By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
If there’s one thing that unites the terrace-dwelling progressives of the inner west and blue-blooded Liberal MPs, it’s opposing the Minns government’s plans to make living in Sydney more affordable by improving housing density.
That awkward ideological pairing will be on display at an event in NSW Parliament House this week, titled “Unpacking the housing crisis without the spin”, hosted by a group called the Save Great Sydney Coalition, who maintain they are absolutely not against development.
Liberal shadow attorney-general Alister Henskens, who reckons Premier Chris Minns’ plan to build a few more apartments around transport hubs will turn Sydney into a “visual slum”, has hosting duties, with the opposition’s shadow planning minister Scott Farlow also on the list of speakers.
But the event will also hear from architect and writer Elizabeth Farrelly, who was dumped as a columnist by this masthead after failing to disclose her ALP membership when writing an opinion piece whacking the Liberals.
Journalist and political pundit Michael Pascoe, whose Twitter feed is not a safe space for conservatives, also features.
And we reckon those boys from the blue side of politics might take issue with some of the Save Greater Sydney Coalition’s solutions to the housing crisis, which include going after tax concessions such as negative gearing, and targeting Airbnb and big property developers.
But hey, it’s always nice to see a little bipartisanship.
TONY TIME
Speaking of Chris Minns and housing, we reckon those apartment-haters would be even more enraged to discover that the premier met Sydney YIMBY (that’s Yes In My Backyard), a group lobbying hard to make the city denser.
That April get-together appeared in the latest drop of ministerial diaries, released last week. Also of note was the premier’s meet-and-greet with former prime minister Tony Abbott in June. That’s the trouble with being in power, you’ve got to meet all kinds of people.
PRICE OF FAME
Here’s a cruel lesson in the high price of fame from local singer Toni Watson, now the global star Tones and I. The performer, best known for her hit Dance Monkey, walked on stage in front of 7000 people on Friday to launch her new album Beautifully Ordinary, and she cried.
Drew Barrymore shares the stage with Tones and I at Sydney’s ICC.Credit: Jodie McBride
The artist, who grew up on the Mornington Peninsula, was living in her car in Byron Bay and performing as a street busker when Dance Monkey brought her fame and fortune in 2019 after the song was played widely on American TV.
On Friday night she appeared as a surprise guest at Hollywood star Drew Barrymore’s show at the ICC in Sydney and sang her new song Lose Someone Like Me.
“I wrote this song about losing my best friend in the world through becoming famous,” she explained. “I still miss her every day and my ego is not too big enough to say that.”
Watson didn’t go into detail about the end of her friendship, but told Barrymore her album was so personal at times that she wasn’t sure if she could release it.
There was a lot of mixing of celebrity and wellness. The evening began with a 20-minute guided meditation, before Barrymore interviewed Michael Klim, G Flip, Dannii Minogue and Baker Boy about fame and good health. Sounds like a familiar mix?
Yep, Barrymore was here for a mini-Australian tour at the behest of wellness brand Wanderlust True North, whose executive chairman Radek Sali made his multimillion-dollar fortune boosting Swisse vitamins via a similar brew of celebrity/wellness, before flogging the brand to the Chinese for $1.7 billion in 2015.
In the crowd CBD spotted AFL legend Adam Goodes, the head of Destination NSW Steve Cox, Network Ten journo Angela Bishop, theatre impresario Michael Cassel, and Married at First Sight psychologist John Aitken.
OLYMPIC SURFING
Vision of Queen Mary of Denmark, who renounced her Australian citizenship in 2004 to marry into the royal family, embracing her “distant cousin” Ariarne Titmus at the Olympics led CBD to wonder who else was surfing into Olympic glory.
Step forward Tasmanian Labor Senator Helen Polley, who is more than a length in front of the CBD Olympiad with a social media post headed: 2024 Olympic Gold Medalists. 4x200m Freestyle Relay, then listing the names of the Aussie winners Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister and Brianna Throssell. Oh, and it was shamelessly heavily emblazoned with the ALP logo and the words in bold type: “Senator Helen Polley Labor Senator for Tasmania.”
Yes, we get the message Helen.
We contacted the Tasmanian senator on her spirited post and she told us: “Australian pride and sportsmanship continues to be on show during these Olympics. Its unifying spirit is inspirational and all our athletes are representing Australia so well and doing us all proud on the international stage,” she said.
“The skill, determination and Aussie spirit is something to behold in all our athletes. Aussie, Aussie Aussie.”
We really do get the message Helen.
One Labor MP who actually can claim a bit of Olympic prowess is Hunter backbencher Dan Repacholi, who was hoping to be in Paris for his sixth successive games competing in the pistol shooting events. Sadly, parliament’s biggest unit narrowly missed out in a qualifying event back in June, falling four points shy of landing a berth.
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