The plan would affect thousands of public-housing tenants in
Redfern and Waterloo,
and Sylvia Hale, a Greens upper house MP, said they needed to be told the
truth.
“Despite announcing its intention to redevelop public
housing in the area two years ago, we are yet to see the plans,” she said.
“It is intolerable that residents are not being told
what will happen to their homes.”
The Greens candidate for Heffron, Ben
Spies-Butcher, said he feared a repeat of the
“mess” in redevelopments at Minto and Dubbo where public-housing
tenants were not allowed to return to their communities after the work was
completed.
“You can’t just take governments on their word. They
say they will look at doing a redevelopment and will let you know after the
election exactly how it works and what is going on,” he said.
“We don’t think that is a reasonable way to do
it.”
However, a spokeswoman for the Minister for Planning, Frank
Sartor, said there would be no cuts to public housing, current residents would
not be disadvantaged, and all public tenancies were secure.
“This is a cynical attempt to score political points by
scaring vulnerable people,” she said.
“The NSW Government has been clear from the start that
current public housing residents will not be disadvantaged under our plans to
increase local jobs and affordable housing in Redfern-Waterloo.”
The draft stage two of the Built Environment Plan will be
exhibited, she said.