(See p.13)
City of Sydney councillors have traded barbs and accused opponents of political pointscoring in a hotly-debated motion over the use of Alexandria sports grounds.
An historical and hysterical new Australian musical.
(See p.26)
PUBLISHED DATE 13 JULY 2023
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A Liberal Councillor, Shauna Jarrett put forward a Notice of Motion before Council last night calling for modifications to noise, lighting, security and open hours for basketball courts and football pitches at Gietala Park, following complaints by local residents of anti-social behaviour and noise by youths.
In her speech before Council, she accused her fellow councillors of shirking their duty as local government councillors. Concerned Buckland Street residents, who live opposite the park, reached out to all of the City of Sydney’s councillors but only received a response from Cr Jarrett.
The motion received significant pushback from councillors present and a heavily-revised amended motion eventually passed unanimously.
Councillor Emelda Davis – Clover Moore team – criticised the motion as “too restrictive” and Councillor Adam Worling – also on the Clover Moore team – advocated for better signage for the park’s toilet block.
Labor Councillor Linda Scott, meanwhile, labelled Cr Jarrett’s response as a “knee-jerk reaction” and “short-sighted”, before stating that it would detract from the years of hard work it took for the Council to upgrade facilities in Alexandria Park.
Referring to the tragic death of TJ Hickey, a 17 year old Gamilaraay youth who was impaled on a fence and died in 2004, following, many claim, a police pursuit, Cr Scott suggested that a taller fence will create safety problems for the local community and students from Alexandria Park Community School who use the sporting fields.
“We don’t need more fences,” she said at the City of Sydney Council meeting last night, “we don’t need another TJ Hickey”.
Cr Scott read out personal correspondence from local residents which suggested they both welcome public use of the facilities and they support public access to the fields until 10 PM. One statement suggested the proposed 8 PM close time is “too early, especially in summer”.
However, Cr Jarrett told City Hub that Cr Scott is taking “cheap shots”. She accused Cr Scott of framing the issue in a disingenuous way in subsequent social media posts where she has claimed local residents want to “close down” the Alexandria Park community sports fields.
“They’re not asking for the park to be closed down – no way”, Cr Jarrett said. “In fact a lot of their concerns are about the safety of the kids in the school and the users of the playing fields.”
committed to ensuring the City is growing our local sporting infrastructure for the future”.
Cr Scott told City Hub that the Council has already been working with the local community on this issue as the new facilities undergo a teething period.
“We’ve already been working on light spill, trying to reduce the noise and providing access via the school to toilets and a range of other solutions to support the community’s use of this really important playing field”, she said.
Cr Jarrett suggested the council has “an attitude of our way and no other way”, which makes it difficult to table proposals as a Liberal councillor. But she signalled that she remains hopeful issues at Gietala Park will be resolved.
Residents have recorded cases of public urination, defecation, loud conversation, car revving, cannabis use and athletes changing clothes in public view.
Cr Scott expressed disappointment in the “divisive” tactics of Liberal councillors. She told City Hub this morning that “the Liberals are trying to play politics with sport in the City of Sydney and trying to escalate tensions in a way that is really unhelpful.”
“I’m for more spaces to play, not less”.
“Having fought for the City to undertake a sporting needs analysis, which revealed we need 20 more playing fields by 2031,” she said, “I’m
A City of Sydney Council spokesperson told City Hub, “seventy five percent of our residents live in apartments, and public space in the City is limited. This is why we place so much importance on enhancing our sportsfields, increasing our playable hours, and making our City sustainable, healthy and inclusive.”
“We are working with clubs to relocate some of the noisier men’s teams and encourage women’s and junior teams to play and train at the facility in the future,” the spokesperson continued.
“The City has also increased security and ranger patrols of the area to discourage use out of hours and mitigate any anti-social behaviour.”
I’m for more spaces to play, not lessLinda Scott led the opposition to the Notice of Motion. Photo: AAP
Two local councils on a rescue mission are tossing up collaborating to furnish Sydney’s inner west with a new-fangled Newtown Festival following the recent cancellation of the popular community arts festival. Similar Notices of Motion appeared before both the City of Sydney Council and Inner West Council at their last meetings, although the motion before Inner West Council was delayed due to time constraints. The motion will come under discussion at the next Inner West Council meeting.
Deputy Mayor Sylvie Ellsmore put forward a Notice of Motion at the last City of Sydney Council meeting on Monday 26 June, calling for support for a Sydney Street Festival in Newtown to replace the Newtown Festival, previously organised by the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, a local not-forprofit organisation.
Newtown Festival started in 1983 but, in recent years, the team behind the fundraising festival was stretched to its limits, and the event began to run at a financial loss. The hefty logistical mountain of managing bookings, security, fencing and insurance eventually became insurmountable.
Greens Councillor Liz Atkins, who raised a remarkably similar Notice of Motion in the agenda for the last Inner West Council meeting, told City Hub that “like most residents” she was “sad” to
Waverley Council's NAIDOC Week celebrations continue this week with a journey of discovery of bush foods and native endangered plants with IndigiGrow plant nursery CEO Peter Cooley at Waverley Library on Thursday 6 July at 6.30pm and NAIDOC Week at Centennial Parklands on Sunday 9 July from 3pm to 6pm, presented by Centennial Parklands and Randwick City and Waverley councils. Enjoy an afternoon of dance, storytelling, weaving and shell art workshops around the fire and a sunset tour of the wetlands with Centennial Park's educators. It is such an honour to be part of acknowledging and celebrating our First Nations’ long ties to Centennial Parklands. This year is especially important given the referendum on The Voice which will be conducted towards the end of this year. I am so pleased the Waverley Council has said YES to The Voice which, if successful, will play a significant role in reconciliation, and further embed the importance of our First Nations’ people in this area. For more, visit the events page on our website.
see Newtown Festival go, although she recognised “the huge amount of work it took to organise”.
“It leaves Newtown without a Newtown community festival of any kind,” Deputy Mayor Slyvie Ellsmore stated in the aforementioned City of Sydney Council meeting.
In the Notice of Motion before Council, Cr Ellsmore noted that the City of Sydney Council has a Sydney Streets program “where major streets, including high streets, are closed once or twice a year
Bondi Festival returns to Bondi Pavilion and various other locations with world-class theatre, comedy, cabaret, interactive experiences and family fun until Sunday 16 July 2023. Enjoy our famous ice-skating rink, Bondi Vista Ferris Wheel and other exciting events including Marang (Sand Dunes), our deadly celebration of First Nations culture on Saturday 1 July at Bondi Pavilion from 11am to 3pm. Enjoy a Welcome to Country, dance performances, music, First Nations market stalls, a food truck and workshops. Join us Saturday 8 July from 10am to 3pm for our inaugural Pavilion Paw Parade at the Pav. Enter your pooch in our fashion parade, enjoy a concert for dogs with Soloman Frank and watch Loretta and her Dancing Poodles perform. Our Rangers will also have a market stall providing the latest information about responsible pet ownership. For the full Festival line-up, visit bondifestival.com.au
Paying your rates by the due date is essential to avoid interest charges: 9% from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. Council offers a variety of payment plans to assist ratepayers to manage their payments, including our quarterly direct debit service. Why not go greener, same time and pay your bills instantly by registering to pay your rates online via e-Rates. If you are experiencing financial hardship and cannot pay your rates by the due date, please email us at info@waverley.nsw.gov.au with your proposed payment plan and contact details. We will contact you after we assess your request.
Details: waverley.nsw.gov.au/council/payments/rates.
Waverley Customer Service Centre: 55 Spring Street, Bondi Junction. Ph: 9083 8000
waverley.nsw.gov.au
to traffic, to celebrate neighbourhoods.”
The Sydney Streets program has a budget of close to $2 million.
King Street forms the border between the City of Sydney local government area (LGA) and the Inner West LGA with part of Newtown falling within the City of Sydney’s jurisdiction and the other portion falling within the Inner West Council’s jurisdiction. With some minor alterations from Councillor Adam Worling, the motion passed unanimously.
Cr Atkins is hopeful that both councils will make progress, despite the Inner West Council’s delay in addressing the issue.
“I think it will be great to see something more focused on the community and local businesses and performers, as Inner West’s current festivals are and the City of Sydney’s Sydney Streets program is.”
“I am hopeful that my motion has the support of other councillors and that staff from both councils will work together to bring us a successful event, along the lines of the recent Celebrate South King”, they continued. “Imagine that festival with both sides of King Street involved.”
Waverley Council has unveiled its new and improved Street Performance Policy and Guidelines to performers and the wider community. The new policy sees the number of performance zones in Waverley increase from three to 10, including 30 new one-year permits for local artists to perform in these zones between 9am and 9pm. The policy responds to the Council and Waverley community’s desire to showcase and support our creative sector in our vibrant network of spaces and places for arts and culture participation, production and experience. It provides increased opportunities for a variety of busking and buskers in more locations across Waverley including Bondi Junction, Bondi Road, and Bondi Beach. Permits are free, so to apply, visit the business section of our website.
Waverley Council is proud to announce that Carolyn Craig has won the 37th annual Waverley Art Prize, showing at Bondi Pavilion Gallery until Sunday 14 August and held in partnership with Waverley Woollahra Art School. The Mayor's Prize ($2000) was awarded to Damian Dillon and Onrie Radovic took home the Local Prize ($1500). To vote for People's Choice, visit wwas.org.au/waverley-art-prize2023/
Paula Masselos, Mayor of WaverleyStay in touch: waverley.nsw.gov.au/subscribe
Australia v Ireland
Thu 20 July
Special performance by DJ Kate Monroe at 6pm
Australia v Nigeria
Thu 27 July
Australia v Canada
Mon 31 July
Kick off at 8pm
Food trucks and entertainment from 4pm
More screenings to be confirmed as the Matildas qualify
Grand Final
Sun 20 August
FREE ticketed entry
No alcohol or glass
1300 722 542 randwick.nsw.gov.au
BY CHRISTINE CHEN
In an about-turn, Randwick City Council voted last week to cooperate with the state government and support a ferry terminal project in Sydney’s south-east it had previously opposed on environmental grounds.
During Randwick Council’s last meeting, Greens councillor Philipa Veitch called for an immediate halt to the construction of the Kamay Ferry Wharves in La Perouse and Kurnell.
“The costs clearly outweigh the benefits,” read Cr Veitch’s motion, citing contamination issues and threats to biodiversity.
and the community through construction phase and afterwards to ensure the best available amenities, parking, traffic, infrastructure and environmental outcomes,” said the amended motion, suggested by Labor councillor Alexandra Luxford.
Environmental activists expressed disappointment over the perceived failure of the motion. Lynda Newman, a long-time local resident and environmental activist, was in the audience when Cr Veitch’s motion failed. She said that “the intent was to completely replace Philipa’s motion. It should have been called a replacement motion, not an amendment.”
“I came away from Tuesday night feeling that residents and the environment had been totally disrespected,” she added.
“There will be no ferry—we know that now. It will be private operators,” she said before Council.
But the council resolved to cooperate with the Government, amending Cr Veitch’s urgent motion.
“We will work collaboratively with the Government, the Aboriginal Land Council
From its inception, however, the Kamay Ferry Wharves project – an initiative by the previous Liberal government – has been marred by uncertainty.
