Gaza Freedom March
Retail Centres Policy

Ms SYLVIA HALE [7.57 p.m.]: In December citizens from New South Wales will join the Gaza Freedom March. Its purpose is to lift the siege of Gaza, to force the Israeli Government to end the blockade and to pressure Egypt to open Gaza's Rafah border. Monday 27 December marks the first year anniversary of the horrendous Israeli bombardment of the people of Gaza when 1,400 people were killed. On that day a contingent from this State will join representatives from 32 countries in Cairo. On 29 December they will cross into Gaza, and on 31 December they will march alongside the Palestinian people in a non-violent demonstration that will breach the illegal blockade. The Rafah crossing is on the border of Gaza and Egypt. The crossing was opened in 2005-06 but then it was closed more and more frequently.

In June 2007 it was closed permanently after Hamas was victorious in elections for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza. Before that, the authority, Egypt and the European Union, had monitored the crossing under the Agreement on Movement and Access. Egypt has now closed the crossing, which means that entry to and exit from Gaza has become impossible. One of the people going from New South Wales joining the march is Vivienne Porzsolt, a spokesperson for the Sydney group, Jews Against the Occupation. Others include veteran peace activist Donna Mulhearn, Marlene Obeid of the Sydney Stop the War Coalition and Bashir Sawalha of the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine. They will all defy the Israeli blockade of Gaza. One of those participating to the Gaza Freedom March said:

Those of us going on the March are people of different backgrounds who want to bring attention to this great injustice and show our solidarity to the people of Gaza, and tell them we have not forgotten them.

The Greens do not pretend to have the answers on what will create the conditions to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I suspect that, given the increasing encroachment of illegal Israeli settlements, a two-state solution may not be feasible, if it ever was. But that does not mean that we should ever give up working towards a just solution that will allow both sides to live in peace and a solution that recognises the legitimacy of Palestinian demands. The Gaza Freedom March is seeking endorsements and/or sponsorship. Its website is www.gazafreedommarch.org. I refer now to the State's centres policy. In October 2005 lobbyist Milton Cockburn talked about what lay at the centre of a centres policy. He said:

The crux of any centres policy is the restriction of major out-of-centre retail development. Without such a restriction, retail development will invariably locate on less expensive land outside town centres—to the obvious detriment of these centres and sustainable development more generally. Retail developments that are permitted to locate outside centres generate their own demand for road and transport infrastructure and, in a constant climate of scarce public resources, this will inevitably be at the expense of continuing public investment in designated town centres.

He wrote that in October 2005. In 2001 this State developed a draft centres policy, which was draft State environmental planning policy 66, integration of land use and transport. That policy was prepared but has never been gazetted. It identified the mix of land uses that would help to maximise single, multipurpose trips and also optimise accessibility. It stated that things such as retail, cinemas, major office development and smaller office developments were critical. The policy states:

Matching trade areas or service catchments to the public transport network is the key to maximising accessibility.

However, in April 2009 the Department of Planning exhibited a new draft centres policy. Its rationale is fundamentally different to that of the 2001 policy. Among its key principles are:

The market is best placed to determine the need for retail and commercial development. The role of the planning system is to regulate the location and scale of development to accommodate market demand.

The planning system should ensure that the supply of available floorspace always accommodates the market demand, to help facilitate new entrants into the market and promote competition.

We all know the disastrous impact that the large supermarkets have had on shopping strips. What were once prosperous areas are now largely taken over by $2 discount stores. This is not a recent development; we have seen this development take place over many years. [Time expired.]