Duncan Gay is the Leader of the National party in the NSW
Upper House and has been there since 1988.
He lives in Redfern while parliament is sitting and, at
other times, he lives with his family in Crookwell. Crookwell is north of
Goulburn in the high country on the western slope of the Great
Dividing Range. Its population, according to the 2000 census, is
just 4339.
Like most politicians, Duncan
has a very heavy workload, especially as a member of the NSW Upper house where
every question time he slogs it out with some of the Labor Party’s toughest
pollies. He relaxes by watching Rugby Union, which he has played in the past,
plus a bit of Ruby League.
He also enjoys walking the streets of Redfern and his home
town of Crookwell.
He reads “trashy novels”, as well as the classics, and is a
regular attendee at performances of the Bell Shakespeare company. The South
Sydney Herald canvassed with Duncan
his position on some of those inner-city type issues such as:
Lowering age of consent for gay men – He is opposed to this
because he believes that boys take longer to mature and that aged 16 is too
young for boys to make lifestyle choices.
Same sex parent’s adoption – He holds to the view that what
is best for the child is of course is the most important issue. Duncan says “These are
issues that are not foremost in my mind. I spend much more of my time fighting
for the people of rural and regional NSW.”
Why live in Redfern when parliament is in session?
He experiences Redfern as a nice place, “a bit like a small
country town”. During his early morning power walks, he meets a whole range of
people and says that there is a real sense of community. He also likes some of our
local politicians – the Labor Party’s Tony Pooley is someone whom he has met
over the years and he holds him in high regard, as well as the Liberal Party’s
Shayne Mallard.
The Future of Redfern Waterloo with the Redfern Waterloo
Authority – Duncan said that the Coalition supports what the RWA is trying to
do in Redfern-Waterloo but admits they have some concerns about the style of
the Minister. He also added that the Redfern-Waterloo Act probably gives the
minister a bit too much power.
How to get rid of those roller shutters on Redfern shop
fronts – While a new Police Station was long overdue, all that has happened is
they have moved from one station hidden in Turner Street to a compound way off the
street level. He thinks that they should set up two shop-front Police Stations
– one in Regent Street
and one in Redfern Street.
With a higher police profile on the streets, this may give shop owners more confidence
to take off their shutters, which he agrees do make the streets of Redfern look
like Baghdad by
night. As well, he suggests that, perhaps for 12 months, either the Council or
the RWA or both could share the cost of shop insurance premiums. While National
Party politicians aren’t very popular in the inner city, most people would say Duncan is a good bloke –
the sort of bloke you could have a beer with – and, besides that, he likes
Redfern.
If you want to have a beer with Duncan come and meet him at the South Sydney
Herald fundraiser at 4pm Sunday 28 May