In August 2021, when the proposal was first put before the Council, a majority of councillors objected. This objection marked the first time a project classed
as ‘State Significant Infrastructure’ had ever faced such opposition by Randwick Council.
While a timetabled public ferry service was originally promised to the public, the phrasing of this purpose has now morphed into promising a “water connection” across Botany Bay and a “valuable recreational resource for the community.”
Questions have also been raised over the transparency of the tendering process after Transport for NSW awarded a contract to McConnel Dowell before public notification of approval or Federal approval.
Cr Veitch admitted to City Hub that her motion was “last ditch”, but that she felt compelled to try given the lack of information and communication from authorities.
“We’ve been pretty much left in the dark,” she said.
Mayor Dylan Parker told City Hub that “Council as of right now has a cooperative relationship with the State Government”. He acknowledged it was “unusual” for a government to sign contracts prior to planning consent and Federal approval, but admitted “it’s done…that’s an unfortunate reality.”
NSW is in a rental crisis the likes of which we have not seen in generations.
Rents are increasing four times faster than wages, evictions are on the rise, and too many renters are just one rent hike away from homelessness.
It’s why we’ve just introduced an Emergency Rent Freeze Bill that would freeze rents for two years - to press pause on skyrocketing rent increases, relieve renters from the stress of worrying about unfair rent hikes, and keep people in their homes.
froze commercial rents alongside a ban on evictions. And just last December, NSW Parliament was urgently recalled to pass laws to cap coal and gas prices and reduce electricity bills in the face of escalating cost of living pressures.
This is the responsibility of the government. To intervene in crises - just like the crisis renters are facing right now.
Ph:
E: newtown@parliament.nsw.gov.au
383
W: jennyleong.org
Without a rent freeze, rents will continue to rise unchecked and too many renters will be forced to choose between rent they can’t afford and eviction.
In unprecedented crises we have seen how governments can take urgent action.
During the pandemic, the Federal Government doubled JobSeeker and lifted more than a mil lion people out of poverty. In Victoria all rents were frozen for 6 months, alongside a ban on evictions, while NSW
Rents in NSW are sitting at unprecedented levels of unaffordability. More and more people are experiencing severe rental stress, and there is a dire shortage of rentals that are affordable for people on lower incomes.
The Greens know a rent freeze alone won’t solve the housing crisis. It’s the start - not the end - of desperately needed reform to put a stop on the massive profits big investors and developers are reaping from the housing crisis and make renting more affordable and secure.
But we also know that renters can’t handle this financial stress any longer - and they
need urgent relief while long-term solutions are worked out.
A freeze on rents isn’t only possible, it’s urgently necessary. All we need is the po litical will.
Will you join us in the campaign to freeze rents and demand NSW Parliament fix the rental crisis?
Sign the petition by scanning the QR code or head to:
jennyleong.org/fix_the_rent_crisis
Jenny Leong MP Greens Member for Newtown
It should have been called a replacement motion, not an amendmentConstruction site in La Perouse - the northern Kamay Ferry Wharf. Photo: Christine Chen
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On Thursday, trans rights activists interrupted a controversial gender-critical conference, hosted in Parliament House, as dozens more protested outside the building.
The gender-critical conference, called ‘Why Can’t Women Speak About Sex?’, claimed to address the “war on women who speak out for sex-based rights” and the “transgender orthodoxy”.
Hobart City Councillor Louise Elliot, currently under investigation by the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner for hate speech incitement, and Angie Jones, an organiser of a Let Women Speak event co-opted by neo-Nazis in Melbourne in March, were among the speakers inside Parliament.
As Liberal Democrat John Ruddick started giving his introductory remarks, trans rights activists stood up from the audience and inveighed against the event.
Security eventually escorted the activists outside, whereupon they joined a larger contingent of protestors.
Despite only having 48 hours to organise the rally, Dashie Prasad, a Pride in Protest member, said it was important to mobilise quickly as “transphobia should never go unchecked…and it should not be given protection inside Parliament.” Lining the pedestrian footpath in front of Parliament House, protestors held pink and blue placards saying, “trans rights are human rights”, “trans rights need
respect,” and “kick the TERFs out”. The refrain “when trans rights are under attack, we stand up, fight back” was chanted repeatedly as a rallying cry. While NSW MLC John Ruddick, co-host of the conference alongside Labor member Greg Donnelly defended the event as a matter of “free speech”, Greens MLC Amanda Cohn told City Hub, “freedom of speech isn’t freedom from consequences.”
“What they’re talking about is harmful,” she said, “none of it is factually correct, and there is a real irony in people claiming they have been silenced while
simultaneously having a private function in Parliament.”
Speakers at the rally called for more government action to safeguard trans rights. One activist emphasised that “while we cannot be complacent about these transphobic feminists, there is a bigger problem—trans people need surgery just to get respect, Premier Minns refuses to change that.”
“The biggest transphobia is not from TERFs but daily, trickling down from the government’s transphobic policies.” New South Wales is the only jurisdiction in Australia that requires trans people to have costly gender affirmation surgery before they can update their birth certificate and other identity documentation.
Evelyn, a 19-year-old trans woman, expressed her gratitude for the community’s support amid the derogatory remarks made by those inside the conference.
“It hurts knowing people behind these walls don’t want to see me exist, but that pain is ultimately dwarfed by the sense of community that comes from events like this—there is so much love and I know that will triumph in the end,” she told City Hub
freedom of speech isn’t freedom from consequencesTaylor (left) and Evelyn (right) attended and spoke at the rally together, sharing their experiences as part of the LGBT+ community. Photo: Christine Chen
Activists have stormed and occupied vacant public homes at 82 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe, with ladders and sleeping bags overnight, following a snap protest. The ongoing protest is a response to the planned demolition of the public housing building for redevelopment. The development application proposes the construction of an SJB-designed, fourstorey affordable residential building. But protestors want an end to evictions and the construction of more public homes without removing existing housing. Action for Public Housing organiser Rachel Evans said, “there are no shortage of dwellings across the country to house the homeless and alleviate rental stress. It’s just a matter of political will. The government’s plans don’t live up to what is needed.”
Public housing tenant and Wiradjuri person Carolyn Ienna, a 30-year resident at 82 Wentworth Park Road, received notification last week that they will soon be relocated. Ienna is one of the few remaining tenants.
Ienna expressed frustration and sorrow over the planned demolition.
“Residents of this building have been abused and bullied into leaving. We feel traumatised and are grieving over the deaths of several neighbours during the past year,” they said.
She questioned why homes have gone unoccupied during Sydney’s housing crisis. “The government left homes vacant for months before the redevelopment was announced. Now, with most of my neighbours gone, it feels like I don’t have a community anymore, and I am barely sleeping.”
Ienna believes the government is evicting public housing tenants to make way for the growing influx of wealthy residents. “We have loved living in this area but feel that we are being pushed out of our homes because other wealthier people want to live here.”
Ienna questioned the reasoning behind the demolition. “If they want more units, there is plenty of room here in the car park to put in another small building and equal the number of apartments that they [the developers] want. The majority of people who live here don’t drive and don’t have cars. We don’t really need a car park.”
In April this year, a local community group, The Glebe Society, released a statement in which they outlined advice they received from the original architect for 82 Wentworth Road Park, John Gregory.
While the current development application for the site claims that the existing building has reached the end of its useful life, Gregory suggested this was a false claim.
“This is clearly ridiculous given the context (a suburb full of 19th-century housing). The existing building is full brick with cavity party walls for better sound attenuation and concrete floors and stairs – it is a robust building that can easily last the 140 years, most of its neighbours have,” he said.
surrounding community housing.
O’Connell emphasised that affordable community housing, which nongovernment organisations manage, is substandard when compared with public housing, which the Department of Communities and Justice manages.
“Social mixing is social cleansing,” said O’Connell.
The Sydney University SRC passed a motion supporting the occupation last night, and SRC President Lia Perkins expressed solidarity in her speech to the crowd.
up by the cops. As we speak, police are going through the camp. That is because Blackwattle Bay has a development proposal for high-rise apartments overlooking the bay.”
One of those rough sleepers used to live in the public housing complex at 82 Wentworth Road, Ienna explained to City Hub
In Gregory’s estimation, a complete refurbishment of the property will cost $1.34 million. This is a fraction of the $22 million it will cost to install 26 new bedrooms. Demolition alone is slated to cost half a million dollars.
In Ienna’s eyes, the development application is irrational. “With the cost variation, it doesn’t make sense to pull down a perfectly good building.”
The protest has received widespread community support. At a 12.30 press conference today, a throng of 50 public housing defenders gathered and listened to speakers from the Antipoverty Centre, Hands Off Glebe, and Pride in Protest.
Carolyn Ienna, the University of Sydney SRC president Lia Perkins and City of Sydney Deputy Mayor Sylvie Ellsmore also spoke.
Kristin O’Connell from the Antipoverty Centre condemned “misinformation”
“Public housing is consistently under threat in gentrifying areas, such as around the University of Sydney, and we believe that all people should have access to inner city spaces,” Perkins told City Hub
According to Evans, police have dropped by and asked if the protestors “were damaging the apartments.”
“Of course we are not,” she said.
“We want people to live in the apartments and we would rather the Department of Housing come in, maintain them, refit them and then put people in. That’s one of our demands. So we’re keeping them all spick and span.”
Directly across the road, however, it’s a different story.
“In Wentworth Park there’s a homeless community that sleeps under the tram bridge,” Evans said.
“They’re being moved by the end of this month. Their belongings are being picked
“He lived here on and off for two years. He couldn’t keep his tenancy for a lot of reasons – poor mental health and no support services. It was right at the very end of his tenancy that someone turned up. By that time he had ended up in jail,” Ienna said.
“We don’t see the support services that are supposedly available for everyone.” In some cases, support has even threatened the quality of life at 82 Wentworth Park Road. When Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) representatives tested the soil in the back garden while surveying the property several months ago, they discovered evidence of lead.
Instead of negotiating with residents, LAHC ensured the garden’s death, ending community gardening efforts, according to a Honi Soit report from April this year. The protest comes as the waiting list for public housing surges. Social housing waitlist data released by the NSW Government last year indicated there were 57,550 applicants on the public housing waitlist in June 2022, compared to 49,928 one year prior.
Protestors have created a roster with the intention of staying as long as necessary.
Social mixing is social cleansingProtesters outside of the vacant public homes at 82 Wentworth Park Road. Photo: Wendy Bacon
Sisson said, “but what few people seem to understand is that when you are demolishing public housing – or any housing – you’re reducing housing supply. You might make up for that in the future. But we’re in a housing crisis right now.” While the government has pledged a right of return, it is unclear if one of the remaining families at Wentworth Park Road will be able to return due to the removal of three-bedroom units in the redevelopment plans.
Tenant Irma Cortez expressed concern about her dislocation from community. “I’ve been here 18 years. My kids and I need 3 bedrooms. We won’t be able to come back.”
Sisson indicated that reductions in the quantity of bedrooms must be scrutinised, citing plans for Waterloo South, which preference one-bedroom dwellings, as an example of poor governance.
