NSW Labour At It Again

In the dying days of their disastrous and discredited government, the NSW labour government is making a final gift to the developers, approving the immediate construction of a new cruise ship terminal at White Bay.

Apparently this decision has been made before community consultation is complete. Obviously the objective is to allow work to progress before the election, making it more difficult for the new government to cancel it. Or rather, to increase the cost of such cancellation to the taxpayer if consultation concludes the move is wrong.

Objections have come from the City of Sydney and Leichhardt councils and the National Trust, all of whom argued that the cruise ships should continue to dock at Barangaroo.

The biggest operator of cruise ships, Carnival Cruises, said the present cruise ship berth at Barangaroo is the ideal location because it allows passengers direct access into the city on foot, encouraging them to spend money in the city. The White Bay berth will require fleets of busses running shuttle services down Victoria Road every time a ship docks, with a planned 170 ships this year alone, and many on those ships will not want to queue for busses and so will stay in air conditioned comfort on the ship.

"The move from Barangaroo was always a political, government, decision. We always said we wanted to stay at Barangaroo," said Carnival's chief executive.

But the developers of Barangaroo are not concerned about traffic on Victoria Road, or the effect of such changes on the cruise ship traffic, or the loss of trade to Sydney retailers. And it seems the wishes of those developers count for more than any others when the state government is about to be sacked.