Since we have entered this new world order, the 24/7 political news cycle, the live pressers, the snappy posts, the edgy tweets, and the record breaking stats are being pushed out a pace more rapid than ever before.

The NSW Planning Minister has used powers under the COVID-19 Emergency Measures Act to extend the hours developers and construction companies are able to work - clearing the way for 7-days of work on construction sites for existing projects. 

These extended hours have come into force this week causing much concern to residents who will be severely impacted.

At a time when health advice is directing people to maintain social distancing, work from home and stay at home - it is understandable that many are worried about these extended construction hours.

There will no doubt be additional stress put on people living near construction sites who, under these changes, will have to tolerate unbroken days of construction impacts.

Many of our local communities are currently already impacted badly by WestConnex construction - and this will only exacerbate the problem.

Jamie Parker MP, NSW Greens spokesperson on Planning released this statement and continues to advocate for communities impacted by these changes. You can see him on a recent interview on Nine News here.

It is clear that the Government must:

• Stop all night work
• Provide effective noise and dust mitigation
• Install noise and vibration monitors in impacted homes
• Provide a strict noise timetable. 

[UPDATE 19 May 2020]

The Sydney Alliance are calling on the NSW Government to provide urgent financial support for those people in NSW not covered by JobKeeper and JobSeeker. I responded to their letter on behalf of the NSW Greens as the Greens Spokesperson for Multiculturalism and you can find our response here.

[UPDATE 15 April 2020]

We are pleased to support the #unityoverfear campaign - please take a minute to do the same. The anti-chinese and anti-asian narratives and actions are causing many people, including myself, real harm at this time. Racism is NEVER okay.

[UPDATE 31 MARCH, 2020]

Today I wrote to the NSW Premier on behalf of a large cohort of people who live in the electorate of Newtown, our city and NSW, who are currently facing extremely difficult circumstances and have become very vulnerable as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can download the full letter here.

Our office has been contacted by a significant number of non-citizens who do not have any resources to support themselves and are not able to access the measures put in place for citizens or those offered yesterday by the federal government to category 444 visa holders.

As the NSW Greens Multicultural spokesperson, I feel very strongly that to ensure a cohesive society where everyone is treated equally and is able to live free from discrimination and racism, we need to ensure that wherever possible all people are able to access basic needs, services and supports without regard to their citizenship status. This is particularly important during times of crisis, and even more so during this current pandemic.

Community consultation has never been the Coalition’s forte. We can’t let them now use COVID-19 as an excuse to ignore the community and ram through controversial mining projects.

Email the government now to demand a moratorium on new coal and gas projects: https://bit.ly/2ycMUKF

At a time of unprecedented drought and fire events throughout New South Wales, when our farmers, scientists and firies are calling for urgent action on climate change, the NSW Liberal National government is trying to introduce legislation to water down the environmental requirements for approving new coal and gas mines. 

Burning coal is the biggest contributor to human-made climate change. It makes fires, heatwaves and drought worse. But the Minerals Council wants to weaken laws that require the climate change impacts of new coal and gas mines in NSW to be assessed as part of the planning approval process.

Coal mined here in NSW has led to around 500 million tonnes of carbon emissions - greater than total emissions from the UK or France.

Sign this petition to keep our environmental laws strong to stop our coal making global climate change worse.  

Weakening the laws that require the full climate change impacts to be considered in the assessment of new coal mines is a dangerous backward step that will make climate change worse.

If NSW is genuine about its own goal of net zero emissions by 2050, this legislation should be abandoned.

Help us protect the laws that protect our environment.

The Greens have a long track record standing up against the lockout laws and over-policing in NSW.

We stand with musicians, creatives, artists, festivals, party-goers, hospo workers, foodies, wine-connoisseurs and people who want to be able to dance all night to 80’s Madonna or Mojo Juju. The Greens want live music to thrive in our city and know the importance of music festivals. And we will do everything we can to make this happen!

We were the only party in parliament who opposed the lockouts when they were introduced. 



In the next parliamentary term, Greens MPs for Newtown and Balmain, Jenny Leong and Jamie Parker, will introduce bills to repeal the lockouts and ban sniffer dogs. 

We support a harm minimisation approach to drug use which includes state sanctioned pill testing. We oppose punitive regulations that shut down our nightlife and close down festivals.It's beginning to look like NSW has become the biggest party pooper state in the country.

For a government that is supposedly ‘liberal’, and who values individual freedoms, the Berejiklian Government has becoming increasingly interested in regulating people’s private lives.

While the wowserism of this government has provoked outrage, the double standards are breathtaking: at a time when our personal freedoms are being progressively restricted, major corporations are enjoying a golden age – at our expense.

The overregulation of festivals has become the latest in a chain of events where the government has cracked down hard on innocent people on the dance floor. The fun police have been out in force these past few years – first sniffer dogs, then the lockouts, then banning protests and public assembly and now music festivals.

See Greens MPs Jenny Leong and Tamara Smith's media statement on live music here. 

The electorate of Newtown covers parts of Surry Hills, including the Devonshire St section of the CBD and South East Light Rail Project. As such, many local issues have been raised with us relating to the impact that this project has had on our community.

The overarching problem appears to be a result of a lack of transparency about decision making, failure to consult meaningfully or address concerns raised by locals, as well as a constant blame-shifting between Government departments and private contractors
with no-one taking overall responsibility for resolving the problems.

The good people who live and work in the electorate of Newtown, including the suburb of Surry Hills, are strong advocates for public transport. However, ‘public’ transport delivered by private contractors which prioritises private interests over community
needs is not acceptable to us.

The real financial and emotional impact of the NSW Government’s privatisation obsession has been felt by the people who live and work in Surry Hills.

Read more here

Member for Newtown, Jenny Leong MP, has resorted to using the Government Information (Public Access) Act, to seek information into the findings of an investigation set up in response to racist and sexist abuse of her by members of the NSW Police.

Exciting news – the Newtown electorate office is now open!

On Monday we opened the doors at 383 King Street Newtown to the public for the very first time.

2015 NSW State Budget Reaction: Greens NSW MP for Newtown Jenny Leong, with Greens NSW Member for Balmain Jamie Parker.

Issues covered include planning, WestConnex, Urban Growth, affordable and social housing, Ultimo Public School, TAFE, domestic violence, Powerhouse building sell-off, and train station access.