BY ROBBIE MASONThe NSW government announced
on 17 June that it will halt the previous government’s proposed redevelopment of the Franklyn Street Estate. But the Minns administration has simultaneously committed to demolishing public housing at 82 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe, to make way for a greater number of units.
According to a spokesperson for Action for Public Housing, activists are “very grateful” that the redevelopment of the Franklyn Street Estate will not go ahead.
“That campaign has been long and hard fought. We are welcoming that decision.”
The Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Rose Jackson, stated: “the restoration of these properties in Glebe reflects our unwavering commitment to providing quality homes for vulnerable people right across Sydney, including in our inner city.” But public housing advocates remain confused by the seeming double standard to advance with the demolition of the Wentworth Park Road building in the face of ongoing protest.
“There’s an inconsistency,” Action for Public Housing said. “What’s the difference between one public housing estate near Broadway and one slightly further away?”
In a media release, the government cited “unnecessary stress for tenants” as a key reason for the intervention and stated that the Frankly Street project would not deliver substantial uplift in social and affordable housing.
However, as City Hub has demonstrated in its prior coverage of the issue, demolition plans have caused significant anguish for the remaining tenants at 82 Wentworth Park Road. The occupation of the building by activists and residents has also resulted in tension and intense surveillance from police and security personnel.
Furthermore, activists and residents at Wentworth Park Road are proposing an alternative plan which is more costeffective. It can also deliver the same number of public homes on the site. Refurbishment and the construction of extra homes in available space on the property such as the under-utilised car park appears to be the preference among supporters.
The slow response of the Housing Minister to the unfolding situation and Labor’s inconsistent messaging has frustrated activists and tenants.
On Thursday 14 June, the Housing Minister pledged to not privatise the Wentworth Park Road site, telling City Hub she is “considering all options” and that “if any redevelopment does proceed, no resident will be evicted”. The statement also emphasised a “right of return” for displaced tenants.
The statement seemed to suggest the current building at 82 Wentworth Park Road will not be demolished. The Minns government has now contradicted this statement.
Carolyn Ienna, a thirty-year long Wiradjuri resident at 82 Wentworth Park Road, wrote to the Housing Minister on May 10 but only received a reply on 14 June,
after supporters occupied the building in protest.
In a statement to City Hub today the Housing Minister conceded that “communication around decision making to tenants hasn’t been good enough.”
But she stated that is “committed to improving that” in a period of “massive transition”.
“It is the trend for newly-built public and community homes to be smaller than what they’re replacing”, Sisson said. “Partly that is due to the changing composition of the waiting list… The government is saying that the majority of new applicants are singles.”
“There are plenty of people on the waiting list who needs two or three-bedroom places. As people’s needs change, they might need a carer to stay overnight. They might enter a relationship, for example.”
The proposed redevelopment for the Franklyn Street Estate in Glebe would have added 22 extra social housing dwellings to the current number – 108. But critics have suggested that the total amount of people in social housing on the property would have, in fact, decreased precisely because many of the new homes would have had only one bedroom.
“As an incoming government we are working as quickly as we can to firm up the status of our public housing estates to provide residents with timely updates about their living arrangements. This is a big priority for me.”
Denis Doherty from Hands Off Glebe panned the government’s decision. “We are very disappointed that NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson has chosen to continue with the previous LNP Government’s appalling plan for 82 Wentworth Park Road.”
Alastair Sisson, a housing expert and Macquarie University Research Fellow, expressed dismay at the news that the NSW government will proceed with demolition at Wentworth Park Road. “There’s all this talk in the press about needing to increase housing supply,”
Kobi Shetty MP, Greens Member for Balmain welcomed the news that the Franklyn Street Estate has been saved. “Congratulations to the hundreds of locals and community groups who wrote submissions, attended public meetings, and supported the campaigns to protect these homes from being sold-off.”
She also expressed support for the community campaign to prevent the demolition at Wentworth Park Road: “I urge the minister to consider the alternative proposal put forward by the community to increase the housing at 82 Wentworth Park Rd while avoiding demolition.”
Activists have indicated they will not relent in their campaign to save 82 Wentworth Park Road as it currently stands.
According to an Action for Public Housing spokesperson, “there are a lot of people who are pledging their support to reoccupy Wentworth Park Road. That is certainly one of the cards on the table.”
Communication around decision making to tenants hasn’t been good enoughCarolyn Ienna speaking at a press conference for the public housing occupation at 82 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe. Photo: Robbie Mason
The NSW government is currently in the process of transferring ownership of Me-Mel (Goat Island), the heritage-listed island within the heart of Sydney, back to the Aboriginal community.
The NSW government announced on 1 July that it had taken a significant step by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Me-Mel Transfer Committee.
$43 million dollars has been committed to the transfer arrangements and to “restore” Me-Mel. The committee established consists of key Aboriginal representatives and state government representatives from the Aboriginal Affairs NSW, Cabinet Office and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
The 14 members of the committee include Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council representatives Allan Murray, Nathan Moran, Eunice
Roberts and Jennah Dungay, Aboriginal community representatives Shane Phillips, Amanda Reynolds, Elizabeth Tierney and Ash Walker and NSW Aboriginal Land Council representatives Heidi Hardy and Abie Wright.
It’ll be the committee’s job to identify
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and provide options for tourism, the cultural and public use of Me-Mel, as well as advising on the site’s management.
NSW Premier Chris Minns stated that he was “proud to be taking another step towards transferring this island to the Aboriginal community.”
“The island will be a symbol of reconciliation in the heart of Sydney Harbour. We are listening to the Aboriginal community through this process,” he said.
“That is what the signing of this agreement is all about. I thank the previous government and its former premiers for their commitment to this project over many years. We are proud to continue this work with the committee.”
The committee has given the green light to support a Registered Aboriginal Owners research project which seeks to identify Aboriginal Owners of Me-Mel. This research is, according to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty David Harris, important. “We will look to the results of this important research project and to the Aboriginal people for what happens next,” he said.
“This diverse committee plays a crucial role in advising government on how the transfer of Me Mel to the Aboriginal community could work.”
City Hub reached out to the CEO of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, Nathan Moran, but did not receive a response in time.
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We are listening to the Aboriginal community through this process
Mayor Darcy Bryne said, “this is an incredible response from the Inner West community to the Council’s request for citizens to get involved in informing their friends and neighbours about why this historic moment is so important.”
“It is vital that we directly contact and begin conversations with church groups, sporting clubs, not-for-profit organisations, local businesses, and charities.”
“Our council is committed to the Voice and we want to ensure that we have a well-informed community.”
“We think this is very important and the time to right a historic wrong.”
The Randwick council recently passed a motion that will see $28,900 allocated for their ‘Yes’ campaign, along with providing content and education to the community in understanding the ‘Yes’ vote.
The
BY TILEAH DOBSONLocal councils across Sydney are supporting the ‘Yes’ vote for the Voice to Parliament, with many undergoing their own campaigns to help ensure the upcoming referendum passes.
The City of Sydney Council’s campaign involves endorsing the ‘Yes’ campaign via “street banners, utilising library resources and community centres.”
The council is discouraging discrimination and ensuring that the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander community is cared for in anticipation of negative backlash.
Councillor Yvonne Weldon, a proud Wiradjuri woman and the council’s first Aboriginal councillor, said, “a Voice to the Parliament isn’t a magic bullet but it will ensure that Government is informed by and accountable to representatives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.”
The Inner West Council, meanwhile, has helped to train 1100 local community members to become advocates for the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The Woollahra Council will be providing resources for both the ‘Yes’ campaign, along with hosting a “cultural and children’s activities at the naming and opening ceremony for Gugara Park, Paddington.”
Waverley council will be endorsing their strong support for the ‘Yes’ campaign with the tagline ‘Waverley says Yes’.
City Hub spoke with the council’s mayor, Paula Masselos, who broke down the council’s strategy.
“We’ve got some information sessions and will be undertaking a series of promotional activities. This includes our socials and information throughout our newsletters, we will be working in close consultation with the federal government on this,” she said.
Randwick’s mayor, Dylan Parker spoke of his excitement for the campaign.
“The referendum is an historic opportunity for reconciliation and progress nationwide making it so important that our community is well informed on the proposed advances,” he told City Hub
“We’ve listened to the wishes of local Elders, Community, the La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council, as well as other Aboriginal Controlled Organisations who have asked us to support the Voice and get involved in the ‘Yes’ campaign. This decision reflects these wishes.”
BY NOËLLE JANACZEWSKAreferendum is an historic opportunity for reconciliation
In the midst of Sydney’s rental crisis, UNSW students, a Randwick Councillor and local residents have united in opposition to a development application to build an 1100-unit tower block for UNSW students with rooms likely to cost $650 per week. Only 14 rooms will be accessible to those with disabilities.
The 9,280 square metre site will be the largest student accommodation precinct in the country, if the development proceeds. A third-party student accommodation provider, Iglu, will commercially operate the site, which sits on Crown Land, via a lease. The redevelopment will involve knocking down a car park on Anzac Parade, next to the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).
A Greens councillor, Philipa Veitch, put forward a motion for the Randwick Council meeting on 27 June, bringing attention to the development application. In that motion, she noted that rental costs for rooms in this Iglu student accommodation will far exceed current welfare benefits for full-time students.
At a recent information session for local residents, an Iglu representative provided insights to Cr Veitch about the possible cost of rooms in the tower.
“I understand it is not going to be coming in under the $650 a week and some of the accommodation on the higher floors will be somewhat higher than that as well,” Cr Veitch said.
The maximum Youth Allowance payment for a full-time student over the age of 18, who is not living in their parent’s home, is $562.80 per fortnight.
The cheapest on-campus accommodation at UNSW is currently $653 per fortnight.
Cr Veitch expressed disappointment in the proposed privatisation of public land, telling City Hub “these publicly-owned sites in the inner city are very rare. We shouldn’t just be handing them out to private developers.”
According to Cr Veitch, neighbouring residents are “very concerned” about the development, which is “much higher than any of the [current] zoning along Anzac Parade”.
In her motion before Randwick Council, she notes “strong objections from neighbouring residents regarding scale, construction noise, overshadowing, parking loss and other impacts”.
UNSW students, meanwhile, condemned UNSW’s for-profit approach to student housing at an on-campus rally on Wednesday, June 21. Cr Veitch spoke alongside student activists before a throng of over 100 supporters.
Students have made a series of demands including the conversion of university-owned residences into emergency student housing, the freezing of all rent increases until 2027 and the scrapping of the NIDA lease to Iglu. When City Hub reached out to the UNSW media team for comment, a UNSW spokesperson provided no indication that the UNSW administration will intervene or respond to the demands of protestors.
Purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) providers, such as Iglu, Scape and Urbanest, have attracted significant criticism in recent years for high price points, impersonal environments and substandard facilities.
In Australia, PBSAs have become an increasingly mainstream and highly profitable sector for international and institutional investors. In December 2019, Scape Australia acquired the $2 billion portfolio of Urbanest in a deal that was the single largest property transaction that year.
UNSW Education Officer Cherish Kuehlmann described Iglu to City Hub as “notorious for high prices and rorting international and domestic students alike”.
Following record levels of new Indian student enrolments and an influx of over 40,000 Chinese students returning to Australia shores to study in the first semester of this year, competition for student housing is fiercer than ever.
