Councillor Chris Harris

A green watchdog drawn by Reg Mombassa, the original Mambo designer, was revealed as the theme and mascot of The Greens’ campaign for Sydney at an official launch outside Parliament House last week.

Candidate Chris Harris wove the watchdog theme into his launch speech. The green watchdog symbolises The Greens’ role in watching for, and alerting us to, the hidden deals with big business that have influenced so many decisions of Labor and Liberal.

The Greens stay apart from this secret influence-peddling because they do not accept donations from the big end of town.

Chris also revealed a major new policy platform for this election — better rights for apartment dwellers, who all-too-often wear the sharp end when developers and building managers take short-cuts with building design, repair, management and tenancy policies.

Greens MP Sylvia Hale, working with Chris, will introduce a new strata law reform Bill into the upper house which will give apartment dwellers a much better deal.

And, with the help of a well-known strata expert who uses the pen-name ‘Galsworthy’, this website already has a whole new section explaining what’s wrong with current strata practices and offering an extensive FAQ section for owners and tenants. (See link button in the right column).

The strata pages cover everything from problems with pets to the ins and outs of body corporate politics. They offer a unique resource for apartment dwellers.

Read on for the full text of Chris’ campaign speech and make sure next March you PUT A GREEN WATCHDOG IN THE NSW PARLIAMENT.

The campaign speech

Thank you for coming and welcome to this launch of the Greens campaign for the seat of Sydney

I’m here today to tell you why it’s time to put a Green watchdog into the lower house as the member for Sydney.

As the Green watchdog I’ll be sniffing out the hidden deals that the major parties are doing with their ‘mates’ in both the
gaming and hotel industries and the construction and property industries.

I’ll be bringing the government and opposition to heel on their inexcusable lack of action on what is the greatest threat to our existence - the effects of global warming.

But I’m not just here to bark at the government.

As the Greens member for Sydney I’ll be offering solutions, such as ways to deal with our excess water use, our excessive use of energy and our addiction to the motorcar.

As the Green watchdog for Sydney I’ll be offering solutions to the devastation that gambling causes to families in this State and demanding that the government eliminate their reliance on profits from poker machines to shore up their budget.

But today I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the Greens proposed law reforms that will assist people who, up ’til now, have been totally ignored by Labor and the Liberals - the people who live in Sydney apartments.

As the Green watchdog I’ll put real bite into the strata laws to give these people a fair go.

Ordinary apartment owners are being ripped off left, right and centre. Owners - particularly young families and retirees - are being cheated out of their life savings by developers who sell them shoddy properties in strata titled buildings. Think about this- Will any defects ever be found in these buildings by a building manager who has been given a l0-year ‘mates’ contract by the developer? I doubt it,

Why would Labour and the Coalition ignore strata residents who make up 20% of the State’s population? The answer is simple: the major parties are in the pockets of property developers who are the biggest donors to their party funds?

Well I’ve had enough of this. The Greens are sick and tired of watching the Coalition and Labour Parties line their coffers with money gouged out of apartment owners and tenants by grateful developers.

As the Green watchdog for Sydney I’ll:

• limit building and strata manager contracts to one year.
• I’ll introduce procedures to allow faster resolution of minor disputes.
• as the Green watchdog I’ll require any person standing for election to a strata plan’s executive committee to declare a conflict of interest with a developer, building manager or strata manager.
• Similarly, contractors would be required to declare the same conflict of interest.
• the Greens will introduce independent assessment of new building defects.
• finally, as the Green watchdog I will demand that the government establish a Strata Ombudsman.

If elected, I’ll work to change the laws so that apartment residents are treated as equal citizens and not just cash cows for the greedy who benefit from ineffective government legislation.

Put a Green watchdog in the lower house in 2007 and I promise to put real bite into the NSW parliament for the next four years.