New works at Neutral Bay Public | Primrose tennis courts re-open | Walker St developments
September 2022 Issue 16
News and views for North Sydney’s residential and business communities
www.northsydneysun.com.au
N Syd Olympic Pool opening deferred until July next year
North Sydney’s Olympic Pool redevelopment is now running over 160 days behind schedule and is now anticipated to open in July next year. A monthly progress report submitted to councillors puts the current delay at 161 days, attributed to four main causes. Sydney’s record-busting rain was responsible for 54 days of the delays while COVID-related shutdowns resulted in another 22 days of delays. These included site shutdown as a result of statewide policies, inefficiencies caused by COVID-19 and a positive COVID case on the site. However, another 47 days of delays came from issues with design coordi-
nation and finalisation, and another 38 days of delays from hazardous material removal as well as “additional strengthening works and other issues at the beginning of the project.” When the original schedule of works was announced in July 2020, it was anticipated that the pool would be re-opened in time for Christmas 2022. The Council was still sticking to that timeline by early 2021. But works didn’t commence until March 2021 and by December 2021 it was clear the re-opening would be delayed. In the interim, the estimated cost of the refurbishment has increased from $28 million to $64 million.
What can North Sydney learn from New York City? By Grahame Lynch As Frankie sang, New York City definitely makes the small town blues melt away. It’s a place which gets more than its share of bad knocks—9-11, airliners in the Hudson to name two—but through this adversity, it always manages to rebound with an essential and relentless energy. And it’s a place which shares something in common with our own North Sydney: both places see high rise residential and commercial share the same streets at the same time attempting to balance their history with modernity. Cr Ian Mutton certainly thinks
North Sydney can learn something from New York City. He has been travelling there regularly since the 1980s, most recently in August for the first time since the COVID lockdowns. This time Mutton spent time in both SoHo and Midtown, observing: “New York took me by surprise. It’s a boom economy. Absolutely buzzing away. So there’s no leftover from COVID. There was a vibrance on the street, there was a community on the street. So we’d go and have, breakfast at the restaurants, and people would Continued Page 3
Viva Energy claims no engagement with Kylea Tink By Grahame Lynch Oil refiner Viva Energy has revealed its board has not had any engagement with local federal MP Kylea Tink via correspondence or direct questioning after she claimed she bought shares in the oil refining company for the purposes of shareholder activism. Tink is under media pressure after she declared that she held shares in two fossil fuel companies, Viva Energy and Beach Energy, as well as toll road operator TransUrban. Tink, who was elected earlier this year on strong climate change and integrity policies, revealed the shareholdings in her Statement of Registrable Interests to the parliament, lodged just last week. With both the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph contacting her for an explanation, Tink said: “I purchased small shareholdings
in a number of companies where I felt shareholder activism may be a way to both better understand the entities involved and potentially exert pressure from within to drive in reform.” She said the shares were bought in early 2021, which places their acquisition several months before she says she was approached to run for parliament But North Sydney Sun contacted Viva Energy to ask if they had engaged with Tink as an activist shareholder over her proposed reforms. “The Viva Energy board has not had any engagement from Ms Tink and there have not been any questions at our AGM,” a spokesperson told the Sun. Viva has held two AGMs since the shares were claimed to have been acquired: in May last year and May this year. Beach Energy referred inquiries to its minutes of its AGMs, which also
did not contain any record of questions from Tink. Earlier, Tink said her investment in Viva was: “chosen as the company owns one of the last two remaining oil refineries in Australia and I was concerned the refinery was not being pushed to produce the highest quality fuel for the Australian market.” Tink said on her website re the share purchases: “In each instance, I have been very vocal in my desire to see change and reform and remain committed to exploring shareholder activism as a way to affect change. The small amount of dividends I have received in the last 12 months were donated back into renewable energy campaigns or emissions offsetting.” She continued: “I encourage anyone with the capacity to take such a course of action to also become shareholders in the companies that they
Kylea Tink wish to see reformed as it is often only from working within that change can be driven.” The Sydney Morning Herald noted that she had not provided details of what that activism entailed nor the size of the shareholdings.