An Australia Financial Review report in April this year revealed that PBSAs are at 100 per cent capacity in Sydney, and that international students are being forced to live in tents and hotels.
A UNSW Sydney spokesperson told City Hub that “on-campus accommodation is fully booked but we do offer a waitlist as there is usually some movement.”
A quick trawl through Facebook groups for international students in Sydney exposes a flurry of online chatter and frustration about the increasing normalisation of bunk-bed/dormitory style living situations within the private rental market.
The UNSW Education Collective recently publicised a petition demanding the university take immediate action amid Sydney’s housing crisis. As an option, students were able to leave comments detailing their struggles with housing.
According to Kuehlmann, the collective has already received a wide range of “shocking testimonials”; frequent complaints about rent costs, difficulties finding homes in the first place, prolonged Airbnb stays, but also “a whole host” of comments detailing “quite unsafe living conditions”.
mean they are now “almost always on a tight budget”.
Lamenting the “dire” situation for students, Kuehlmann stated, “students are put into desperate situations due to the rental crisis where they have to accept whatever shelter they can get.”
UNSW SRC President, Paige Sedgwick, has accused the university of corporate PR spin in relation to its diversity pledges.
“UNSW currently has a target of 25% of commencing domestic students being from a low socioeconomic background by 2027”, she said.
“Without some drastic changes to housing prices on campus these students will be struggling more than ever to afford university.”
An array of recent media reports have suggested that Sydney’s inner west and inner city is a hot spot for NIMBYism, heritage protection and redevelopment hostility. But Cr Veitch rejects accusations of NIMBYism.
One contributor wrote: “I applied to in [sic] campus housing, and after being told I was stuck on a waiting list that was hundreds of people long, I had to look elsewhere.”
“I am now living in a room with three other people, plus the landlord and his wife (5 total), where I have been explicitly told I have to abide by the (very strict) rules of the house or leave. These rules include no piercings, no dying my hair an unnatural colour, no having a partner of the same sex and no staying out after a certain time.”
Another UNSW student referenced an unreliable and hostile building manager who demanded cash, failed to adequately address a lack of hot water on the site and insect problems. This student subsequently found on-campus living quarters, but increased rent costs
Emphasising that local councils have had their planning powers slowly stripped away over the last two decades by successive state governments, Cr Veitch told City Hub that NSW has a planning system with a “minimal amount of consultation with local residents”.
“This is just a basic tenant of democracy,” she continued. “We are getting pushback from developers and people who are aligned with them accusing residents of being NIMBYs. This is outrageous.”
Kuehlmann warned that the development will jack up rent in the surrounding suburbs, exacerbating gentrification. She explained to City Hub that the UNSW Education Collective “is not opposed to building student housing on the car park; we’re all for more affordable student housing.”
“We’re opposed to the deal with Iglu.” Iglu did not reply in time to provide comment.
these publicly-owned sites in the inner city are very rare
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If you beat the traffic that ensnares
Sydney’s eastern suburbs like a boa con-strictor and make it to Bondi Beach, you might notice a row of surfboards flapping in blustery winds. Look a little closer and you’ll notice some slapdash paint on the top of each board.
“NORTH BONDI SHARE BOARD”, the text reads.
But what exactly are these objects?
Cam Scott – the renowned street artist (alias: NOTNOT) who strapped the first surfboard to the fence on Bondi Beach’s northern end – sees the project as one of “community custodianship”.
People began to take notice. Strangers have donated boards to the project. Cam applied for – and won – a small grant from Waverly Council.
Cam is a familiar figure at Bondi, a renowned street artist and a true jackof-all-trades. When he’s not bobbing atop rollers, you’ll most likely spot him wandering the rat warren of the eastern suburbs, with big silk screens under his arm, in search of public walls that, he believes, require sprucing up.
From his casual tone on the phone and infectious laugh, it’s clear Scott is a people person, big on community. It translates into his other creative work, such as his Digital Realities street art se-ries, which was plastered across Sydney’s urban jungle. In Cam’s words, that provocative project, which led to a TEDx Talk for him, “encouraged people to question their online personas”. He’s a grafter and an artist whose public works extend towards the viewer like a handshake and an offer of coffee. He wants to break bread, and he succeeds in presenting social commentary without ever appearing preachy.
“I always had this habit of finding thrashed boards in landfill and bringing them back to life,” Cam tells City Hub. “Years of doing that meant I had way too many boards, so I thought I’d take one and strap it to a fence at North Bondi and write ‘North Bondi shareboard’. It was a little experiment.”
When locals and visitors alike began to take the board out in the surf and re-turn it, Cam began to add more recycled and rescued foam boards. With a little work –“a bit of gluing and sanding” – Cam gave these surfboads, or “foamies”, a new lease on life.
On the importance of his North Bondi share board endeauvor, he says, “it’s a great thing to see. So much of modern society seems to be tailored to individ-ual ownership and making sure everyone stays at home, isolated from their communities.”
When pressed to describe Sydney’s eastern beaches community, Cam shoots back a quick reply: “eclectic, vibrant and welcoming”.
Prick him with a needle and it may well be sand that pours from the wound.
So much of modern society seems to be tailored to individual ownershipNorth Bondi share boards” strapped to a fence at Bondi Beach. Photo: Cam Scott Cam Scott - surfer, street artist, screen-printer, jack-of-all-trades. Photo: Cam Scott
Local residents face the prospect of sleepless nights, further traffic jams and more boisterous punters, as Venues NSW proposes changes to concert restrictions at Allianz Stadium. Nightlife advocates, meanwhile, have welcomed the move.
Venues NSW intends to lodge an application to the Department of Planning and Environment requesting an increase in the allowable number of concerts at Allianz Stadium from an average of 4 to 20 events per calendar year. The proposed alterations will also see rehearsal finishing times and sound tests extended to 10 PM.
This news follows the announcement last month by NSW Premier Chris Minns that he supports alterations to the stadium’s concert cap.
Increased frequency and length of concerts will lead to greater numbers visiting the area during those peak times, and many locals believe public transport will not be able to handle the extra surge in passengers. “The CBD light rail is a woeful transport solution due to its low capacity,” said a spokesperson for Keep Sydney Beautiful.
Keep Sydney Beautiful framed added car congestion as a danger. “Many people drive to the stadium so the 42,000 odd people attending concerts and sporting events will create regular chaos for any commuter in the area, not just residents. This includes emergency vehicles.”
Locals move into the area aware of its sporting history, so they are not against sporting events at Allianz Stadium and the SCG, says Peter Tzannes from the Centennial Park Residents’ Association. The proposed
changes to the concert cap, however, are a step too far, Tzannes suggests.
“The precinct is in danger of being inaccessible if a major emergency were to arise,” Tzannes said.
A spokesperson for the Surry Hills Business Alliance said, “what we’re worried about is the behaviour of people.”
“Every weekend we see it with people who are drunk and want to carry on at 3 AM. You seem them getting into cars. That’s our fear. A person’s life is very important, more than some concert that lasts a few hours.”
Residents cite noise as a pressing issue. “There is a significant population of threatened grey-headed flying foxes nearby and no consideration given to the impact
of noise and lighting on them,” said a Keep Sydney Beautiful spokeperson.
Venues NSW and mainstream media are ignoring their voices, residents feel. “I don’t think they care to listen to us,” says a Surry Hills Business Alliance spokesperson.
“Vested interest groups such as SCG Trust and Carsingha, the Gerry Harvey consortium, had the ear of the previous Liberal government not the public,” said Keep Sydney Beautiful, tapping into a long history of scepticism over the transparency of park management in New South Wales and the nepotistic appointments from Sydney’s business elite.
Within Sydney’s night-time industry, however, the announcement is welcomed. “Increasing the number of performances at Allianz Stadium Sydney will mean more opportunity for neighbouring night time venues, tourism operators and related businesses to capitalise on an increased footfall. This is a positive step for Sydney’s night time economy,” said Night Time Industries Association CEO Mick Gibb.
Furthermore, not all residents are against the proposed concert cap change. Jason Downing, co-president of Saving Moore Park, says the community group isn’t opposed to the lifting of the concert cap, provided there is adequate community consultation and no attempt to alter the already legislated timetable for the abolishment of event parking on Moore Park grasslands.
expected, residents in some parts of Wollondilly Shire are going to be significantly affected by aircraft noise.”
“It appears that especially at night, planes will be sent in Wollondilly’s direction to minimise the impact on other more populated areas. Those in the north of the Shire, particularly around Silverdale will see some quite significant impacts at night as the airport grows.”
A Silverdale resident who had just moved in to his house told 10 News, “it’s going to sound like they’re leaning in on top of our house.”
‘I understand progress… but I think if it was put on the table initially, people could make an informed decision as to whether they’re going to accept that.”
The federal government has taken steps to minimise the impacts of increasing noise levels on the areas surrounding the airport by enacting long-standing planning restrictions to protect the areas from encroaching residential development.
BY ABHA HAVALAs the Federal Government announces a preliminary 24 hour flight schedule for the new Western Sydney International (WSI) Airport at Badgerys Creek, noise levels and environmental impacts, caused by the proposed flight paths, have emerged as significant risks.
The long-awaited flight plans have been released nearly 5 years after the construction began at the airport, which is well on track for the airport’s opening in 2026. The federal government has launched online tools that will allow people to see potential noise levels and aircraft movements over each area.
Flight paths analysis shows that the airport will create a vacuum level of noise more than 100 times a day by 2040, reaching as high as 60 decibels in a larger geographical extent. Noise will echo up to 70 decibels in the areas surrounding the narrow strip of airport. The preliminary flight plans show Penrith and areas south of Mount Druitt and Warragamba to be the most affected by the noise levels.
As majority of the Western Sydney area is encompassed by the Greater Blue Mountains, natural reserves and conservation areas, the environmental
impact could be significant in that region.
Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill expressed deep concerns on the proposed flight paths over the communities in the lower and mid mountain regions and Greater Blue Mountains areas. He has vowed to fight the proposal.
About 40,000 Blue Mountain residents could be affected by the proposed flight paths.
Mayor Greenhill said, “the flight paths show a complete disregard for the people of the Blue Mountains as well as the Greater Blue Mountains Heritage Area.”
“Our quality of life in the Blue Mountains is clearly threatened.”
“Planes will be flying over our homes and our World Heritage National Park 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No curfew. The people of the Blue Mountains deserve better,” he continued.
“We’re one of only two cities in the world within a World Heritage Listed area and the Blue Mountains National Park has the highest visitation of any National Park in Australia.”
“If our World Heritage Listing is pulled because aircraft noise adversely impacts the World Heritage values of Blue Mountains, then the four million tourists a year who come to the Blue Mountains will evaporate – and so will the jobs they create.”
Mayor Greenhill asks the federal government to give the same protections to the people of western Sydney as there are for those in eastern Sydney. The Western Sydney International Airport will be the first in the state with no curfew unlike Sydney’s Kingsford Smith airport, which limits aircraft movement with an 11pm – 6am curfew due to the close proximity to residential areas.
“Why should one airport bear the burden of no curfew and not another?”
As per the planning controls put in by the government, restricting the types of building that can be constructed near the airport will keep the number of people affected low.
