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Thursday April 30, 2026 
10 September 2024
ANALYSIS by Grahame Lynch
As the North Sydney area prepares to elect ten councillors for the next four years, a most pressing issue is the Olympic Pool reconstruction.
Initially scheduled for reopening in 2022 at a cost of $58 million, Mayor Zoe Baker now projects an opening in 2025 with costs exceeding $100 million. At least she has been transparent about the lack of progress in a project she originally opposed. However, even this timeline might be too optimistic, as contractors were recently required to dismantle and restart work on a 25-metre roof—a process that is only just underway.
To understand the situation, some context is necessary. The pool renovation was originally initiated under the previous council, led by Mayor Jilly Gibson and overseen by then-general manager Ken Gouldthorp. The winning proposal was strongly opposed by the Real Independents group, led by Baker and MaryAnn Beregi, who lacked the numbers to overturn it.
By the end of 2021, the electoral tide shifted. Gibson was ousted, and the Real Independents, along with Labor and the Sustainable Australia Party, gained control of the council in January 2022, electing Baker as mayor. They were no longer merely critics of the project but its administrators. By this time, the project was about a year in and, according to reported data, still broadly on schedule and within budget, even as the new council majority publicly anticipated impending problems.
11 MONTHS: But what followed was a relatively sluggish response to the looming challenges. It took the incoming council nearly 11 months to appoint new leadership, with Therese Manns not assuming the role until October/November 2022. Only then did the council commission an independent review of the project, conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
This review, itself completed quickly and delivered within a month, criticised several aspects of the project’s early stages, including the separation of architectural and construction contracts and inadequate contingency planning for the associated risks of such a large project.
In response, the council established a new steering committee with an independent advisor and, significantly, retained the project management function in-house, as recommended by PwC. A dedicated pool manager, tasked with preparing demand analysis and a business case, was also appointed for the first time.
Nevertheless, results of this PWC review were not disclosed publicly for another five months. Mayor Zoe Baker outlined the report’s recommendations and actions in an open letter to ratepayers in April 2023. By this time, the pool opening was six months overdue. Mayor Baker revised the expected completion date to April 2024, with an additional cost impost of $25–$30 million.
However, in August 2023, the council reversed its view on the merits of internal management and appointed an external project manager, APP Group, citing positive experiences using the firm during variation negotiations with the construction party Icon. By this point, the council’s three-year term was halfway through.
This was over a year ago. Since then, the project completion has blown out beyond April 2024 despite these measures and is now expected to be completed around the second quarter of 2025. The project is clearly still unsettled, as the council decided just last month to take the architect, Brewster Hjorth Architects, to court for breach of contract following a failed dispute resolution process.
The dominant group on the council has repeatedly blamed the previous administration for the project’s issues.
SLOW PACE: However, it is now undeniable that the slow pace in commissioning a review, rebooting oversight and implementing remedial actions is equally responsible for the delay extending into 2025.
A relevant historical comparison can be drawn from the National Broadband Network rollout between 2010 and 2013. Like the pool project, the NBN initially made slow progress as contractors missed targets. By the 2013 election, the project was 90% behind target.
When Malcolm Turnbull became Comms Minister in September 2013, he swiftly implemented changes. Within 11 months, he had installed new leadership at NBN as well as commissioned and received a strategic review and audit.
Crucially, he renegotiated key network lease and customer transfer agreements with Telstra and Optus without resorting to legal action, resulting in a broadly neutral impact on taxpayers. Whereas before, new connections had almost halted, the new regime was releasing as many as 100,000 premises some weeks.
The lesson here is that remediating an ailing project requires decisive, proactive attention, particularly in terms of bringing counter-parties along for the ride.
The pressing question for the candidates seeking election is whether they are equipped to manage the complex agenda ahead, especially considering the mishandling of these issues in the previous term.
Despite doubling the frequency of their meetings, the pool project received surprisingly little attention on the council floor last term, with time instead squandered on trivial matters. One example: a leather ban on council properties, which could have inadvertently affected cricket matches at North Sydney Oval.
Early campaign materials reviewed by the Sun suggest that most candidates are avoiding any substantial discussion about the pool. This is inadequate.
The project’s forecast total cost exceeds $100 million, of which only $15 million is subsidised by external grants.
The remaining amount will come directly from local ratepayers, either through direct funding or loans that will need to be repaid in the medium term.
There is already talk among influential councillors of reworking the business plan for the pool, with the gym space potentially being repurposed for functions and events.
After committing $100 million to this new pool, ratepayers deserve greater transparency and honesty about any plans that might be under consideration, especially those that could limit public access to these increasingly costly facilities.
It’s worth noting that in 1936, North Sydney Council successfully oversaw the construction of a pool using only basic tools like T-squares, ink nibs, and sextants.
The fact that a renovation of the same in 2024, despite our advanced IT systems, MBAs, and engineering expertise, is now deemed an Herculean challenge for the Council, is both perplexing and concerning.