A decline in the state Labor government’s popularity just a year into power is a wake-up call, Premier Chris Minns says, as he pledges to focus on the cost of living and root out any arrogance from his administration.
The Herald’s Resolve Political Monitor, conducted by Resolve Strategic, found Labor’s primary vote has slipped to 34 per cent from 37 per cent at last year’s election, while the Coalition’s climbed to 38 per cent. The government is already in minority, with 45 seats in the 93-seat lower house.
Premier Chris Minns at the Go West! Sydney Metro conference in Parramatta on Tuesday.Credit: Nick Moir
“I think the temptation is to say there’s only one poll that counts and to shrug it off,” Minns said on Tuesday. “But I have to say we take it seriously, and it’s a good wake-up call for the government.”
The NSW premier said families were doing it tough with cost-of-living pressures, and the government had to be “constantly working on their behalf”.
“We don’t take government for granted,” he said. “If there’s a hint of arrogance that creeps into our organisation, into our government, we’ll get rid of it immediately because there’s no place for it.”
Minns made the comments on Tuesday at a Business Western Sydney event about the Metro West rail project. The government’s main revision to the $25 billion project – conceived and started by the Coalition – is the possible addition of a station at Rosehill, as part of a deal with the Australian Turf Club to convert Rosehill Racecourse to a mini-city of 25,000 homes.
Premier Chris Minns and Transport Minister Jo Haylen announced the potential Rosehill deal in December.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
The premier conceded last week that “irreconcilable differences” with ATC members could spell the end of the idea. However, he argued on Tuesday that the enormous potential of the deal to deliver homes for Sydneysiders would “weigh on the minds of the members” when they made their decision.
“Based on recent evidence, there’s unlikely to be a government that comes along that is as enthusiastic about uplift, density and housing,” Minns said. “So there are strong reasons why the ATC may adopt it.”
The ATC is expected to lodge the first stage of its unsolicited proposal this month, though members will not vote on whether to sell the land until later in the process.
Landowners in the area, led by private developer Billbergia, used the same event to call for a new master plan for the 90-hectare Rosehill-Camellia precinct, which could yield 45,000 new homes. That would consist of roughly 25,000 on the racecourse site and 20,000 in the planned Camellia town centre along the Parramatta River.
The current Camellia-Rosehill strategy envisages a town centre to the north, with a mixed-use precinct between the racecourse and James Ruse Drive.Credit: NSW government
Billbergia development director Rick Graf said the figures showed the metro station would still be justified even if ATC members killed the deal, which he believed would only be short-term.
However, he said a master plan with government buy-in was required to raise the capital to remediate the former industrial land. “This is private land, and it needs $25 billion of private capital to be raised over the next two decades,” Graf said.
Last month, prominent racing trainers, including Gai Waterhouse and Chris Waller, slammed the proposed deal to sell Rosehill Racecourse to developers during a fiery meeting of ATC members. Trainers are seeking guarantees about where they will be relocated in the event the racecourse is liquidated.
Transport Minister Jo Haylen told the same event the government was “working really hard” to make the Rosehill deal a reality, though it was also focused on ensuring other station precincts– such as Olympic Park and The Bays – became great places.
That also involved making them attractive nighttime entertainment destinations. “What we don’t want to do is create another North Sydney,” Haylen said, adding North Sydney would improve once the metro extension opened later this year.
Likewise, Olympic Park was “a pretty exciting place to be while Taylor [Swift] was there”, she said. “But when she’s gone, there’s not much going on.”