Mayor Gould said, “up in the Silverdale area, there’s also a number of very significant planning restrictions that have been put in place that prevent landowners from building granny flats, and require agricultural producers to do additional reports in order to be able to farm.”
“The frustrating thing is that Wollondilly is being severely impacted by the new Aerotropolis, but at the moment we’re seeing very little benefit.”
“We’re not seeing the investment in infrastructure that we so desperately need here and we’re not seeing money that is flowing into areas directly around the airport.”
“Blue Mountains City Council opposes flight path activity being concentrated over the lower to mid Blue Mountains, and the impact on our local community, quality of life and the environment. I will continue to fight for our community and environment with every ounce I have,” said Mayor Greenhill. Meanwhile, sitting at the heart of the noise, residents in Silverdale, Luddenham, Greendale, and Badgerys Creek are also expressing their dismay with overbearing noise levels and upcoming sleepless nights.
Wollondilly Mayor Matt Gould told City Hub, “the flight paths… show as
“Its really unfair at the moment that there isn’t any clarity on the noise or remediation for affected residents in places like Silverdale.”
“If we’re going to bear the grunt of it, then the government needs to be doing their fair bit to make sure that our residents are being appropriately looked after.”
A draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is due to be released by the government in the second half of 2023. It will examine the noise, environmental and social impacts of the proposed flight paths.
Our quality of life in the Blue Mountains is clearly threatenedFlight paths reveal vacuum noise levels for the new Western Sydney International Airport. Image: Western Sydney Airport
are threatening to go backwards when it comes to diversity.
Drawing data for its regular law partnership survey, which examines Australia’s biggest 50 law firms, the Australian Financial Review recorded that only 41 percent of the 352 lawyers promoted to partner at the end of 2022 were female. This represented the most significant slump in female appointments to partner in three years.
Bradley is appreciative of the data released by the Law Society of NSW but he warned that data alone, and tokenistic efforts towards diversity by law firms, will not solve structural issues.
“It’s not enough to keep running the numbers and then expressing surprise... Interrogating this requires more qualitative research.”
BY ROBBIE MASONWomen are reshaping the upper echelons of NSW society and increasingly entering leadership positions within the state’s notoriously-conservative legal profession, a study, released by the Law Society of NSW on Thursday 29 July, has revealed.
The percentage of female solicitors in NSW earning incomes over $150,000 increased from 28 percent in 2021 to 31 percent in 2022.
The state’s legal profession makes for a fascinating case study in industrial relations because women have outnumbered men in early-career graduate roles for years. Yet a gender wage gap has persisted.
percent from last year)”, Ms Banks continued.
“In 2013, only 24 percent of these leadership roles in private practice were female.”
Ruth Heazlewood, a recently-elected board member for Diverse Women in Law, expressed approval of the legal profession’s progress in diversity. But she told City Hub she would like to see change occur faster.
“I think change comes slowly regrettably. It takes a while for people to get their heads around change, particularly for the legal profession, which is quite conservative. It has been male-driven and male-dominated for a number of years.”
Michael Bradley, managing partner at Marque Lawyers, told City Hub that hiring more women is “an entry point into addressing embedded structural issues” but cautioned that further action is necessary for women to prosper in law.
According to the 2022 Annual Profile of Solicitors NSW, female lawyers have outnumbered men in the profession for the sixth year in a row.
Cassandra Banks, President of the Law Society of NSW, said, “I’m encouraged by results that show some positive movement among private practice leadership positions since last year’s Profile.”
“While the overall private practice numbers are even, this Profile shows a pleasing, if gradual, increase in the proportion of women who hold principal or partner roles to 35 percent (up 2
“The bigger issue is the business model of law which is antithetical to a good work-life balance,” Bradley said. With a tagline that reads “law, done differently”, Marque Lawyers has become a role model of sorts, an outlier and quiet achiever in a cut-throat professional world dominated by male finger-pointing and fist-shaking; one seemingly unfazed by the bolshy board room antics of competitors.
“We’re about 85% female”, Bradley explained. “Historically that has been the case for the whole firm’s existence.”
According to Bradley, Marque Lawyers,
from its very beginning 15 years ago, developed a business model that was designed to support female retention in the workforce. Accordingly, the workplace is largely devoid of “rat race politics” and “internal competitiveness”. There is also less emphasis on time-costing.
Upon reaching out to Bradley last week, while he was away on holiday, City Hub received the following automated message: “From now until 1 July I am on leave, lounging around Europe and not even pretending to work. I do not feel bad about this. Don’t worry, your email will be read and responded to and, if it really really needs my personal attention, that’s what it’ll get. After my siesta.”
It’s not the kind of automated message you expect to receive from a managing partner at a law firm. But this is a firm with an astoundingly large Twitter following and a penchant for posting political commentary online.
Bradley explained that the 50-strong law firm has long had an “informal internal policy” of prioritising briefing female barristers “at every opportunity” and developing relationships with them.
“We have been tracking this ourselves to hold ourselves accountable”, he continued.
“We’re not shy about a bit of affirmative action where it’s a practical necessity. Men have dominated the bar, particularly the senior bar, and have done so always.”
It appears that smaller firms such as Marque Lawyers and advocacy groups like Diverse Women in Law, despite their inferior resources, have taken up the slack in an industry where the elite firms
In an attempt to shatter the glass ceiling for women and lawyers from diverse backgrounds, the Sydney-based nonprofit organisation Diverse Women in Law have established a “wide range” of programs, Heazlewood said, rattling off a series of initiatives to City Hub with a rapid-fire frequency.
There’s a mentoring program, written application and interview workshops, podcasts, court observation and barrister sharing programs, and more. Currently, a genuine priority for the group is boosting Indigenous membership. On the barriers First Nations students face, Heazlewood told City Hub, “it concerns us all that these pathways aren’t made obvious to students in the senior years at school.”
Indigenous representation in the state’s legal profession remains low, hovering around 0.9 percent, the Law Society’s annual report has revealed. According to the 2021 census, 3.4 percent of people in NSW identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Heazlewood highlighted the COVID-19 pandemic as a turning point for female representation in law – one which helped employers reassess workplace practices. The rise of remote working has aided women, who so often still shoulder the mantle of child-rearing.
“I think one of the benefits of having gone through the COVID pandemic is that people now realise that people can work flexibly,” she said. “They can work in different ways and it has no effect on productivity.”
“We now have a voice in the profession. We have strength in numbers. That will be really important for bringing about changes down the track.”
It’s not enough to keep running the numbers and then expressing surpriseA panel discussion at a seminar held by the Sydney-based advocacy group Diverse Women in Law. Photo: Diverse Women in Law/Facebook
BY REBECCA HERNANDEZ
The brewery at the centre of a global craft beer revolution, Sierra Nevada is a refreshing golden oasis in the dry Aussie desert. Combining a pioneering spirit with the finest ingredients, Sierra Nevada crafts a taste to back its legendary reputation. Through the alchemy of fermentation, brew masters work their artisanal magic and transform everyday hops, malt, and yeast into award-winning beers and ales – for enthusiasts and locals alike to enjoy.
Sierra Nevada is shipping all across the globe, eager to bring its vibrant flavour right to your doorstep.
It was a habit of chasing curiosity that created the first sparks of Sierra Nevada. Many years of backyard tinkering and hidden science projects had led founder Ken Grossman to his ultimate discovery: homebrewing. Simultaneously fascinated and driven by an innate talent for crafting, he would continuously push the envelope further, playing with more hop-forward flavours at a time when American beer wasn’t known for taking chances. Under the banner of ‘The Home Brew Shop’ in Chico, California, Grossman would work to hone his craft – quietly scouring salvage yards and defunct dairies to find the tanks, pipes, and valves on the side before finally opening Sierra Nevada –after his love of hiking – on November 15, 1980, in a hand-built brewhouse.
Taking his first sip of a laboriously crafted, 13-hour stout, Grossman knew his journey was just beginning. The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale that followed began a craft beer revolution that still sends shockwaves across the world today.
Sitting down with Sierra Nevada International Brand Ambassador, and brother to Ken, Steve Grossman, it becomes apparent that a clear and simple love for the craft sits at the company’s core.
“What started us on this, what it was is that we love drinking ale,” he said. “And every time we expand [the range], its basically because those are the beers that we love drinking.”
These days, the company continues the work of its founder in earnest, never forgetting the power of bold tastes, quality ingredients, and a can-do attitude in the process. Sierra Nevada’s finely curated range has been praised by reviewers, authors, and journalists alike, noting each beverage’s palate-stirring complexity and
depth. Their signature Pale Ale is known for its aromas of pine and citrus, which gives way to a subtle and sweet taste of caramelized malt, while their iconic Torpedo IPAs are full hops ahead, packed with intense and explosive flavour. The company achieves such a diverse yet beloved profile through a harmonious mix of skill and innovation – pairing the
best people with the best facilities to create the best that craft beer has to offer. With custom-made dry hopping machines inside state of the art, (not handmade) breweries, there is no compromise for quality at Sierra Nevada. From scrappy start-up to one of America’s top independent craft breweries, the
company is also still 100% family owned and operated, and uncompromising in its identity despite its storied history.
Grossman also puts an emphasis on the inventive spirit that drives continues to drive the company today.
“We do a lot of experimentation I think,” he discusses.
“We’ve always been innovative and collaborative and I think that’s what sets our industry apart. We all like to share ideas to improve the overall quality of craft beer in general.”
There’s more to Sierra Nevada then quality, magic, and an inventor’s ingenuity however. The craft beer brew masters are also leaders in sustainable corporate management. Winning the United States Environmental Protection Agencies ‘Green Business of the Year Award’ in 2010, the company has only ramped up their efforts towards a greener future. Constantly looking to a world bigger than beer, Sierra Nevada is committed to highquality, low-impact brewing – investing in environmentally friendly methods of production such as powering their breweries with the largest solar array in the industry, diverting 99.8% of their solid waste from the landfill, and building the first and only ‘Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’ (LEED) Platinum production brewery in the US. Actively passing up the chance to brew more easily and cheap, Grossman and Sierra Nevada know the difference between the cost-benefit and doing the right thing.
“We do it because we care,” he said. “[Ken and I], we grew up hiking and spending every summer as a youth in the outdoors, along the Sierra Nevada mountain range – its where we got our name. And so its so important for us that we preserve that, we preserve our environment. It’s embedded in us.” Overall, cracking open a Sierra Nevada beverage is enjoying a drink that does some good. Perfect for relaxing evenings at home, parties on the beach, or anything in between, there’s simply no going wrong with the smooth and iconic flavours that can’t be beat. With recipes beloved and refined for over 40 years, produced by passionate individuals with a love for the craft, all utilising the finest ingredients available, Sierra Nevada is truly the best choice around.
ROBBIE MASON
To reduce the Voice to Parliament issue to a left-wing right-wing divide is far too simplistic. First Nations activists skirt nimbly around such static boundaries.
Consider the First Nations activists, deeply entwined with Black Lives Matter rallies and Indigenous social justice campaigns across the country, who oppose the Voice to Parliament. Opposition to constitutional recognition was a common theme raised by speakers at Sydney’s Invasion Day rally in Belmore Park this year.
At that protest, Lizzie Jarrett, a Gumbaynggirr Dunghutti Bundjalung woman and MC for the rally, disparaged the Voice to Parliament throughout the day, labelling it a “whitewashed” attempt to forcibly integrate First Nations communities into a colonial state.
