Labor `shame’ at Sartor’s plans for the Block: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 06 June 2005: 3.
Abstract
Ten days ago the state Government declared the Block and other parts of [Redfern] to be of “state significance” and gazetted planning controls from Sydney City Council. Mr [Frank Sartor], the minister responsible for the Redfern Waterloo Authority, in charge of rejuvenating the blighted district, has total control over its future.
His vision, which does not include Aboriginal housing, clashes directly with the “traditional owners” of the land and has sparked ugly headlines suggesting Mr Sartor wants “no black faces on the Block”.
Aboriginal Housing Company chief executive Mick Mundine said the NSW Government was “ready to sell out the blackfellas”. “They have a grand plan for Redfern that doesn’t include the poor or people with dark skin … This is all about power. The Block represents a true voice for Aboriginal people and that is what they are trying to stop.”
Full Text
MORE than 30 years after Gough Whitlam’s Redfern dream, the houses in the notorious inner-Sydney ghetto of the Block are still derelict — the windows smashed or boarded up, the gardens full of rubbish and the doors wrenched off after successive drug raids.
The dream of creating a source of indigenous pride in the heart of Sydney is literally in ashes.
Now another Labor politician, the Carr Government’s Frank Sartor, has a very different vision for the Block.
It is still owned by the Aboriginal Housing Company, but only 16 families are still living on the Block. Bought with a Whitlam government grant in 1973, it became a hub for indigenous activism, including some of the country’s first Aboriginal legal and medical services.
Hope died in the 1990s. Some believe the Block’s descent into drugs, crime, violence, poverty and dereliction began with the painting of an unlucky rainbow serpent on a boundary wall. Others say it was deliberately encouraged by the state government with “genocidal” harm-minimisation drug policies.
These included the provision of a “needle bus” next to a children’s park, which attracted hundreds of addicts from around the city into an already besieged community, and official tolerance of heroin dealing.
A crackdown by police and Aboriginal agencies has largely rid the Block of heroin, and its shuttered houses are now empty of people. But the view of the city’s skyline means that in private hands the Block could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Ten days ago the state Government declared the Block and other parts of Redfern to be of “state significance” and gazetted planning controls from Sydney City Council. Mr Sartor, the minister responsible for the Redfern Waterloo Authority, in charge of rejuvenating the blighted district, has total control over its future.
His vision, which does not include Aboriginal housing, clashes directly with the “traditional owners” of the land and has sparked ugly headlines suggesting Mr Sartor wants “no black faces on the Block”.
Feelings are also running high in inner-city ALP branches, which are supporting a candlelight vigil on Thursday against Mr Sartor.
Long-time Labor supporter and Darlington branch secretary Trevor Davies said: “I am today ashamed to be a member of the ALP. This is an unprincipled land grab.”
Aboriginal Housing Company chief executive Mick Mundine said the NSW Government was “ready to sell out the blackfellas”. “They have a grand plan for Redfern that doesn’t include the poor or people with dark skin … This is all about power. The Block represents a true voice for Aboriginal people and that is what they are trying to stop.”