What a week it has been for WestConnex – with the release of a damning report by the National Auditor General, the arrival of the Minister for WestConnex in the NSW Parliament, and Labor supporting a Greens motion in the Senate condemning the Federal Government for lack of governance in expending federal funds for the project.

Instead of congratulating itself for spending $17 billion dollars on a toll road that Western Sydney doesn't want or need, the government should scrap Westconnex and invest in public transport. Read our contribution to the debate in NSW Parliament. 

Published in the South Sydney Herald, February 2017

Can our new Premier improve the score?

NSW has a new Premier. We’re relieved to see the back of Casino (or is it Chainsaw?) Mike, but will our new Premier be better?

Premier Berejiklian has already indicated how her Government will respond on a number of key issues. On others, we’re still in the dark. Over the coming months we will see whether the Premier is genuinely willing to listen to community concerns and take action to repair some of the disastrous decisions made under former Premier Baird.

The Australian National Audit Office has released its report into Commonwealth funding of the WestConnex project. The report looks into whether appropriate steps were taken to protect the Commonwealth's interests and obtain value for money in relation to the $3.5 billion in Commonwealth funding committed to WestConnex.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklin announced her new cabinet today, with the extraordinary announcement that a stand-alone ministry has been created for WestConnex.

Greens spokesperson for WestConnex and Member for Newtown Jenny Leong MP says that a special ministry won’t solve the WestConnex debacle.

Now that Baird is opting out of politics, his centerpiece project needs to be stopped.  Since he and Tony Abbott turned the first sod of this toxic project back in March 2015, community opposition has continued to grow.

Public criticism of WestConnex, billion dollar budget blowouts, shonky, secretive planning and huge contracts to companies under federal police investigation, have all played a significant role in the declining popularity of Premier Baird, according to Greens Member for Newtown Jenny Leong MP.

More community members have been aggressively handled and violently arrested at Sydney Park as peaceful protests against WestConnex continue. The use of force and the subsequent charges laid show that the police are using the powers of the Baird Government’s new draconian anti-protest laws.

NSW Greens spokesperson on WestConnex and Member for Newtown, Jenny Leong MP, says:

“I have serious concerns about the level of police aggression and violence that’s occurred in recent days at Sydney Park.

“Local police, the riot squad and plainclothes police - some wearing leather gloves and refusing to display their name badge - have used disproportionate force against peaceful community members showing their opposition to WestConnex.

Contractors have begun cutting down trees in Sydney Park, as part of the WestConnex project.

Greens Member for Newtown Jenny Leong MP joined community members at the Save Sydney Park Camp, where one resident is stationed in a tree in an act on nonviolent direct action.

Get your No Way WestConnex A4 laminated poster here and help Stop WestConnex.

We can post to you if you leave your details below, or you can drop into our office at 383 King St, Newtown (Mon-Fri) to pick it up. 

At the last Inner West Council meeting of 2016, the Administrator Richard Pearson committed to spending half a million dollars toward modelling the impact of WestConnex on local streets and neighbourhoods. 

“This is a welcome initiative and shows that local government shares the community’s concerns about how badly WestConnex will impact our neighbourhoods, said Jenny Leong MP, Member for Newtown and NSW Greens spokesperson on WestConnex.

“The RMS only plan to look at the impact of WestConnex 12 months after each stage has been opened - well after the traffic chaos and air quality impacts have occurred.  Premier Baird’s appointed Administrator has called this wait-and-see approach, ‘totally unacceptable and inconsistent with the principles of modern environmental impact assessments’ and he should know, as he has come directly from the NSW Planning Dept.