Local issues dominate the contest for Coogee
Overdevelopment, environmental protection and public amenities were the main issues raised in the key seat of Coogee at a candidate forum last week.
About 50 local voters joined current MP Paul Pearce and other candidates at the Bronte Precinct on Wednesday in preparation for the NSW state election on March 26.
Private development in Bronte and Coogee raised community protest against the Labor Government’s introduction of Part 3A in 2005 to deal with major projects.
Mr Pearce said the other candidates didn’t understand the amendment but agreed with them that “it needs to be replaced”.
“It is abused by developers…and public confidence in it is zero,” he said.
Conflict between the State Government and local councils over heritage listings and the rejuvenation of Tamarama Gully had some audience members shouting “shame.”
Liberal candidate Bruce Notley-Smith said the Land and Environment Court should instead be called “the land and development court”.
But the most energetic debate was over that day’s announcement of $31.5 million funding for the Prince of Wales Hospital.
Mr Notley-Smith said the Labor Government’s management of the hospital’s Comprehensive Cancer and Blood Disorder Centre planned for construction in 2012 was poor.
“They’ve just found money for the centre at the last minute because it lies in a marginal seat,” he said.
But Mr Pearce said he had been lobbying the Government for the money along with the Member for Maroubra, Michael Daley, for some time.
Public housing and amenities were also raised, with Christian Democratic Party candidate Andrew McGowan saying residents were “devastated”.
“I don’t think the way we do welfare is right…we have a broken housing problem,” he said.
Mr Pearce agreed the sector was “in a rort” due to private contracts but said problems with housing didn’t originate at the state level.
He has held the seat for Labor since 2003 with a 7.2 per cent margin, but Green’s candidate Sue Doran says this won’t be enough to see him re-elected.
Ms Doran – who was represented by Lynne Jocelyn at the forum due to medical reasons – later told The Bondi View that “local voters are fond of Paul as a person but wish he could have more influence on Labor party decisions”.
“They like the way Paul thinks,” she says, “but it seems that Labor doesn’t.”
The seat may end up crucial to the State election, with political analysts such as the ABC’s Antony Green forecasting a likely Liberal gain “with Labor a chance to suffer the indignity of being relegated to third place by the Greens”.
– BY EMILIA TERZON