Similar to high-profile Invasion Day rallies in Melbourne and Brisbane, the Sydney protest was awash with placards and banners reflecting the official theme pushed by organisers: “Sovereignty before Voice”.
Based on the fact that both Labor and the Greens support the Voice to Parliament, it’s not necessarily a position your average Australian would predict.
The issue has inflamed tensions among leftist rabble-rousers and singed the pages of popular mastheads. For many First Nations people, it’s a sore point associated with clenched fists and elevated heart rates. Support for the Voice among radicals is far from a clearcut issue.
In January this year, Marcus Stewart, a proud Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung nation and co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, penned an opinion piece for The Guardian explaining that he cannot attend Invasion Day rallies that seek to sabotage the push for a Voice to Parliament.
So what’s going on?
Keiran Stewart-Assheton, a Wani-Wandi man of the Yuin Nation and President of the Black People’s Union (BPU), a selfdescribed revolutionary organisation seeking full self-determination and sovereignty for First Nations people in Australia, told City Hub that the group opposes the Voice to Parliament.
“We believe the Voice to Parliament is not only something that won’t actually provide any benefits for us, it’s actually something that will harm our movement,” he said.
Stewart-Assheton asserted that the Voice is “a powerless tokenistic advisory body” and that the yes campaign has taken on “paternalistic” attitudes akin to neo-colonialism.
Senator Lidia Thorpe, meanwhile, derided the Voice as “just another
advisory body”. From this particular perspective, the Voice seeks to placate Indigenous activism and resistance and channel revolutionary energy into electoral and parliamentary politics. While some Australians see the Voice to Parliament as too radical an idea, as a blatant power grab by mob and their allies to create a third chamber of parliament, for those on the far left of the political spectrum like StewartAssheton and Senator Thorpe the Voice does not go far enough. In other words: it does little to address systemic racism and land rights and, rather than furnishing First Nations groups with sovereignty, it, in fact, cedes sovereignty.
Horseshoe theory, impractical utopianism, sectarianism or progress?
City Hub dives into what First Nations activists are saying about the Voice to Parliament, thorns and all.
Estimates are that treaties can take up to 20 years to negotiateAboriginal man Josh Sly of the Muggera Dancers prepares a fire for a smoking ceremony at the start of the Sydney Invasion Day rally on January 26, 2023. Photo: AAP Councillor Yvonne Weldon. Photo: Mark Dickson
“A lot of lawyers are coming out from the yes camp saying how it won’t impact our sovereignty,” Stewart-Assheton said, “but the definition of sovereignty they’re using is the one in the Uluru Statement which describes our sovereignty as only being this romanticised spiritual notion, as opposed to real political sovereignty as defined by international law, which is our rights to land and selfdetermination.”
Community divisions over the Voice, reflected in Senator Thorpe’s recent divorce from the Greens, date back to the Uluru dialogues in 2017 when a small splinter group of delegates including Thorpe walked out of the conference in protest. That dialogue led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart –a declaration publicised as conveying a unified First Nations voice.
On the Uluru Statement and impending referendum, Thorpe told City Hub “that process did not come close to meeting free, prior and informed consent as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.”
As Uluru Dialogue Co-Chair, Cobble Cobble woman and Scientia Professor Megan Davis has become the face of the yes campaign. She’s an international human rights and constitutional lawyer –an expert in the field.
In dialogue with City Hub, Professor Davis hit back at assertions that, without a power of veto, a constitutionallyenshrined Voice to Parliament will possess limited power.
“No entity in the Australian legal and political sense can ‘veto’ a Parliament, except the High Court of Australia,” she said.
“Nobody calls the Productivity Commission or the Australian National Audit Office
merely symbolic or lacking capacity for effective action.”
First Nations people who are supportive of the Voice to Parliament perceive the proposed advisory board as a form of empowerment. With polls suggesting that roughly 80 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people support the Voice, it’s evident that this is the majority opinion among mob.
Councillor Yvonne Weldon, a proud Wiradjuri woman and the City of Sydney Council’s first Aboriginal councillor, is one such yes voter.
Cr Weldon told City Hub “the upcoming referendum is about signalling a collective desire for a positive and shared future.”
Davis, meanwhile, also refuted the claim that the referendum is a damaging distraction, emphasising that treaty processes are already underway in some states and territories.
“Treaty is being pursued at state and territory levels as ordinary acts of
legislation. Such agreements won’t be mystical, magical pieces of paper,” she said.
“They are firmly embedded within the government and parliamentary institutions of states like Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and the Northern Territory.”
“Treaty is the very epitome of faith and trust in electoral and parliamentary politics to deliver on aspirations. All treaties now will be an ordinary statute or act of parliament. That means they have to pass the parliamentary threshold of community consensus via democratic representation.”
While Senator Thorpe and Keiran Stewart-Assheton from BPU view alternative forms of self-determination as more tangible outcomes that mob should focus on first, Davis makes the exact same argument – in reverse.
both camps draw radically different conclusions from the same evidence. Where Thorpe and Stewart-Assheton deride a “powerless” Voice to Parliament, Cr Weldon sees “substantive power”.
Despite some polls indicating that the no vote has overtaken the yes vote in popularity in recent weeks, Cr Weldon remains optimistic that the yes campaign will triumph.
“I’m hopeful that when the time comes the overwhelming majority of Australians will support a Voice to Parliament. This is a once in a generation opportunity,” she stated.
“In the 2017 plebiscite, the Sydney electorate showed the highest support for marriage equality in the country. I’d like to see this level of support replicated in this year’s referendum!”
Since the no campaign has attracted farright support, dated racial tropes have infiltrated the public arena and found a place at the roundtable, much to the dismay of all the people consulted in the writing of this article. It’s one of the few factors unifying the opposing camps.
From the yes perspective, the Voice to Parliament is a radical change that can happen right now. Supporters are actionorientated rather than obstructive, and there are real fears that the failure of a referendum could take the wind out of broader First Nations justice movements.
In Davis’ words: “Estimates are that treaties can take up to 20 years to negotiate. Right now, we don’t know what treaty looks like.”
Like artists attempting to recreate and paint a landscape from memory,
Cr Weldon said she’s “really concerned” about the abuse directed towards First Nations communities in the lead up to the referendum.
“Unfortunately, a minority of people who hold abhorrent views about racial superiority have been emboldened to share them,” she continued.
“Truth telling in this country is ugly. Even the most basic assertions are subject to fierce backlash.”
But even here there are still subtle differences in opinion. BPU President Stewart-Assheton said that racism is far from the sole purview of the no campaign.
“We’re already living in a hyper-racist nation. A referendum is not going to create racism that’s already there. A referendum can’t possibly get rid of racism either. You can’t vote away racism,” he stated.
Stewart-Assheton told City Hub he has been the target of abuse from yes campaigners due to his stance on the Voice.
“They come in and attack me. These are non-Indigenous people telling me to go jump off a cliff and I should go do other acts of self-harm to myself,” he stated.
In Senator Thorpe’s words: “the racism from conservative no campaign and the bullying from the yes campaign should be of concern to everyone living in this country.”
We’re already living in a hyper-racist nationScientia Professor Megan Davis, a Cobble Cobble woman and Uluru Dialogue Co-Chair. Photo: Megan Davis/supplied DjabWurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman Senator Lidia Thorpe. Photo: Lidia Thorpe/supplied
The rivalry between Australia’s two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, has often been overplayed, but there’s no doubt it continues to simmer away. Smug Sydneysiders once joked that the best thing that came out of Melbourne was the Hume Highway. Melbournians seem to have a more factual response pointing to Sydney’s choking traffic, our high cost of living and vast urban sprawl.
When it comes to culture and sport, the prizes are well defined. Melbourne has continually claimed the title of Australia’s sporting capital (if not the world’s!).
Whilst we might concede their sporting prowess, we would like to think we have the edge when it comes to culture, with the Opera House, a string of festivals and numerous other entertainment outlets. There is intense competition to nab exclusive runs of big name musicals like Harry Potter and host international music, dance and theatre events with all the economic benefits they bring to the local economy.
The latest manifestation of the Sydney v Melbourne cultural grab is the battle
to secure ABBA’s multi million dollar hologram show, Voyage. In London, it’s housed in a specially built arena, raking in millions every week and scheduled to run through until 2024. The cost to duplicate the London experience in Sydney is estimated between $50 and $80 million and would involve a considerable investment from the State Government. Since their Eurovision win in 1974 and a sellout Australian tour a few years later,
ABBA have burrowed into the Australian psyche like an infestation of termites, with musicals, movies, cover bands and endless airplay. It’s almost a sin, even unpatriotic not to like them, as their millions of fans mouth their lyrics in a frenzied quasi-religious state. Hey, I have no problem in saying I detest them – their music is like being force-fed fairy floss and their endless commercial proliferation is insidious to say the least.
And I am glad to say I am not the only person out there who wants to gag every time I hear a few bars of “Mamma Mia” or “Dancing Queen”. Some of my fellow ABBA haters have even suggested that subjecting the younger generation to the banal Swedish foursome is a form of child abuse. British music journalist Neil McCormick summed it up perfectly when he wrote:
Luckily for Sydney it seems the Minns Government is not overkeen on forking out huge sums of money on these populist mega name events. Given the other pressing issues in NSW it would be an obscenity to erect a high tech monument to ABBA in the Entertainment Quarter of Moore Park whilst people are still sleeping on the street and in their cars.
Melbourne you are welcome to this holographic horror show. Build the whole nasty thing on pontoons and float it down the muddy Yarra, make Bjorn and Benny the joint kings of Moomba and broadcast ABBA’s greatest hits 24/7 along the Lygon Street café strip. Just keep this goddam ‘aberration’ out of Sydney!
David Malloy’s multi-award winning musical has been around since 2012 and is making its Australian debut at the Eternity Playhouse for the Darlinghurst Theatre Company.
The musical is about two wars, one between the Russians and the French outside Moscow, and the other with the cast inside the theatre, all played out against the portents of the appearance of the Great Comet of 1812.
The narrative concerns the ingenue Natasha, who is betrothed to the good, but largely absent Andrey; her suitor, the very unsuitable but dashing Anatole; and the much older dipsomaniac Pierre, who is in
Bell Shakespeare’s new production of Romeo and Juliet takes the old tropes of the world’s most loved romantic tragedy and turns them on their heads.
Out has gone the emphasises on the “star crossed lovers” and in comes the view of the players through the larger eyes of society and family that have inherited prejudice and behaviour.
Romeo and Juliet director, Peter Evans has a clear vision for his interpretation that starts with the players entering a darkened stage area dressed in black. The play proper then opens with a street brawl between the servants of the long feuding Montague and Capulet families.
As their characters become more evident, so do their costumes slowly evolve until they reach full finery in the Capulet masque, where everybody is in disguise and the stage is covered in rich Persian carpets.
the middle, while the strict grande dame Marya and all of the other characters do what they can to interfere.
The intimate stage by Tyler Hawkins, constructed to enable the audience to be seated on all sides, is focused by a raised circular platform and perimeter where most of the action unfolds.
