Let’s get Sirius

BY JORDAN FERMANIS

30 years after the first green bans were introduced into the Rocks, history repeated itself. On Saturday 17 September hundreds once again marched, this time to save the Sirius building at Millers Point.

Jack Mundey now 87 years old, was part of the first union-imposed green ban. He believes the area is just as important now as it was then, telling  the rally:

“The memory comes flooding back of course to the time when the Rocks was under threat and would have been destroyed and the thinking segment of the population came together to support us even though the conservative government of Ascham was out to destroy us.”

“Let us resolve to keep the fight going,” Mr Mundey said.

On 31 July NSW Environment and Heritage Minister Mark Spearman announced that he would not be placing a heritage listing on the Sirius building as it would devalue the sale price of the building by up to $70 million.

“I am not listing it because whatever its heritage value, even at its highest that value is greatly outweighed by what would be a huge loss of extra funds from the sale of the site, funds the government intends to use to build social housing for families in great need,” Mr Speakman said.

The Sirius building has been hailed by some as one of the few remaining pieces of ‘Brutalist’ architecture that adorn Sydney. However the building takes on more than architectural value and is part of the public housing ‘sell off’ that has occurred throughout NSW displacing communities.

Meredith Burgmann, former President for the NSW Legislative Council and member of Save Our Sirius action group addressed the rally where she spoke of how former governments committed to protect public housing and work with the community.

“It was a very important win that we got out of that [the Rocks] struggle. And the win was that those people who had been thrown out of their housing by what the Ascham government was doing would be rehoused in a purpose-built public housing building in the Rocks and that would be the Sirius building.

This was a deal done, signed in blood, between the Union, the community and the newly elected Labor government,” Ms Burgmann said.

Sydney’s newly re-elected Lord Mayor Clover Moore addressed the march in front of the Sirius building where she said that the sale of Sirius would put Sydney’s ‘social mix’ at risk of being destroyed by private interests.

“Sirius was purpose-built to provide homes for the displaced people, following the green bans in the Rocks. This housing is needed just as much now or even more because the majority of social housing residents in Millers Point have already been dispersed,” Ms Moore said.

Ms Moore’s ally in the NSW Legislative Council Alex Greenwich was also in attendance, Mr Greenwich used his speech to tell protestors that they were there to send a strong message of dissatisfaction to the NSW government.

“Just as last weekend we sent the Baird government a very strong message at the council election, we’re sending another strong message today at this rally.”

“It will be tragedy if this building gets demolished. It won’t just be the demolition of a building it will be the demolition of a heritage statement about the fact that anyone should be allowed to live in our city,” Mr Greenwich said.

In a seemingly never-ending procession of politicians, all pledging support behind saving the Sirius building, member for Balmain Jamie Parker addressed the crowd with similar sentiments to the Lord Mayor, observing that the loss of Sirius means another loss of working class communities in inner Sydney.

“There’s a shocking lack of commitment to invest in public housing in this community.”

“This is a policy of social cleansing. Where our cities are not diverse, our cities are not affordable and where our city will simply become an enclave for the rich.”

“We’re fighting for heritage, we’re fighting for vulnerable communities but we are also fighting for a city we can be proud of, “ Mr Parker said.

A representative from the CFMEU announced on the day of the rally that a green ban had officially been placed on the Sirius building as of the 17 September.

A representative from the Minister for Finance, Services and Property Dominic Perrottet has told City Hub that plans to sell the building are in their very early stages. The representative said that Stage 1 of a proposal was expected early to mid 2017  by Planning NSW before the sale of Sirius is announced.