Lori Short
Wollongong Harbour Redevelopment

Ms SYLVIA HALE [6.06 p.m.]: This morning I attended the funeral of Lori Short, an extraordinary community activist whom the Inner West Courier dubbed the "Queen of Tempe". That so many residents of Tempe and its surrounding suburbs were present this morning indicates how well she deserved that title. Lori was passionate about her community. She cherished its people and their needs and did not hesitate to speak out about the ills being inflicted on them. She was coordinator of the St Peters Sydenham Tempe Neighbourhood Centre and, assisted by Edie Murphy, established the Tempe Community Centre, where she worked tirelessly and at great personal and financial cost to provide social gatherings and excursions for elderly residents. But as her son, Rob Short, said today:

Young people were her passion. The one thing she regularly told me about and that others have brought up this past week is the youth basketball team that she championed. The amazing thing is that we never saw our mother participate in a single sporting activity in her whole life—but when she is 60 she runs a basketball team.

I well remember her ceaseless attempts to raise money so that she could provide her team of youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds with competition fees and uniforms. She rallied the community against the proposed use of the former Tempe tip site as a waste transfer station. She was outraged that residents, who for so long had endured the stench, pollution and vermin emanating from the tip should once again be subject to such ills. She wanted the site to provide parklands for the community.

She was passionately opposed to the construction of the third runway at Sydney Airport. When it went ahead, which led to the demolition of homes and the displacement from Sydenham of people who had lived there for more than 40 years, she was outspoken in her condemnation of the Labor Party, which had connived with the Liberal Party in the airport's expansion and subsequent sale. Television footage of the demonstrations, sit-downs and protests at this unconscionable deal always showed Lori at the head. The Labor Party, of course, did not take kindly to this. The then Labor-controlled Marrickville Council removed rental assistance for the community centre and closed the neighbourhood centre. Lori refused to give up and at great cost to herself kept the community centre open and operating for many years thereafter.

Lori kept on fighting. She fought to retain the museum and Anzac Memorial at the former Tempe tram and bus depot, where her father had worked. And she initiated the Anzac Dawn Ceremony five years ago. Lori embodied all that the Australian Labor Party once stood for. She was born in Tempe, raised six children in a two-bedroom fibro house in Padstow, and worked as a Christmas casual at the GPO in the month or so leading up to Christmas so that the family had a great Christmas, even if they went without for most of the year. To look after her elderly parents she returned to the house in Tempe where she had been born, and remained there until a few days before her death. Lori was not only a fighter; she was a kind, compassionate, caring person who was a genuine friend to so many who knew her.

Last Monday I attended a meeting of well over 150 residents of Wollongong to discuss the Government's proposals for the redevelopment of Wollongong Harbour. The meeting was organised by the Reclaim the City community group, and every member of this Parliament was invited to attend. I must say that I was surprised that I was the only member to do so. I would have thought that, at the very least, the local Labor members would have attended, even if only to hear what their constituents had to say. The Government's proposal to redevelop Wollongong Harbour should not be seen in isolation. It is part of a broader push by the Minister for Lands to cut costs and generate revenue from Crown lands.

There has been an explosion of marina development proposals since the appointment of Joe Tripodi as Minister for Ports and Waterways. It is the era of the yachting fraternity whereby all of our harbours and many of our estuaries are becoming parking areas for yachts so that a desperate State Government can turn a quid by essentially privatising what used to be public lands and waterways. The proposed development of Wollongong Harbour has caused widespread public unease and outright opposition from the Wollongong community. In particular, the community is concerned that the Department of Lands will collude with the Wollongong council administrators to pursue the commercial redevelopment of Wollongong Harbour, with the consequent loss of public open space and public waterways.

The people of Wollongong are standing up and saying, loudly and clearly, to the Government: Our harbour belongs to us. If the Government wants to redeem itself in the Illawarra, it must start by being a lot more transparent and a lot more willing to be open and engaged with what is a very traumatised and angry local community. Community secrecy and an ongoing lack of consultation just make Wollongong residents very suspicious of what the Government is cooking up for their harbour.