This is an energetic cast that is in constant motion, moving from dance to athletic expression, duels to romantic scenes and near death experiences highlighted with scenes of rejection and distrust.
The other extraordinary thing about this cast is that they all play instruments, often while mingling with the audience or in frenetic dance routines on stage.
(See p.29)
Casting against age or gender has allowed Evans to work with actors who can bring maturity to their interpretation of the text, and this works best for Rose Riley’s Juliet and Blazey Best’s Mercutio.
Juliet’s traditional portrayal as a ill-fated youthful beauty is overthrown as Riley delivers her lines with a intelligence and articulation that belies the teenage years of her character.
Jacob Warner plays up Romeo as an emerging adult: at one moment boastful and seemingly in command and the next full of doubt with no vision for the future. He makes the most of the two low rise stages to great comedic advantage.
Evans has taken Shakespeare’s text as the starting point to give us characters of depth and intimacy who are firmly rooted in the society, families and times of which they belong.
Until August 27, The Neilson Nutshell, Pier 2/3, 13a Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay, www.bellshakespeare.com.au
This is a show where the music is unfamiliar to most, but that is of little concern as the score is made up of intelligent and catchy numbers done in Russian folk, rock, techno and electro pop styles.
Of Particular note is the show stopping number, “Alone”, sung by Kala Gare as Sonya.
Pierre and ensemble come together one last time for the poignant “The Great Comet of 1812” that offers a future and closes the show.
Watching over all of these musical moments is musical director Claire Healy, whose enthusiasm and musical precision keeps everything tight.
A shout out must go to director Dean Drieberg, whose tight rein on all aspects allows this production to power along without missing a beat.
Until August 20, Eternity Playhouse, 39 Burton St, Darlinghurst
www.darlinghursttheatre.com/ thegreatcomet
BY RITA BRATOVICHThis is one of the Genesian Theatres best productions yet, despite – or perhaps because of – an unvarying set, no real costume changes, a scattering of props and some subtle theatrical devices. Its very simplicity allows the powerful dialogue and performances to stand out in bold relief – which they do. While the narrative is fictional, the details are based on fact with a very intuitive understanding of the Brontë family and the Victorian era.
Charlotte (Aneeka Brownsberger), Emily (Emilia Stubbs Grigoriou) and Anne (Rebecca Harris) all wear identical dresses, each in a slightly different colour. The three actors have a wonderful chemistry together while also having distinct individual strengths.
Theo Rule is Branwell, the one Brontë son who was the light and hope of the family due to his maleness, but a great disappointment due to his penchant for opium and sex. Gregory George as Patrick Brontë is stoic, wise, and has a paternal warmth.
Theo Hatzistergos and Georgia Jarrett play various characters including fictional characters. Barry Nielsen has done a wonderful job directing this play with restraint that gives it a rumbling tension. Special mention should be made of Michael Schell’s lighting design which is used masterfully to create atmosphere and highlight plot points and emotional spikes.
Until July 22, Genesian Theatre, 420 Kent St, Sydney, www.genesiantheatre.com.au
Colleen McCullough’s sensational 1974 novel, Tim, has been adapted for the stage by the highly respected multi-talented, Tim McGarry, whose recent adaptation of Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe for QPAC received feverish acclaim. Young, emergent actor Ben Goss will make his mainstage debut in the title role.
“I think our disabilities are quite different, so alongside that instant connection there is a lot of research — respectful research — to really try and get disability right because it is a kind of sensitive subject. So, we’re really working hard to do a good job with it,” says Goss.
The relationship at the centre of the story involves not only a significant age gap but also, arguably, a power gap in terms of where the characters are in their lives and their abilities to deal with various situations. Mary is played by esteemed veteran actor, Jeanette Cronin, whose very presence accentuates Goss’s innocence.
“[Tim] just enjoys her so much, and doesn’t really kind of get the concept of the scandal of it,” says Goss about the relationship. “So he’s just really pleasant, he really enjoys her company, he loves being with her and over the course of the play he just falls head over heels in love and really it’s for Jeanette [Mary] to deal with the ramifications of their being together.”
BY RITA BRATOVICH
It’s a moment in Australia’s history that has scorched itself into our psyche. The sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975 was the pinnacle of a turbulent period in politics which threatened the stability of our constitution, challenged our allegiance to the British Crown, and questioned the very notion of democracy.
It sounds like the perfect setting for a musical, right?
throughout the show.”
However, Murphy was not even born yet when the events of 1975 occurred, so it meant some very intensive research before she could begin. What she discovered was a rich assortment of personalities and stories; the songs practically wrote themselves. The music itself is a mixture of then and now.
When Tim was first published in 1974, it was both a popular and critical success, despite its controversial subject matter. Tim is the story of a handsome 25-year-old man with an undefined intellectual disability. Because of it, he suffers bullying from workmates and friends, but also mollycoddling from well-intentioned family. Tim meets Mary, a successful businesswoman in her 50s. They form a bond which develops into something more intense and sparks scandal and suspicion.
McGarry’s adaptation sees a few modifications to the story.
“The main difference is it takes it into the contemporary age, there’s some politics around the NDIS,” explains Goss.
Goss has cerebral palsy and so feels he can identify, to a certain degree, with his character, but is also mindful of the unique distinctions of mental disability.
As for the production design, Goss isn’t giving anything away.
“I can tell you it looks beautiful…”
Tim plays theatres around NSW from end of July, including:
28 – 30 July, Glen Street Theatre, Belrose; 11 & 12 August, The Joan, Penrith; 30 August – 2 September, Riverside Theatre, Parramatta. www.christinedunstan.com.au/tim
Director/actor/writer, Jay JamesMoody certainly thought so and he managed to convince Blake Erickson to co-write the book and the incredibly talented Laura Murphy to write the songs.
“It is just such a witty idea,” says Murphy. “The story is so theatrical, the characters…[James-Moody] refers to it as a Shakespearean tragedy which I agree with in a lot of ways, except that obviously we’ve told it through an extremely comedic, silly, funny, lens.”
The concept for The Dismissal had been churning in James-Moody’s head for quite some time but when he finally asked Murphy to write the music and lyrics he still didn’t have a script. It’s an unorthodox way to write a musical, but in this case, Murphy thought it made sense.
“The structure of the show was really led by the score…the score is obviously the key to the emotion and where the highs and lows and climaxes and tension releases are
“I definitely wanted to nod to the sights and the sounds of the time. […] I didn’t want to be limited by anything, I just wanted to be inspired by the characters.”
Lyrically, there’s a lot of humour and, of course, quotes from some of the iconic speeches and comments made at the time. Perhaps one of the most unexpected devices is the use of Norman Gunston as the narrator. Norman Gunston was a character created by Garry McDonald, instantly recognisable by the shiny blue satin jacket he always wore, the bits of paper stuck to shaving cuts on his face, and his greasy comb-over.
The Dismissal had a brief workshopping season at The Seymour Centre earlier this year and was highly acclaimed. Its upcoming official premiere is enthusiastically anticipated. From August 26, Seymour Centre, Cnr City Rd and Cleveland St, Chippendale, www.seymourcentre.com
BY TILEAH DOBSON
While it’s not as great as getting your letter to Hogwarts, this a good enough replacement. For those who aren’t Potterheads, the Yule Ball is a nod to the event that occurs in the fourth book and movie. This is the first time that the Harry Potter: A Yule Ball Celebration has been held in Sydney.
As you enter Paddington Town Hall, you’re immediately greeted by the beautiful decorations that make it feel like Christmas. But it’s upstairs where the real magic happens (pun intended).
Here, you’re transported to the Great Hall in Hogwarts, with gorgeous decorations, floating candles above your head and a plethora of Instagram photo op spots.
Six wonderful and talented hosts guide you through the two hours, from performing the Champion’s Waltz to getting you to cheer for your own house. The spell-binding night ends with the crowning of four champions pulled from the Goblet of Fire, and snow falling inside the hall. A merchandise store sells Hogwarts
Avariety of paintings created by rescue greyhounds are set to be auctioned at Yulli’s Brews in Alexandria.
All proceeds from the Greyt Masters Art & Ale auction will provide further resources for much needed greyhound rescue and rehabilitation facilities.
The current collection, titled Greyt Masters: Autonomia , is a series of artworks solely produced by the Kennel Kids at Greyhound Rescue. These greyhounds were born into the racing industry and have since been rehabilitated to start their new lives as family pets.
Greyhound Rescue’s mission is to ethically and safely re-home greyhounds that are no longer wanted by the racing industry.
Animals Australia states that hounds in the racing industry are exploited and are “bred for no other purpose than to race and win”. Approximately 10,000 greyhound pups are bred each year in hopes of becoming a winning runner, with many hounds being discarded. In the past year alone, Greyhound Rescue has found homes for almost 300 hounds.
The Art & Ales event will allow an additional opportunity to meet with all different greyhounds whilst enjoying craft beer and a selection of vegan pub food. The event is free entry for all, with all other dogs welcome to join this fun filled activity.
July 16, 2pm to 6pm, Yulli’s Brews, 75a Burrows Rd Alexandria Or, you can bid online at: airauctioneer.com/greyt-mastersautonomia
robes for your house, a selection of wands, t-shirts and other little knickknacks. There are two bars serving a mixture of cocktails named after the Hogwarts founders, and there are mocktail versions of these drinks. Of
course, there is the iconic butter beer — a delicious butterscotch concoction. Until August 20, Paddington Town Hall, 395 Oxford St, Paddington, harrypotteryuleballcelebration.com/ sydney
World renowned Australian ballroom dance company, Burn the Floor, has announced a first time collaboration with the talented First Nations star, Mitch Tambo. The brand new dance production and are set to tour the East Coast of Australia this winter season.
Twenty passionate dancers, vocalists, and musicians, including original members and emerging dance stars, will perform to an Australian rock classic soundtrack featuring Midnight Oil, INXS, ACDC, Cold Chisel, and the Bee Gees. Burn the Floor has been curating performances for two decades, combining a variety of choreography and dance moves. The company has performed on Broadway, the West End, and has toured over 150 cities in 30 countries. They have also been
involved with the cruise-ship industry since 2012, performing 6,000 shows for the Norwegian Cruise Line. Mitch Tambo’s talent was first recognised by Australian audiences when he performed on the 2019 finale of Australia’s Got Talent. Tambo has since gone on to create his own distinctive sound, blending traditional Aboriginal language and melodies with contemporary beats and production. He has reached number one on the music charts in Australia, the UK, the US, and select European countries with his album titled Guurama-Li.
Sydney performances: August 11, Enmore Theatre, 118 – 132 Enmore Rd, Newtown; August 12, The Joan, 597 High St, Penrith; August 13, The Concourse, 409 Victoria Ave, Chatswood www.burnthefloor.com
It must be questioned whether the point of producing sequels to movies is to milk the brand, especially when the movies feel pointless and underwhelming. Unfortunately this is the case with Insidious: The Red Door, which is the fifth and reportedly final film in the successful horror franchise. The Lambert family, who had hellish experiences in the first two films but were absent from the next two sequels return. Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) and his son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) are having horrific nightmares and strange visions. Josh feels like he’s crazy and that he has passed his mental illness onto his son. But why is his father, who
has passed on, reaching out to him?
