10 August 2023
By Grahame Lynch
North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker has listed some of her achievements in office ahead of what is expected to be her second term in office next month.
In a highly reflective interview with ABC Radio earlier this week, host Sarah McDonald asked what has been her “biggest moment” as mayor.
Baker replied: “I’d say the biggest thing is that this council collectively have welcomed the community back into real public participation. And there’s a commitment to it and that had been lost for a while.”
“Whether it’s that you can come and speak at a council meeting on any item that had gone, it was limited to two people,” she added. This is a reference to a time management system employed in the past when the public gallery was full and it was logistically difficult to let everyone speak.
Baker also namechecked the precinct system, now in its 50th year, which she described as “a groundbreaking initiative of community coming together to influence council policy.”
She then mentioned a second “moment,” namely the reconstruction of the North Sydney Olympic Pool, which is now over a year overdue.
“On the darker side, getting the pool project under control and back on track has been a really important achievement of this council.”
“It’s back on track and we are now engaging in the more positive part. The new general manager has engaged a new pool manager and he’s now working on the business plan. There will be big emphasis about community activities such as expanded Learn to Swim to meet the demand that’s across Sydney.”
Baker also said she was originally opposed to the $10 million federal government grant which is helping to subsidise the pool’s reconstruction.
“I was quite famously opposed to it because I didn’t see how a grant that we hadn’t applied for was granted to us from a regional sporting facilities that were meant to go to women’s change facilities in the regions,” she said. “And so, that’s something that has been inherited. My personal view is it shouldn’t have come to North Sydney, but it did.”
This is a reference to the previous federal government’s Female Facilities and Water Safety Program which awarded a total of $150 million to a range of urban and regional pools, including elsewhere in Sydney.
In response to a reader question, Baker also cited her actions on the Warringah Freeway Upgrade and the Western Harbour Tunnel works that have “absolutely devastated Cammeray and the whole of the Warringah Freeway corridor down to the bridge.” She said that more than 3,000 trees have “been lost.”
“And that is the big challenge. And now council and I’m committed to persuading the new (roads) minister, John Graham, to return one and a half hectares of Cammeray Park that is being lost permanently under the previous government’s plans to provide operational sheds at Cammeray,” she said. “At the other end of the project at Roselle, they under-grounded the sheds and they provided a park. And so, our strong position is why not here? And particularly in a context where we have a very highly dense population. Public open space is precious and not only are we not increasing public open space, these state road projects have been diminishing it.”
Under a quirk of the local government election schedule designed to get it back on track after COVID, Baker faces another council vote this month to continue as mayor for the rest of the term. All signs are that she will continue to get the support of the two Labor councillors, two Sustainable Australia Party councillors and fellow Real Independent MaryAnn Beregi to muster the six out of ten votes necessary to continue in the role.