Councillor Chris Harris

I attended a Climate change protest in Martin Place on Friday and the larger protest rally and march from Town Hall Square to Hyde Park on Saturday. I found the police presence to be overbearing, disproportionate, aggressive and intimidating and I found my beautiful city and its lively atmosphere reduced to that of a large town in a third world police state. We should not allow our government to suppress dissent and the public voice in this manner.

On Friday I witnessed the arrest of the man who squirted tomato sauce on a pro-Bush banner in Hyde Park. It reminded me of a pack of dogs attacking a rabbit. Numerous police armed to the teeth pushed the man to the ground, twisted his arms and wrist and jammed his face into the dirt and yelled and screamed at him with every second utterance containing variations of the word “f***”. It was nothing short of a cowardly assault. Apologies to individual police if they were “just following orders”.

The scene was frightening and deeply disturbing and presented to me as a totally disproportionate response by uniformed bullies in response to an incident that should have been dealt with by one or two police, a firm verbal request and a warning or demand of an apology.

In my view, the citizens of Sydney should resist this kind of power in the hands of police and should receive a retraction and apology for the ridiculous scare mongering by the Police Commissioner in the days preceding APEC. It looked like Sydney‘s version of “Children Overboard” and “WMD” to many of us who were there and witnessed a good-spirited and peaceful two days of protest and attempted expression of free speech.

Picture: Riot Squad ’storm troopers’ arrive at the rear of the rally, many with their name-badges removed, backed up by the new water cannon. Click on for more pictures. Read the rest of this entry »

On the day that Justice Jayne Jagot found for the developer in the Carlton United Breweries (CUB) case she highlighted the fact that courts do not make merit decisions, they simply uphold the law.  Whether or not that law is a donkey’s bottom is irrelevant, it’s the law.

For all of those who had believed there was a chance for the environment and for Sydney to come out of its industrial revolution, smog-infested thinking, it was a very bleak day indeed.

Then from the gloom of the courtroom there was suddenly hope in a Chippendale café coming from the most unexpected source – the developer.

Unlike Foster’s - the previous owners of the CUB site who wouldn’t even return phone calls let alone agree to a meeting - the Singapore based Frasers Group wanted to talk.

Ecological sustainability of the CUB site is the fundamental core of the community’s problem with the development. This community is as Elizabeth Farrelly articulated in her piece (Fooled again by a system that stinks SMH 22/8/07) “neither stupid nor intransigent nor luddite; they know that development must happen and that sustainability demands density.” Read the rest of this entry »

The environment.
R.I.P.

It was a black day for Sydney as Justice Jagot in the NSW Land & Environment Court ruled against the environment in favor of unsustainable development and the unfettered powers of Minister Sartor.

This was the first Australian case (Drake-Brockman v Minister for Planning) dealing with the climate change effects of a large urban development. The development – the Carlton United Brewery site (CUB) in Chippendale – was formerly owned by Foster’s Ltd and recently acquired by Singapore based Frasers Property. 

Justice Jagot upheld that while Minister Sartor should encourage sustainable development, under the law the Minister was not compelled to, nor was it in the court’s jurisdiction to force the Minister to do so.
 
Deputy Lord Mayor, Greens Councillor Chris Harris: “Under Part 3A Minister Sartor can do whatever he likes to the environment and the Land and Environment Court is powerless to stop him. 
 
“Thanks to this ruling, the CUB development could legally spew out millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from the 2300 cars approved for the site. Using coal-fired generated electricity it could pump hundreds of thousands of litres of water to the site and hundreds of thousands of litres of sewage from the site and into the harbour every year.   Not only that but this development will be the benchmark for every other development approved in the city.

“If Labor wanted to lower the bar on sustainability and kill off the environment they couldn’t have found a better man for the job than Mr Sartor.

“Ironically businesses, schools and ordinary Australians are the ones coming up with innovative ideas to counter climate change. Hopefully Frasers will join this group and differentiate themselves  from Fosters and the Labor government who are so blinded by the pollution they create that they sacrifice future generations for profit?” Cr Harris said.

The judgement in full can be found here.

On Wednesday July 25th in the Land and Environment court counsel for Minister Frank Sartor stunned the packed courtroom with the extraordinary statement that the 2300 cars approved for the Carlton United Brewery (CUB) development was consistent with reducing climate change.

Deputy Lord Mayor Greens Cr. Chris Harris: “I’m not sure if this was a joke or counsel for the Minister thought they were in la-la land rather than a court of law. Either way to stand up in court and pronounce that 2300 cars would help reduce rather than increase our greenhouse emissions is unacceptable.”

The Minister’s counsel denied that the Minister is obliged to take ESD (Environmental Sustainable Development) considerations into account in making a decision under Part 3A. Counsel also argued that ESD guidelines were there to encourage not necessarily achieve sustainability.

“In other words according to the Minister, developments are encouraged but not obliged to include ESD principles and the Minister doesn’t have to consider ESD if he doesn’t want to. I guess this helps you understand the Minister’s view that 2300 cars is an environmental legacy rather than an environmental disaster” Cr. Harris said

Unlike Foster’s, who did not even respond to my offer to meet, I am encouraged by a positive response from Dr Stanley Quek, Managing Director, Frasers Greencliff Developments Pty Ltd. I look forward to meeting with him in August.