State election 2023: We catch up with the teal independent & green candidates
January 2023 Issue 19
News and views for North Sydney’s residential and business communities
www.northsydneysun.com.au
Council apologises for Bradfield Park’s NYE fail North Sydney Council has apologised for a New Years Eve debacle where thousands of would-be fireworks spectators were forced to queue for hours outside an under-staffed sole entrance to Bradfield Park and Mary Booth Reserve. The entry delays prompted blowback on social media from local residents and attendees. Council this year offered 17,000 tickets to Bradfield Park, under advice from police and fireworks organisers that this would enable better event management. Despite the advice of Council staff to charge for tickets, which creates a revenue base to help pay for security and trash collection, mayor Zoe Baker successfully moved on the council floor that the tickets be made free. This resulted in what appeared to be a resource-constrained event, with gates only open at 5pm and limited staff to check QR codes and bags for entry. Queues began to form midafternoon and by 5pm stretched a kilometre up to the top of Alfred Street South and back again to the QE Store on Cliff St. One attendee, Danee Santiago, told the Sun that the queue moved “maybe two metres in two hours.” She said the dysfunction was such that fights broke out. “Service became impossible. We walked into the entry close to 8. Very poor bag searches and crowds in all directions at that end. Absolutely chaos,” she said. Another resident, Heidi Jarman,
LEFT: By late afternoon, the queue stretched from the Burton Street gate at Bradfield Park all the way up to the Lavender Street roundabout and then back towards the source. ABOVE: Attendees began queuing from 2pm and, in many cases, did not gain access for several hours to the park, which remained half empty all evening. Pictures by Grahame Lynch posted on Facebook that “We only moved 50 metres in 2.5 hours & thought we’d miss the 9 pm fireworks because we were nowhere near the entrance. At the last minute they must have moved everyone along quickly to get them in before 9 pm, there was a crowd crush of people then at the entrance. So dangerous.” “Not to mention all the people standing in line for hours in the heat… how do the elderly & young children & those with disabilities manage… truly terrible. We got inside around 8.45 pm, and all our picnic food was hot by then,” Jarman said. Making matters worse was a prohibition on pass-outs which many residents observed reduced trade for local
businesses. This attracted criticism from councillor Jilly Gibson who said that the problems could have been foreseen months before: “Council needs to do better next time. The parks should have been open in the morning with pass outs so people could wander up to the local shops and spend some money. This Council is the most anti small business council I’ve been on.” For its part, North Sydney Council described various factors akin to a “perfect storm” which led to the extensive delays in entry. Manager communication and events Sandra Moore said the Council apologised for what transpired. “A number of factors contributed to
the queue and these will be reviewed in our debrief with other agencies to see how access to Bradfield Park can be improved in future years.” Moore said NSW Police and Sydney Santer Trains closeGodfrey the Burton St tunnel and Milsons Point railway station for safety and to use for Mounted Police. “This means the only way for pedestrians to cross between Kirribilli and Milsons Point was via Fitzroy Street. This resulted in difficulty getting ticketholders across the flow of pedestrians going in the crosswise direction, she told the Sun “We didn’t expect so many people to arrive early in the evening. In previContinued Page 2
Felicity Wilson: Why I genuinely represent North Shore values Incumbent North Shore MP Felicity Wilson has defended herself as a genuine representative in step with the core values of the community, and emphasised that social justice and environmental causes are not the exclusive preserve of her challengers. In an extensive interview ahead of the March state election, Wilson reflected on what she sees as the core values and needs of the North Sydney and Mosman districts and why she remains the best representative for the electorate. Referencing the recent Census results, she told the Sun: “This electorate has the highest proportion of women voters of any of the 93 electorates in the state. We also have the highest level of educational attainment, so post high school qualifications. Some of the highest public transport use.
“We’ve got a lot of renters, a lot of people live lot in strata. And I rent. I live in strata. I do a lot of the things that the community do. Kids in childcare. But also, probably more importantly, is I think my values align to the community,” she explained. “The Liberals believe in the individual. We believe in opportunity. But we also believe in social justice.” “People might want to characterise that there’s a progressive or a conservative or whatever there is, and that the Liberal party can’t be X or Y. So some people might want to say, well, you need a different candidate, or you need a teal or an independent or a green in order to deliver the environmental outcomes or preserve the rights of women or stand up for marContinued on page 7
Alanya Drummond & John Lepouris
Felicity Wilson and supporters at Spit Rd this month