The eastern suburbs projects that could turn State Election

With just one week to go until NSW votes, we’ve compiled a list of major transport and development projects that could turn voters in Sydney’s east — and potentially influence the outcome of the State Election.

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One week out from the 2019 State Election, opinion in Sydney’s east is divided on several big ticket development and transport projects that could influence swing-voters one way or the other.

Although it would take a momentous upset to wrestle the seat of Vaucluse away from sitting Liberal MP Gabrielle Upton, her colleague Bruce Notley-Smith’s Coogee electorate is on a knife edge — he enjoys a of just 2.9 per cent margin over Labor.

In the inner east, Independent MP Alex Greenwich faces a tricky challenge from the Liberal’s candidate for Sydney Lyndon Gannon.

The Wentworth Courier has compiled a list of five major projects that could turn seats in the eastern suburbs — and possibly the outcome of next week’s tight election.

A mock up of two proposed 11-storey towers at Oxford St, Bondi Junction when seen from Centennial Park. Picture: Supplied

Bondi Junction Towers

Plans for two 11-storey towers that would overlook Centennial Park at the end of Oxford St in Bondi Junction have just about everyone up in arms. Many of the Labor, Liberal, independent and minor party candidates for Coogee and Vaucluse have all spoken against the proposal.

However, Labor’s policy of scrapping the State Government’s spot rezoning laws could be a death knell for the project — which remains before the Department of Planning and Environment after Minister Anthony Roberts delegated his approval powers to bureaucrats.

Fed up residents will this weekend protest the plans, saying Bondi Junction has suffered from enough unrelenting overdevelopment.

Concept plans for a skate park and youth recreation facility at Rushcutters Bay Park. Picture: Supplied

Rushcutters Bay Skate Park

The curious tale of this long-mooted project proposed for Rushcutters Bay Park — which not only divides the community, but the Liberal Party too — includes objections from none other than former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Woollahra Council was set to finally go ahead with the $1.1 million plan until the State Government slapped an interim heritage order on the park earlier this year, preventing earth works being carried out on the site.

It falls in the seat of Sydney, which Mr Greenwich won with an 8.1 per cent margin over the Liberals in 2015, who has advocated for the proposal but wants the council to address the concerns of residents who do not.

But Mr Gannon, one member of the local Liberal branch who does support the skate park, has been running with it as one of his key election pledges. That might be enough to swing some extra votes his way.

Easts have lodged a planning proposal to redevelop the Waverley Bowling Club. Picture: John Appleyard

Waverley Bowling Club

The saga surrounding Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club’s redevelopment of the beloved bowlo on Birrell St into a senior’s living apartment block with communal greens looks to be coming to and end, despite tension over the plan still existing within the community.

Easts has now taken Waverley Council to the Land and Environment Court after it did not assess the most recent development application within 40 days, triggering a ‘deemed refusal’ appeal.

But Coogee’s Labor candidate Marjorie O’Neill, a Waverley councillor, has opposed the redevelopment plan alongside her colleagues and would not doubt be more vocal — and voters might decide potentially influential — if she was the local member.

Light rail workers still completing the project more than three years since work began. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Sydney Light Rail

It doesn’t get much more divisive than this multibillion-dollar transport project that has suffered countless cost and schedule blowouts since work began in 2015.

The 12km track from Circular Quay to Randwick and Kingsford has caused severe emotional and financial damage to many in Sydney’s eastern suburbs — so much so the State Government is fighting a $500 million class action compensation case against business owners and residents. Not to mention a lawsuit from the contractors it employed to build the $2.1 billion project.

Although it appears the majority of locals want to see the project finished and believe it will one day be a positive for the area, the project’s bungled delivery has garnered intense criticism has raised serious questions of the government’s planning and consultation processes.

It has been a free-kick to Labor and its pitch to voters in Sydney’s east and southeast, and any CBD workers who have felt its disruption over the past few years.

Allianz Stadium policies could decide the election. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Allianz Stadium

Well then, maybe it does get more divisive (even if it isn’t quite in the eastern suburbs).

If ever there was a single project that could turn an election it is this one — the $729 million redevelopment of Allianz Stadium at Moore Park has been the defining issue of this year’s election and its impact has resonated with voters far beyond Sydney.

It is one that has united voters across NSW, with a recent poll showing 52 per cent of them strongly opposed the rebuild while only 37 per cent strongly agreed with the plan. It has also drawn failed legal action from Local Democracy Matters and Waverley Council.

Opposition Leader Michael Daley has used the project to underpin his ‘Schools and Hospitals before Stadiums’ election slogan, and called for demolition to be halted until after the election on March 23.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Sport Minister Stuart Ayres have stood by the plan they say will re-imagine major sporting events in Sydney, allowing the Harbour City to draw the biggest showcases in sport — but it has objectively been an unpopular policy that will likely lose the government seats, whether that be in Sydney or regional NSW.