I welcome today's announcement by the NSW Government that the Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Corridor Strategy will not be gazetted and that the Government will work with Councils to plan the growth of the corridor instead.
 
I have engaged with the Inner West Council and Planning Minister Anthony Roberts to help secure this result and congratulate them both for coming to an agreement. 
 
Genuine collaboration between levels of Government and community engagement is at the centre of Federal Labor’s City Partnerships Policy I announced earlier this month at the Sydney Institute as the Shadow Minister for Cities. 
 
Today’s announcement enables the engagement in planning of the Inner West and Canterbury Bankstown Councils which these communities have campaigned strongly for.
 
City Partnerships would enable us to unlock the potential of our cities by bringing together all levels of government, the private sector and community in a way that is meaningful so that we achieve genuine structural change.
 
Today’s decision will help restore the trust we need to ensure this sort of bottom up collaboration between local and state government in the inner west and Canterbury-Bankstown.
 
The simple fact is the Sydenham to Bankstown strategy as it previously stood has been a catalyst for the worst kind of developer imposed rezoning proposals. 
 
Mirvac's proposal for a 35 storey development, on a flood plain, in the Carrington Road Precinct in Marrickville, showed the harm of a top down approach and galvanised the community to forcefully oppose it.
 
Getting processes right provides us with the best opportunity to deal with this head on and ensure our cities are productive, sustainable and liveable, which is why today’s outcome is so important.

I congratulate all of the community activists who have fought to achieve this win.