.

Fewer than 13 percent were born outside of Australia, compared to more than 25 percent for the state.

However, the figures also suggest that the city’s cultural diversity is increasing.

The 2011 ABS statistics indicate that, of those who were living in Newcastle but were born overseas, 25 percent came to Newcastle between 2006 and 2011.

Historically, outside Newcastle’s dominant white Anglo-Celtic population, immigrants of European origin have provided the basis for whatever modest claim to ethnic diversity our city has had.

The legacy of Italian and Greek families who came to Newcastle during the 1950s and 60s is still obvious in Hamilton.

More recently, our cultural diversity has been boosted by the arrival of Asian, Middle Eastern, and African people, particularly – though not solely - through the number and mix of overseas students studying at the University of Newcastle.

Suburbs around the University (such as Jesmond and Birmingham Gardens) have emerged as the city’s most culturally diverse communities.

All this and more can be gleaned from Newcastle Council’s Community Profile, available on the council’s website.

While Newcastle might not be able to mix it statistically with the multicultural heavyweights, it’s held its own in supporting cultural diversity.

In 1997, when Pauline Hanson picked Newcastle’s Civic Theatre as the venue to launch One Nation in NSW, local citizens who were outraged at her message of ethnic intolerance organised a counter-event to celebrate cultural diversity in nearby Civic Park.

The thousands who attended this celebration easily outnumbered those who turned up to support Hanson, and the Cultural Stomp became an annual event.

Two years later, when Hanson contested the federal seat of Newcastle, Novocastrians again sent her packing, despite massive publicity for her campaign in the local and national media.

In 2004, a neo-fascist group’s attempt to incite race-hatred in and around Islington (primarily directed against African refuges) backfired badly when local communities rallied to emphatically affirm Newcastle’s support for multiculturalism, resulting in the council formally declaring the city a Refugee Welcome Town.

More recently, in response to the rise of yet another incarnation of right-wing nationalism in the form of the so-called “Reclaim Australia movement”, local groups such as the Refugee Action Network (RAN) have organised well-attended “Unity in Diversity” days that have attracted a wide cross-section of the Newcastle community.

In 2015, Newcastle Council reaffirmed Newcastle as a Refugee Welcome Zone, and developed a Multicultural Plan that aimed to promote and celebrate Newcastle’s multicultural diversity, and to integrate this with the city’s economic development.

That plan is still being rolled out, but Hamilton’s Beaumont Street Carnivale – which preceded the council plan by many years - stands as an enduring local example of how to combine community, business and cultural diversity.

While sampling the simple delights of this year’s Carnivale, think for a moment on how its success is part of the larger story of our city’s achievement in rejecting racism and embracing diversity.

In a world where racism and nationalism are again on the rise, it may bring some comfort - perhaps even inspiration - to appreciate that we at least live in a city that has so firmly, consistently and creatively celebrated cultural diversity and asserted its vision for a multicultural community.