Good evening, first I would like to give an acknowledgement to country I acknowledge we are meeting on the lands of the Gadigal and Bidjigal peoples, a land that was never ceded. Thank you for having me. Our lead candidate, Mora Main, sends her apologies as she has been called to Scotland on a family matter. She will be back soon and looks forward to seeing you all.
Until then, my name is Claire Bocking, and I am second on the Greens ticket for Lawson Ward. I was born in Adelaide but my childhood was spread over Washington DC, London and then eventually Canberra. I have Bachelor of Arts from the ANU, but I’m even prouder of my Bachelor of Acting with honors from Rose Bruford College in London, which is actually the same drama school Gary Oldman trained at. My partner and I moved to Los Angeles after I graduated, and I worked in film, TV, theatre and voiceover for over 15 years. My kids were born there and we owned a small house in a suburb just East of Hollywood. So why on earth would I make a good candidate for the Waverly ward of Lawson?
My short answer is the year 2020. January 1st that year we were evacuated from the enormous fire on the south coast that almost took my parents home in Broulee. I will always be immensely grateful to the huge effort of the firies and other essential of workers that ensured we got to safety. After that, we were relieved to arrive back in Los Angeles. And then Covid 19 hit. I probably don’t need to tell you that it was bad. While we sheltered at home, we watched from our window the growing numbers of homeless and hungry roamed the streets, often in front of houses that were empty. Our local park, where my son learned about LA wildlife at a camp just months prior, became a shanty town so full of tents and lean-tos, it was hard to see the fountains and the swan paddle boats on the lake. Eventually the city went in with hazmat gear and bulldozers and removed 64 tonnes of rubbish from the park, forcibly moved the homeless – they never said where – and erected large walls and gates, so the public could not enter. I got to see first hand what happens when generations of policy fail to protect the environment, and its very own citizens. I watched my city become one I did not want to live in.
The Greens are the only party in Australia that are actively pursuing Climate Action and Housing Affordibilty so It’s such an honor to run alongside Mora Main, who has served as a precinct convener for over a decade, spent 3 terms on council and even one year as Mayor, and I can not think of anyone more qualified to oversee the growth of the community than a landscape architect and urban designer. I’m so grateful to her, and all the previous councillors who have fought hard to protect waverley’s ancient trees, walkable, shady streets and beautiful architecture – and parks that children can still play in. I have large concerns then, about the intended Minns Government legislation SEPP. This proposed legislation will give the state government power to override all Council instruments anywhere in Waverley. Height limits, zoning, floorspace ratios, setbacks, potentially removing all heritage protections. All will be controlled by the state government for any site. Current council controls were written by Waverley Council officers with input from the community: people who love and breathe this area. Under the SEPP, this knowledge can be ignored.
The housing crisis has been explained to us as a lack of supply. We are told the solution is to build more residential towers Currently, developers need to plant shade trees as part of their construction. But these new towers are designed to go right up to the footpath with no space for the trees we badly need to cool our streets. Not only will they be wider, but they will also be taller. Currently the council requires dwellings to have at least 3 hours of sunlight per day. Again, the SEPP will allow developers to ignore this, and build darker, gloomier homes. And what do we get for all this concrete? The lack of tree canopy, extra height, and potentially slum like homes? An agreement to offer a small percentage of homes as ‘affordable’, a term they have not yet defined – and even then, only for 15 years. There’s no guarantee they will be affordable enough for our precious firies, nurses, aged care workers, teachers and other workers. I have seen the cost of allowing property developers to unscrupulously profit from housing, and I assure you it is way too high.
We need a diverse community, which means public housing. But here in Waverley, we don’t want slums. All new construction needs to be QUALITY homes, built to environmental standards, to withstand the extreme heat and storms of climate change, that do not worsen the problem. Developers will not build these out on good will. They need to be held to a high standard if they are building homes in our community. We need people like Mora, and others on council, to make sure they are doing so. In this way the SEPP is a disastrous loss of local autonomy for our whole community.
Mora would also turn her attention to the Bondi Junction area, which is currently littered with empty shop fronts because property owners can can negative gear the rent, artificially inflating the property bubble, white leaving our communal spaces looking shabby and unloved. Imagine instead, a local landscape that includes a performance venue, a major art gallery. Creative office spaces, artist studios, live music and rehearsal spaces. Waverley is home to one of the highest concentrations of creative professionals in Australia. Not only do these industries make a substantial contribution to the local economy, tourism and education but they create a vibrant, and exciting space to be in. Currently the rent for local spaces is high, but Waverley Council could take a proactive role by identifying council-owned buildings and potentially acquiring suitable sites using grants from the Federal and State governments to help. Bondi Junction is already a public transport hub. I would love to help Mora evolve it into a cultural and culinary centre for the Eastern Suburbs.
The 130,000 across Waverley and Woollahra deserve something better.