Dr MARJORIE O'NEILL (Coogee) (21:07:32): I make a brief contribution to the debate on the Sporting Venues Authorities Amendment (Venues NSW) Bill 2020. In doing so I primarily encourage the adoption of the amendments proposed by the Opposition. At its core the bill appears to be nothing more than another attempt by the Government to centralise decision-making power. The bill will remove the voices of the local people who use the venues involved each and every day for fun and games, work and play. Since 2012 the Government has been slowly eroding the influence of local voices in the decision-making process of these venues. The regional advisory committees included in the original plans for Venues NSW have all but been removed by the Government, and the local people of Newcastle, Wollongong and Parramatta have completely lost their say in how their facilities are run and what the future of their venues will look like.

In its current form the bill fails to adequately protect the Sydney Olympic Park, and the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust lands and assets. Currently, the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust Act requires that any proposed changes to scheduled land can only be revoked by the Parliament; however, the bill proposes to remove that provision and allow the Minister by order to change or abolish the classification of these lands, significantly weakening the protections currently in place. What would this change look like? With the stroke of a pen the Minister for Sport could alter the classification of the land within the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust. Without an Act of Parliament, the Minister could alter the classification from its current designation—land dedicated for the purpose of public recreation under the Crown Land Management Act 2016—to instead allow for hotels and high density, multistorey residential development, or in common language, apartments across the entire site.

Such a thing would surely be unthinkable—the reclassification of land dedicated to public recreation, the demolition of existing structures and the construction of yet more apartments in inner city Sydney. Yet, we know that half the job is already done. How could we forget that the Government demolished the Sydney Football Stadium in the middle of an election campaign and just weeks before polling day in 2019. At last count the cost of demolishing and rebuilding our beloved Sydney Football Stadium has blown out by $100 million. On 23 September 2020—more than 18 months after the stadium was demolished—what do we have in its place? Nothing. We literally have a hole in the ground. Depressingly, the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust says on its website that it manages our city's original home of sport: the Sydney Cricket Ground [SCG] and the other venues that have shared the SCG precinct, including the former Sydney Football Stadium. To further muddy the water around the future of this site, it was reported inThe Sydney Morning Herald on 19 July 2019 that the Government had received a so-called unsolicited proposal for a mega hotel to be built on the site of the former Sydney Football Stadium. Would I be surprised if that "unsolicited" proposal is the driving force behind this legislation? Not at all.

If we allow the bill to pass unamended we will give the Government even more scope to do deals with their big developer mates and again put the interests of local people and people from across New South Wales last. The member for Parramatta has introduced this legislation to the House but as of this morning, according to the official list of Cabinet Ministers on the Venues NSW website, the Minister with the power is the member for Drummoyne, whose history is well known in this place. The bill also amends the Sydney Olympic Park Authority Act to allow the transfer of Sydney Olympic Park asset rights and liabilities by ministerial order. Like various trust Acts that govern and protect our parklands across the State, the Sydney Olympic Park Authority Act is there to protect our parklands and legacy venues.

The bill is just another step in the Government's agenda of removing accountability and oversight, shifting power away from public and accountable bodies such as the Parliament of New South Wales, and by centralising it away from the local people, silencing dissenting voices. Whether it be the amalgamation of the Centennial Park and Moore Park trusts, the Parramatta Park Trust, the Western Sydney Parklands Trust into a single Greater Sydney Parklands super agency, or any of the various grant program rorts orchestrated by the Government, the Coalition has a mission to secure unaccountability, a crippling fear of transparency and scrutiny, and an obsession with centralising power behind closed doors. The Liberal-National Coalition Government—if it can still be called that given the events of the past few weeks—should be strengthening protections for public assets and public funds. It should be protecting our parklands and our legacy venues, not looking to weaken the protections currently in place.

I fully support the amendments to be moved by the Labor Opposition and I call on the Government to protect the Sydney Olympic Park and Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust lands and assets. The people speak through their Parliament. That is why it is essential that these assets be protected by legislation and only altered by an Act of this Parliament. These public lands and assets do not belong to those who get to use them now. We are merely custodians who have a responsibility to pass on these invaluable venues and spaces for recreation to the next generation. These invaluable assets demand public oversight and protection, both of which should be provided through the Parliament of New South Wales, and the bill must be amended in order to continue doing so.