Feasibility study to move SBS from Artarmon to Sydney’s west
The proposal is again under way to move SBS headquarters from its current location in Artarmon to multicultural western Sydney. Tell us what you think.
NSW
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The days of SBS remaining on Sydney’s leafy north shore appear numbered, with a report into a move tipped to be commissioned later this year.
While former communications minister Paul Fletcher long resisted a push to move its 900 employees closer to those it claims to represent, new Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has told The Sunday Telegraph a proposal will soon go to cabinet.
“Labor has committed to commissioning a feasibility study into the relocation of the SBS headquarters and studios from Artarmon to Western Sydney, alongside the provision of a multipurpose space for community use,” she said.
“These proposals are now being developed to go to Cabinet in due course and more information about the timing of the feasibility study will be provided to relevant stakeholders when it is available later this year.”
The statement is Ms Rowland’s first major comments about moving the broadcaster since the election.
“When former prime minister Paul Keating opened the SBS building in Artarmon over 25 years ago, it was to help mainstream SBS by moving it closer to other TV networks, bringing radio and TV under the one roof for a complete service,” she said.
Since then the organisation’s employees have remained there, despite Channel 9 relocating to North Sydney in February 2020.
The change has long been supported by western Sydney councils as well as Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue chairman Chris Brown.
“Greater Western Sydney is denied much of the taxpayer-funded cultural capital that the inner city enjoys and this is one idea that can help to redress the imbalance – at a fraction of the cost of new museums and galleries, and with a much greater employment and political dividend,” Mr Brown said.
“It has been estimated that it costs taxpayers approximately $1.5 billion annually to fund the ABC and SBS, and a move to a more cost-effective location – like Bankstown for instance, accessed by a new Metro Rail line from the CBD and proximate to the Inner West – would result in considerable savings.”
In May last year Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour proposed the creation of SBS Square at Campsie.
The council said the cost of building SBS Square with a new SBS HQ will be in the vicinity of $120 million, create almost 400 construction jobs and generate $85m for the Sydney economy.
Mr Asfour said this week “we are updating our proposal and we will be looking to meet with the minister shortly”.
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