In an electorate that screams privilege, an MP needs to pick a side on the housing crisis

The NSW Liberals face a wicked problem. How does the party walk the political tightrope of being pro-housing at the same time many of their constituents, not to mention local councillors, remain wedded to one word: overdevelopment.

As Sydney, and indeed the country, contends with a chronic shortage of homes, no NSW Liberal will feel this conundrum more acutely than Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane. Overdevelopment, once the mainstay of local campaigning for both sides of politics, has morphed into the politically charged term NIMBYism. On the other side of the argument is YIMBYism, which is becoming synonymous with wanting to fix one of the greatest social problems of this generation.

Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane and the proposed Woollahra railway station. Credit: Monique Westermann

Sloane, a moderate who is seen as a future leadership contender, has the seemingly impossible task of ensuring her party reflects the needs of modern Australia (which, as the federal election showed, the Liberals are failing to do) while representing the voters who put her into office.

Examining one of Sloane’s biggest obstacles to assuming the leadership paints a good picture of how hard her task will be. A major impediment to securing the top job is not a lack of talent, nor party room support. Rather, it is the name of her seat.

No electorate in NSW screams privilege as much as hers. While it takes in areas including Bondi Beach and Edgecliff, Vaucluse – with its sprawling homes – is the antithesis of many other areas of the state, not least western Sydney. And the Liberals know this, so much so that there is talk that when the next boundary redistributions are drafted, the Liberals will lobby to have the seat renamed, perhaps back to Bondi (abolished in 1971) or even Waverley (axed in 1990).

Seat name aside, Sloane, a former television journalist turned businesswoman, is keenly aware of the housing challenge she has to face in her seat. How she manages it is a different question.

At an eastern suburbs housing community forum last month, Sloane told the attendees that the Labor government’s policy to build townhouses, terraces and six-storey apartment blocks within 400 metres of town centres was “quite confronting”. Sloane singled out Rose Bay as being unfairly targeted, arguing the suburb lacked critical services such as a major supermarket or a train line.

Later, after her federal colleague Liberal housing spokesman Andrew Bragg took a veiled swipe at her stance, Sloane said she rejected being labelled a NIMBY. “I am pro-development,” she said, “it’s a responsibility for every community, but I want a guarantee that it comes with investment in infrastructure.”

To make her point, Sloane stressed that she wants more ambitious towers above Edgecliff station, with 30 storeys instead of the proposed seven. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman also downplayed her Rose Bay comments, instead suggesting that the NSW Liberals want to embrace the term ADIMBY, an acronym that will never take off but stands for the wishy-washy “appropriate development in my backyard”.

Sketches show buildings between six and eight storeys tall could be built above a Woollahra station.Credit: Cove Architects

A looming test for Sloane will be how she approaches the latest housing plans for her electorate, this time in leafy Woollahra. The government is quietly working on opening the long-abandoned ghost station in the suburb between Edgecliff and Bondi Junction stations.

The reality is, Premier Chris Minns needs to find new housing sites, not least because plans for 25,000 new homes on the site of the Rosehill racecourse have been killed off. Woollahra, with its proximity to the city and existing transport routes, is an obvious option. Once dubbed “Sydney’s big white elephant”, the long-dormant Woollahra train station proposal would not go close to delivering the number of houses touted for Rosehill. But it would be a start.

The opening of the station, abandoned in the 1970s after backlash from locals, would allow the government to pursue another plank of its signature transport-oriented development scheme. Woollahra already has the bones of a station and with a facelift could accommodate the only above-ground platforms on the eastern suburbs line.

But it will not come without a fight. Housing policy has divided the NSW Liberals, with some younger MPs urging the party to be unashamedly YIMBY – while others have been critical of the Minns government’s approach. It has also divided councils. Ahead of last year’s local government elections, the Herald asked candidates to respond to a survey about why they were running and what they wanted to accomplish.

Sean Carmichael, a Liberal elected to Woollahra Council, responded; “I firmly oppose Labor’s reckless plan for 11,000 extra dwellings in Woollahra, advocating instead for growth that respects our community’s desires while responsibly addressing housing needs.” Fellow Liberal Kahu Millin said his main concern was “planning and overdevelopment”, as did Sarah Swan, Liberal mayor of Woollahra, who used one word to define her biggest issue – “overdevelopment”.

Sloane, presumably burnt after her Rose Bay comments, has been circumspect about the Woollahra proposal, preferring to say she was not opposed to it but would like to see some modelling before casting judgment. That is reasonable.

But in coming months, fence-sitting will not be an option and Sloane will need to have a position. This is where her, and the party’s, stance on housing will become a major flashpoint. Sloane, as a senior frontbencher, will have to be something for everyone – the MP for Vaucluse and a reasonable modern voice for a party that has to come back from the political doldrums.

Alexandra Smith is state political editor.

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