Minister in secret push to split Powerhouse museum

WESTERN Sydney Minister Stuart Ayres has been pushing to overturn the Powerhouse Museum’s move to Parramatta.

The riverside site of the preferred location for Parramatta’s new Powerhouse Museum. Picture: Jonathan Ng

• Powerhouse Museum spent $270K on staff trips overseas
• Powerhouse Museum to be relocated to Parramatta

WESTERN Sydney Minister Stuart Ayres has been pushing to overturn the Powerhouse Museum’s move to Parramatta.

Instead Mr Ayres wants the museum broken into bits with some housed in Penrith, some in Parramatta and some in other centres such as Liverpool.

Government and business sources confirmed the Ayres push, which has the Western Sydney business community so concerned it has written to Premier Gladys Berejiklian encouraging her to stick with the plan to move the Museum from Pyrmont to the Parramatta riverfront.

Artist impression of the proposed Powerhouse Museum in Parramatta.

Ms Berejiklian and Arts Minister Don Harwin recently committed to that move, announced last year by then-premier Mike Baird, but Mr Ayres is pushing behind the scenes for alternatives.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Ayres said: “There’s no change to plans to move the Powerhouse to Parramatta, with the business case expected in coming weeks.

“As Minister for Western Sydney I’ll be advocating to expand cultural offerings across the region.”

The letter backing the existing plan was sent by Sydney Business Chamber Western Sydney director and former Labor minister David Borger, with 40 co-signatories including the bosses of Western Sydney Local Health District, Royal Agricultural Society, Ramsay Health, Olympic Park Business Association, Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, Australian Racing Drivers Club, Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sydney Zoo, Sydney Markets and Western Sydney Wanderers.

“We believe this move is critical to the development of Western Sydney and Parramatta as the central city under the Greater Sydney Commission plans,” it said.

“As a leading business and community organisations we have come together to demonstrate our strong support for the relocation of the museum to Parramatta.”