Greens: Compensation and Certainty Needed for Latest WestConnex Bungle

Greens WestConnex spokesperson and Member for Newtown, Jenny Leong MP, today called on the Premier in question time to intervene to provide just compensation the property owners who received incorrect information from the Central Register of Restrictions as a result of WestConnex.

“The Premier’s response today to local residents, like Janson from Erskineville, who have received token compensation and continue to face uncertainty about the status of their property was unacceptable,” Jenny Leong MP said

 “This is just the latest bungle we have seen that is having a real and significant impact on local communities who have found themselves as ‘collateral’ in the wake of WestConnex.

With no certainty around the design of WestConnex so much land has been nominated as ‘of interest’ by RMS that they can’t even get their own information uploaded correctly.

“The Government is unable to give a definitive answer on whether homes will be directly affected by WestConnex or not because they have outsourced the final decision to private companies.

“Meanwhile, many families have no certainty about the status of their home – nor have they received just compensation.

“The government knows this was their error and yet they are only offering a measly $5000 in compensation when the real impact and ongoing uncertainty remains unresolved,” she said.

“This shows how shoddy the systems and protocols are in relation to vital information for our community – the Premier must step in and rectify this appalling situation,” she said.

BACKGROUND

• The full question and response asked in NSW Parliament on Thursday November 23, 2017 can be found here (YouTube) here (Hansard): 
• 7News story on CRR error - Thursday November 23, 2017
• Details of the Central Register of Restrictions error are available here: 
• 377 property owners living around the WestConnex route received incorrect information as a result of this error. 
• The CRR is maintained by Land and Property Information.
• In November 2016, PWC consultants were commissioned to provide a Report on this issue which was published in Dec 2016 and strongly criticized the lack of processes and protocols in the handing of data files between RMS and LPI and that this situation had occurred since 2009.
• In December 2016 Professor Allan Fels AO and Professor David Cousins AM were commissioned to look at what would be a ‘fair and reasonable outcome for the owners of the properties involved in the CRR error.’ An offer of $5000 was made to owners who submitted a request for this compensation.