Why does the voice of the people count at Rosehill but not Moore Park, Premier?

Chris Minns has continued to ignore the opinions of Moore Park Golf Club members, plus those of surrounding councils, yet he was happy to respect the views of Rosehill members, writes Peter Jenkins.

It was the writer Robert Louis Stevenson who said “only fools and dead men don’t change their minds: fools won’t and dead men can’t”.

Premier Chris Minns is very much alive. But does he have the stomach for revisiting decisions or plans that scream out to be overturned?

Case in point: Australian Turf Club members voted down a proposal to sell Rosehill Gardens that would have opened the door to development of a 25,000-home mini-city.

Well before an ageing membership – almost never seen at the racecourse – speared the proposal, Minns ruled out coming over the top to take the track by compulsory acquisition. He would abide by whatever decision members made, and we know how that went.

The no voters included firebrand MP Mark Latham who was committed to opposing the sale and then resigned from the ATC this week.

Mark Latham, a vocal opponent of the Rosehill Racecourse sell-of, arrives at Royal Randwick Racecourse for the vote on the proposal. Picture: Jeremy Piper

But despite a worsening housing crisis, declining attendances at Rosehill and a naysayers vote that was less than overwhelming, the Premier just walked away.

Over at Moore Park Golf Course, it has been a far different story unfolding, and an apt time to mention that Robert Louis Stevenson was also the man who penned Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Save the Moore Park Golf Course campaign leader Jared Kendler outside the club house. Picture: Ted Lamb

There the Premier has continued to ignore the opinions of Moore Park members, plus those of surrounding councils and local Federal Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite. All are lined up against plans to slash the championship layout from 18 holes to nine.

The golf club has offered an alternative design, delivering 15 additional hectares for open space, while retaining 18 holes. Still no luck. Now golfing great Ian Baker-Finch has come out saying to carve up Moore Park – established in 1913 for the working-class – would be “an absolute disgrace”.

Minns will say the government has sovereignty over the Moore Park course. ATC members own Rosehill.

Young Moore Park golfers will have to find other clubs and pay higher fees if the proposed redevelopment goes ahead. Picture: Jonathan Ng

But the key, surely, is making right decisions for this city and state. In politics a change of mind is likely to be slammed as a backflip, a sign of weakness. True leaders though have the courage to make tough calls as required, and damn the insults.

A tough call would be for Minns and his government to overrule ATC members and move on the land at Rosehill, just as an entire block in Parramatta CBD was grabbed before his time to develop a Metro West station.

Even if the racecourse stays, at least acquire a portion of ATC’s landholding to justify a Rosehill metro station that would future proof growth for the area.

Another tough call would be to accept he was wrong on Moore Park golf course and leave it intact, given the level of community resistance and the already plentiful supply of recreational space in the nearby vicinity – a lot of it going unused.

Just don’t get me started on Glebe Island and the threat that Sydney Harbour’s last working port might be shut down for a “millionaire’s enclave” of waterfront apartments which would do nothing to ease the housing crisis. It is a vital maritime supply route, not a Treasure Island for the government to sell off to the highest bidder.