Green De’s big plan to make Sydney great again

BY JORDAN FERMANIS

The Greens will be hoping to repeat history in the City of Sydney Council elections on September 10 by electing two candidates to council, a feat which hasn’t been achieved since the 2008 election.

If they achieve this, first to be elected is Lindsay Johnson and the second Greens councillor would be De Brierley Newton.

The Greens have characterised themselves as friends of the community for the upcoming election. A few weeks ago, City Hub profiled Lindsay Johnson where he outlined homelessness and affordable housing as the big issues he is taking into the election.

This week, De Brierley Newton added to that list and speculated on the Greens chances of getting two into council.

“We’ve had two before. Certainly given the attitude I’ve found door knocking there’s a good chance of having two Greens councillors. It’s going to be tough because of the business vote.”

In the prelude to the election the controversial new laws surrounding the business vote has the potential to influence the result of the election. With 22,000 businesses registering to vote, they will each have twice the voting power of residential voters.

Ms Brierley Newtown says that the laws amount to an undemocratic process.

“I don’t think that any person who resides or does business in the City of Sydney, should have an unequal vote.”

“It is manipulation by the Liberal government again,” Ms Brierley Newtown said.

The election campaigning also sees a pitched battle on sustainability. Liberal candidate Christine Forster has just released her ‘Successful, Sustainable Sydney’ policies which includes a bicycle hire scheme, a solar panel and rainwater tank incentive scheme and a commitment to open space at Wentworth Park.

However Ms Newton says that the Greens have a strong history of environmentally sustainable policies and presented a new vision for the future.

“If the Greens weren’t there you would not have had many of the sustainability inclusions that you now enjoy in the City. It was actually the Greens that pushed cycle paths, it was the Greens with the refurbishment of the Town Hall pushed for environmental inclusions.”

“We are advocating for a 100 per cent sustainable city. We should be a leader as far as making this city a renewable city,” Ms Brierley Newtown said.

In July, the Central Sydney Planning Strategy released the largest development plans the city has seen for three decades. Increasing building height limits in the city by 75m and unlocking 2.9 million square metres of floorspace in the CBD.

Ms Newton said that these development plans show that the Clover Moore Independent Team is not serious about sustainability.

“Going up is not the answer to a city. If you go up you’re not actually connected with what is happening on the ground.”

“I find it interesting that we’ve gone from a city of villages to a city of skyscrapers,” Ms Brierley Newton said.

In a pitch to voters, Ms Brierley Newton said that if elected to council, the Greens would push for an audit on all council property to fight homelessness and would work towards allocating council grants for live music.

“We want an audit to be done for all council property with a view to what would work for affordable housing and two, really importantly, how we can use that property as a resource for homeless women.”

“We also want to build on council depots to build homeless accommodation.”

“We want to have City grants for live music. When we talk about small bars, we want small bars, not bigger bars, not 120 people. We also want to make sure those small bars are exempt from lockout laws,” Ms Brierley Newton said.

Ms Brierley Newton said she thought it was high time Sydney started operating as a global city, but warns this should not be at the risk of losing the city’s social cohesion.

“We will end up with a monoculture. All we care about now and this is the Liberal government is ‘he who has the most money can stay in the city,” Ms Brierley Newtown said.