Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull blasted over patronising view of Western Sydney

The Turnbulls are the epitome of arrogance and snobbery in thinking everyone else in Sydney aspires to be just like those who live in the east, writes Clarissa Bye.

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull and Lucy have come out and shared their “dream to make western Sydney as liveable as the east”.

They want to “conceptualise” — a wanky university word for change — the city’s suburbs to be more “climate-change-resistant, more human friendly, more walkable, more cyclable, more medium density”.

They claim Glebe and Paddington’s crammed terrace houses are among the most attractive and valuable properties in the country.

What a bunch of snobs.

Memo Malcolm and Lucy:

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and wife Lucy. Picture: Adam Taylor

We don’t share your patronising “dream” to make western Sydney “as liveable as the east”.

It’s already more liveable.

Not everyone wants to live in the crowded traffic nightmare of the eastern suburbs. Where you have no parking and are forced to inch past other kamikaze motorists on narrow crooked streets.

Crowded terraces in Hargrave Street, Paddington.

Not everyone aspires to a dank, mouldy cold old terrace at Paddington built more than a century ago.

We don’t all want to cycle with our kids to Coles to buy two trolley loads’ worth of groceries and somehow juggle that on a bike home.

Not everyone wants to live the dream of “medium density housing”. Some people love having a front and back yard and plenty of space.

In short, we don’t envy you and it’s patronising in the extreme to think we do.

Sydney is full of wonderful suburbs. Autumn Festival in the Auburn Botanic Gardens.

Certainly not the people who’ve chosen to live in Sydney’s wonderful suburbs and love them.

Who live near massive parks like the three national parks surrounding the city, or Bicentennial Park, Parramatta Park or the 27km long Western Sydney Parklands.

Or near the scenic waterways and rivers that cut through the sandstone of Greater Sydney like jewels.

My local Oatley Park beats your closest patch of green, the sad Bungaree Reserve off New South Head road, any day of the week.

NSW Transport Minister David Elliott has taken affront to the Turnbull’s view of western Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire

As “westie” Transport Minister David Elliott pointed out in his response to the Turnbulls: “Parramatta Park was gazetted in 1858, making it 30 years older - and twice the size - than your beloved Centennial Park”.

In an interview in the Sydney Morning Herald this week the Turnbulls were described as “eastern suburbs blue bloods” who championed the cause of western Sydney to “ensure the area reaches its potential”.

How arrogant the Point Piper couple come across as, like the proverbial haughty Lord and Lady Muck looking down upon us.

Western Sydney Parklands has views from the Blue Mountains to the CBD and showcases some of NSW’s most beautiful bush and natural beauty.

They remind me of the “slum travellers” of the Victorian era. For two decades before World War I, morally upright upper class English women would venture out into the poor districts of London, forming committees and bestowing their good deeds on the deserving poor.

Even many of the loyal SMH readers called out the Turnbulls, with comments like: “These people can stay where they are. Western Sydney is fantastic as it is. Wouldn’t live anywhere else”.

Marvel’s ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ film set comes to life in Sydney’s western suburbs. Picture: Supplied

Another reader Paul made a good suggestion:

“I’m sure all the westies and once were westies, like myself, are and will always be very grateful for bringing such bliss into our otherwise horrible Dickensian servitude and drudgery.

“Maybe a statue in Cabramatta town square to commemorate the Turnbulls.”

Yes, the good Lord and Lady Turnbull could be immortalised in one of those old-fashioned cast iron statues, astride some very high horses, looking benevolently down upon their subjects.

But personally, I’d prefer they get off their high horses.

In fact they should do one of those ridiculous modern sculptures that look nothing like their subjects - maybe a giant plastic milk crate like the one Lord Mayor Clover Moore tried to build - or a giant lemon - and plonk it down in the middle of Point Piper, as a fitting tribute to their woke ideas.