The Coalition’s proposal to convert Long Bay jail into 12,000 homes has erupted into a fight over the future of housing in prime Sydney locations, with Planning Minister Paul Scully labelling it a fantasy.
As Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane questioned why a prison occupied 50 hectares of prime real estate in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Scully decried the plan as “nothing more than a multibillion-dollar bill to the taxpayer masquerading as a housing plan”.
The housing battle has turned personal after the Coalition and Labor each released plans for massive redevelopments in safe seats held by the opposing party: Woollahra and Edgecliff in Sloane’s seat of Vaucluse, and the Long Bay plan in Attorney-General Michael Daley’s seat of Maroubra.
Hours after this masthead revealed the Liberals’ plan to establish a delivery authority to organise the closure of Long Bay prison within 100 days if elected in March, three Labor ministers stood outside the corrections centre on Wednesday to condemn the proposal as unworkable.
“What we’ve seen from the member for Vaucluse and the Liberal Party is a plan to not have housing in Woollahra. This is a distraction and a fantasy of an idea,” Scully said.
“The reality is the idea of putting 12,000 homes on the site behind us would create an area of around three times the density of Green Square without any of the transport infrastructure. This doesn’t pass the most basic of planning tests.”
Daley said the proposed uplift in density was unworkable given Anzac Parade – the only road in or out of the peninsula – was already “chock-a-block” in the morning. Premier Chris Minns has previously said the only way to make the redevelopment stack up is by building a metro station nearby, which the government has no plans to do.
Scully said there were several unanswered questions about the Coalition proposal, including where the jail’s 1200 inmates would be rehoused, and the overall cost. Sloane has suggested selling the land to developers could yield the government up to $2 billion.
Opposition planning spokesman Chris Rath accused the government of claiming they were pro-housing while rejecting each of the Coalition’s three planning proposals, including building 10,000 new homes in the inner west and 10,000 new homes in Camellia-Rosehill.
“So they talk a big game on housing, but when it comes to actually delivering, they are 40 per cent behind their National Housing Accord target. And it’s very disappointing today to see that they’re against our plan for 12,000 new homes right here at Long Bay,” he said.
In an interview with ABC Sydney on Wednesday morning, Sloane was unable to say what the proposed cost of the redevelopment would be, nor where Long Bay’s 1200 inmates would be rehoused if the proposal went ahead. She argued a delivery authority would be established to work through those issues.
Sloane acknowledged the plan would require upgraded transport infrastructure “down the track”, suggesting the extension of the light rail down Anzac Parade was an idea. She then attacked Treasurer Daniel Mookhey for refusing to explore “one of the most obvious opportunities for urban renewal, close to the city”.
David Borger, the spokesman for YIMBY group Housing Now! and former Labor minister, threw his support behind the plan.
“Sydney needs more homes in places where people want to live and Long Bay represents a significant opportunity to deliver new housing in the eastern suburbs,” he said in a statement.
“But this shouldn’t become a choice between Long Bay and greater density around a future Woollahra station. Sydney needs both.”
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