Australian actress, Rose Byrne adds class to this mediocre horror flick. Performances are good especially from Sinclair Daniel who has all the good lines and adds spice as Dalton’s vivacious side kick and college roommate. However the movie’s pace is insidiously slow in the first half with only the stereotyped jump scare moments keeping audiences from falling into deep slumber. The problem is that we’ve seen it all before. Ultimately this movie is lacklustre and audiences may leave cinemas feeling indifferent. It’s definitely a movie worth waiting to watch on streaming services.
In cinemas now
BY RITA BRATOVICH
This is an incredibly inventive German film. Although the conceit might seem simple, the rendering is a little complex and that may be a barrier for some viewers. The way to enjoy the film is to just let it wash over you and then think about the themes and analogies later. It is set in a hyper-real world, an abstract, self-reflexive film universe where the people are not quite movie characters, not quite actors, but something in between. Their society has a fierce hierarchy in which Main Characters are the elite class, followed by Supporting Characters (extras and aspiring main characters), then the Outtakes, who are disenfranchised,
It seems Tom Cruise has the Midas touch – every movie he works on turns to box office gold and his seventh instalment in the Mission Impossible franchise should also prove to be very profitable.
Tom Cruise reprises his role as Ethan Hunt who, along with his IMF team, venture off on their most dangerous mission to date. They must locate an extremely dangerous weapon because if it falls into the wrong hands — the future of Earth is at stake. The secret to the success of this franchise is that each movie tops the next in terms of incredible action sequences, death defying stunts, twists and turns, and storylines which are so outrageously implausible, yet
satisfyingly enjoyable.
At a running time of 2hr 43mins, restlessness never sets in owing to the high volume of fight and action sequences. The car chase sequence throughout the ancient city of Rome makes edge-of-yourseat viewing, leaving audiences gasping for air and pondering how much work must go into pre-production for such sequences where perfect timing is of essence. Fans of this franchise won’t be disappointed. This is such an insanely impossible mission and that’s what moviegoers expect – the more ludicrous the storylines, the higher the enjoyment level.
In cinemas now
poor and live in a different part of the city, off limits to the other two classes.
Paula Feinmann is a supporting character who is attending Main Character School with her best friend, Hannah and many other hopefuls.
Paula’s father, she was always told, was a Main Character who was killed in the “great massacre”. Paula tries to find out more about him only to discover her mother has been lying and that there is a dark mystery surrounding the true identity of her father.
The film presents beautifully with lots of easter eggs for movie-lovers.
Exclusively at Dendy Newtown from July 6 newtown.dendy.com.au
BY RITA BRATOVICHYou would think a movie about Salvador Dali would exhibit some of his sense of absurdism, surrealism, mischief and playfulness. Alas, it does not. Daliland is a rather drab, conventional bio-pic filled with clichés and two-dimensional characters.
Ben Kingsley shows little enthusiasm in the lead role, his face almost frozen in one barely mutable expression throughout the film. Christopher Briney, who plays the naive, angel-faced art student-cum-Dali lap dog, James Linton, is likeable and attractive but has no real narrative arc. Gala, played with relish by lauded German actor Barbara Sukowa, is potentially the most interesting character but is relegated
to nagging, sex-hungry, harpy.
The film begins in 1984. James is watching a small TV playing a 1952 episode of What’s My Line featuring Dali as the mystery guest. It turns out the clip is part of a news report —Dali has been seriously injured in a house fire. This sparks a flashback to1973 when when James spent time with Dali.
The characters and story are all shallow without any true insight, critique, or revelations. It’s hard to feel empathy or interest in either. There may be a level of curiosity-value but it would have to be tempered with the knowledge that the film has probably not stuck rigidly to fact.
In cinemas July 13
The Scandinavian Film Festival returns this year with a program of entertaining and high quality movies from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
“We’ve seen that audiences are excited to return to cinemas for festivals and events because of the experience we at Palace Cinemas create which cannot be duplicated at home,” explained Elysia Zeccola, Festival Director. “Festivals present a curated selection of films that our loyal patrons have come to trust.”
The powerful multi-award winning opening night movie, Let The River Flow, from Norway is set against the backdrop of the Alta conflict and deals with the adverse effects a proposed dam at the site of the richest salmon-producing river in the country has upon the livelihood of the Samai people.
For festival attendees who enjoy a good comedy Zeccola highly recommends Wild Game
“This is a hilarious Icelandic take on the Italian hit Perfect Strangers – the most remade film in history! With an exciting ensemble cast, this is a wildly entertaining comedy of manners with
an Icelandic twist.”
For lovers of classic horror flicks the closing night offering, Let The Right One In, delivers plenty of chills. Ultimately would watching movies at this film festival be the next best thing to travelling to a Scandinavian country?
“In today’s troubled times of overpriced flights, a visit to a luxurious cinema to see these stunning Nordic landscapes on the big screen is definitely the next best thing to getting on a plane. Take a Scandi Spritz into the cinema and enjoy the film in style!” concluded Zeccola.
FALLEN LEAVES – A quirky Nordic romantic comedy set in Helsinki about two people who meet by chance and then try to meet again. Received rave reviews in Cannes where it screened in competition.
GODLAND – Follows a young Danish priest in the late 19th century who sets out on a mission across Iceland to build a church. Tackles Iceland’s colonial past in a time when it was controlled by Denmark. A masterful must-see highlight.
DARKLAND: THE RETURN – Dar Salim from Game of Thrones stars as a heart surgeon who sought revenge on his brother’s killers. After seven years in prison he agrees to go undercover in a violent gang. A classic Scandinavian crime thriller.
July 18 – August 9, Screening at Palace Cinemas
www.scandinavianfilmfestival.com
The Sydney Folk Festival is back this August with an exciting lineup of folk-infused, genre-blending sounds from the best musicians in the country. And if you think folk music is not for you, think again. “Most people are amazed when they realise just how many different styles fall under the folk banner,” explains Arts and Event Manager, Musician and Festival Director, Pam Merrigan. “The folk genre takes in a diverse range of music, so whether you like it a little bit trad, a little bit revival or spiced up with modern grooves and catchy hooks there will be plenty to get your folk on ”. The inaugural Sydney Folk Festival was held in 2019 and was received with a lot of enthusiasm and positive feedback.
“Sydney was overdue its own festival showcasing folk music,” says Merrigan, describing the impetus for creating the festival. “The Sydney Folk Festival wanted to provide an opportunity to bring folk artists together to share their craft and to create opportunities where audiences could immerse themselves in all things folk — maybe even discover a new artist or music that they love.” Despite being forced into hibernation for the following two years, it returned with a brave face and lots of determination in 2022. That spirit has carried through to this year, where the festival will field an impressive range of artists in an intimate yet jam-packed program.
“There’s such variety and diversity of styles,” says Merrigan. “A lot of folk is a fusion of different styles, like popular Sydney sextet, Chaika, with their Balkan-infused melding of folk, jazz and classical. Also presenting a fusion of
styles is shakuhachi master Riley Lee with Irish harpist Cliona Molins. “World music is also represented by bands such as Super Rats and Jaga Band. There’s also a good representation of Americana with bands such as Humbuckin’ Pickups and Scroggin, or if you prefer blues, Rory Ellis with chromatic harmonica virtuoso Christian Marsh.”
The Weeping Willows are a Victorian duo who have garnered a wagon full
There’s plenty in the program for those who are after a more local vibe, Merrigan assures.
“If it’s Australiana you’re after there’s trad favourites, The Bushwackers or, the punk folk rock outfit, The Bottlers,” she said. “Then there’s iconic Sydney indigenous duo The Stiff Gins, or WA’s renowned ragtime guitar duo The Paper Collar Pickers.”
“We’re just spoilt for choice. Every artist brings something truly special to the stage and I’d just encourage people to check out the full list of performers on the festival website.”
The 3-day Sydney Folk Festival will run from August 18 to 20 in Surry Hills.
All venues are within walking distance to each other and public transport.
Come and stick your fork into some folk and taste something new. You’ll be surprised.
of awards including three Golden Guitars. They produce a hauntingly engaging blend of Bluegrass and Gothic Americana, imbuing their lyrics with beauty and the grotesque without missing a beat.
The Spooky Men’s Chorale might be the strangest, most intriguing group of male singers with gruff faces and funny hats you are ever likely to see and hear. And that makes them a must. The group of 12 to 16 men (depending on individual circumstances) are an amateur choir led by an experienced
BY RITA BRATOVICH
In a rare musical event, members of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Brandenburg Choir will be joined on stage by five of Türkiye’s most venerated traditional musicians and Whirling Dervishes of the Sufi Mevlevi Order. The concert, Ottoman Baroque will bring together diverse elements of folk, classical, spiritual and cultural expression in a truly memorable performance.
The program is a mix of baroque western music and traditional music from Türkiye. The unique ensemble on stage should provide an extraordinary experience for music lovers, with an extra treat for those who appreciate beautifully crafted instruments. The concert will reach a climax with the
Whirling Dervishes of the Sufi Mevlevi Order from Konya, Türkiye, who will join the Brandenburg onstage for a live performance of their customary Sufi ceremony.
At the heart of the Ottoman Baroque will also be the poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi, the 13th century poet and Sufi mystic. For the concert series, the Brandeburg have commissioned a new choral work by acclaimed Australian composer Joe Twist, based on one of Rumi’s famous poems titled This Marriage. This poem was also performed at the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.
21 – 29 July, City Recital Hall,
2 Angel Place, Sydney, www.brandenburg.com.au
choir master who perform an eclectic repertoire – anything from ABBA to traditional Georgian songs to comical originals.
Created by New Zealand born Stephen Taberner more than 20 years ago, The Spooky Men’s Chorale quickly gained attention and then a keen following. They have performed at festivals and toured around Australia, New Zealand,
UK and Europe.
Most of the choristers hale from the Blue Mountains and they all have a rugged, bush aesthetic about them, but their voices can produce anything from robust bellowing to velvety sweet lilting. Audiences will laugh one minute, cry the next.
These boys may look funny and even
sing some rousingly humorous tunes, but they take their music seriously and give a polished and professional show. The Spooky Men’s Chorale are touring nationally.
Don’t miss ‘em.
July 22, Seymour Centre, cnr Cleveland St and City Rd, Chippendale, www.spookymen.com
At only 27 years old, Rechelle is a seasoned and respected singer, dancer, actor, and commercial model.
Her passion for performance was cemented at the age of 7 when she was cast in the live theatre production of Annie The Musical and soon after in Billy Elliot The Musical
“My parents said I could sing and dance long before I could walk and talk. They took me to lessons and auditions as a young child and they were so supportive,” reminisced Rechelle. “These experiences shaped what I wanted to do. There’s never been a period in my life when I’ve not been in love with performing. I knew when I was lucky enough to keep
working as a child that it would transition into my adult career.”
Rechelle has toured extensively with Blanc De Blanc, a world class cabaret touring show, and is about to release a new single, “Lush”, which she co-wrote. “Lush, to me represents sensuality not sexuality. It’s an essential experience for all the senses. That’s what my future album will be called when it comes out in a few months and my first proper concert will be a lush experience.”
Rechelle’s ultimate goal as a performer would be to have a concert tour.
Rechelle’s debut single, “Lush” is available on all online music streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, & deezer, from July 14
