17°C | Wednesday September 11, 2024 
2 August 2024
Federal Member for North Sydney Kylea Tink has formally written to the Redistribution Committee for New South Wales, objecting to their proposal to abolish the Division of North Sydney. Tink primarily highlights a significant groundswell of public opposition to the Committee’s proposal, stating that over 2,000 people have signed a community petition to retain the division .
Tink criticises the Committee’s report for not adequately explaining why the Division of North Sydney was chosen for removal, other than to achieve the required quota of electors in neighboring divisions. She proposes an alternative solution: merging the divisions of Bradfield and Berowra.
She said this strengthens the Upper North Shore community of interest by extending Bradfield to the north and using the Galston Gorge as a natural boundary for Mitchell to the west, allowing Warringah to extend north into Dee Why instead of west into North Sydney and extending Bennelong north instead of east.
Tink says the current boundaries of North Sydney create a strong economic community of interest, connecting Sydney’s third-largest CBD at North Sydney to the industrial area in Artarmon, the emerging growth precinct at Crows Nest/St Leonards, and Chatswood. Her proposal would reunite the Chatswood CBD with North Sydney, Artarmon, and Crows Nest/St Leonards, strengthening these economic centers within one Federal division. She argues that the Committee’s proposal would split these integrated areas, risking administrative overlaps, duplication, and unclear lines of representation.
She says the proposed boundary changes would impact hundreds of community, sporting, environmental, and civic organizations within North Sydney and these organisations would struggle to operate effectively across additional Federal divisions, diluting their engagement with the relevant MP.
She adds that the current North Sydney boundaries support a strong school ecosystem. The proposed changes would separate many families from their children’s schools, affecting the MP’s ability to represent them effectively. Residents strongly identify with the lower North Shore area, not the upper North Shore, Ryde, or the Northern Beaches. The proposed changes would disrupt this sense of geographic identity, she says.
Tink points out that the proposed redistribution does not consider the significant role of the T1 North Shore rail line and the new metro line as modes of transport within the current division. It also overlooks existing local communication channels and Facebook groups that align with the existing boundaries. The current proposal is short-sighted, as it does not account for significant population growth in the division over the next 5-10 years. This growth could necessitate further boundary changes in the near future, potentially requiring a division similar to the current North Sydney to be recreated.
“In conclusion it is my respectful view that the Committee has erred in its evaluation of the impacts on North Sydney’s deep and wide communities of interest in proposing to abolish the Division and has arrived at a high-impact, disruptive redistribution while overlooking reasonable, practical and foreseeable alternatives,” she says.