NSW election 2023: Manly teal candidate Joeline Hackman blasted over home renovations

The chief executive of an Aboriginal land council has blasted the Manly teal independent candidate for opposing a development while pushing forward with the renovation of her home against the wishes of her neighbours.

Manly teal candidate Joeline Hackman.

The chief executive of a NSW Aboriginal land council has blasted the teal independent candidate for Manly for opposing a development while pushing forward with the renovation of her home against the wishes of her neighbours.

Joeline Hackman took the Northern Beaches Council to court after the renovations of her Manly home – which include adding an extra floor, bedroom, bathroom and pool – were twice knocked back by the council’s planning process in part due to the excessive bulk of the proposed development.

Ms Hackman, who is campaigning on a platform of environmentalism, integrity and rigorous standards for medium-density developments, is opposing a development at the Lizard Rock site in Belrose proposed by the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.

MLALC chief executive officer Nathan Moran said Ms Hackman was a hypocrite for opposing plans to build 450 homes in bushland while pushing forward with her own home renovations.

“Improving her asset or her personal amenity to have a swimming pool seems to be more important than say an Aboriginal Land Council trying to realise self-determination for Aboriginal land rights,” he said.

Mr Moran added that “what‘s good for the geese is good for the gander” and it was wrong to “preach one thing and practise another”.

Ms Hackman’s neighbours lodged several objections with the council to the proposed development due to the impact on their homes, before the Manly candidate appealed in the NSW Land and Environment Court.

Ms Hackman said her home renovation plans couldn’t be compared to the proposed development at Lizard Rock and that her opposition was commonsense and not political.

“The NSW government is allowing the equivalent of two Lizard Rock development sites to be cleared every single day,” she said.

“You cannot compare a development of 450 dwellings involving the destruction of native plants and animal habitat in a high-risk fire zone to that of a single family home DA (development application) in an established community, which has followed the appropriate approval process.”

The Lizard Rock development was first knocked back by the council but was being fast-tracked under new NSW planning rules.

The Liberals have flagged they will block the proposed development if re-elected, a move interpreted as an attempt to block the electoral threat posed by the teals.

Ms Hackman is seeking to ­unseat Environment Minister James Griffin, who holds Manly with a margin of 12.9 per cent.