BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE OF NEW SOUTH WALES

The Sydney Institute Annual Dinner address in 2023 was given by the premier of New South Wales, The Hon Chris Minns who was sworn in as premier on 28 March 2023. In his address, the premier chose to take up key issues confronting his new government and outlined aspects of the most challenging of all, that being the need to build houses – and fast. Chris Minns also addressed the recent rise of antisemitism, saying, “naked displays of racial vilification will never be part of the Australia that we want to live in”. Chris Minns was introduced by Sydney Institute board member Joe Gersh and the event was sponsored by Virgin Australia. The Sydney Institute Annual Dinner was held on Tuesday 31 October 2023 at The Star in Sydney.

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE OF NEW SOUTH WALES

CHRIS MINNS

Good evening everyone.

I’d like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

I’d like to pay my respects to their Elders.

Past, present, and those emerging.

I want to acknowledge Gerard and Anne Henderson. I can’t imagine how much thought and work goes into organising a night like this. And to provide this night as a platform for ideas and policy debates for the last three decades. Great cities like Sydney need institutions like The Sydney Institute. And they need annual events like this Annual Dinner. When one looks back at the names who have been given the opportunity to present this lecture in the past, Gerard and Anne have helped provide a fascinating and invaluable first draft of modern Australian history. It’s very humbling to give this keynote address.

Friends, many may not be aware that in 1990 then Opposition Leader Bob Carr, jointly opened the first Sydney Institute event, giving the keynote speech. I wasn’t at that 1990 dinner – but I’d bet that sitting beside him that night bucking him up and offering quiet support as Bob rose to speak after then Premier Nick Greiner would have been his wife Helena. Many of you would have heard the news recently of the terrible health diagnosis of Bob’s wife Helena. Helena possessed a quiet dignity I think people responded to. In politics, Helena and Bob were a partnership – two for the price of one – and Bob has admitted that there would have been no prospect that he would have served as this state’s longest serving Labor premier, nor been elected to office in three successive elections without his Helena.

As has been said over the weekend, Helena Carr was a formidable, successful, independent woman. She led a fascinating life. We feel for Bob and are concerned for him tonight and I know that many in this room will be there to help him in the days ahead – when he returns to Australia.

Gerard, there’s no doubt this annual address has changed significantly since its inception in 1990. It’s grown in size, new venues have been chosen, the guest list changed. And let me personally congratulate you for ending the practice of having premiers and leaders of the Opposition jointly headline these dinners. There’s really no need for it.  And I’m happy to summarise the views of the leader of the Opposition at the end of my address. It’s amazing how you can grow in a short space of time.

Six months ago, I’m not sure I would have had such an enlightened view. One of the many things my kids make fun of me about are the black and white photos of all the premiers of NSW that hang in the corridor of my office at Martin Place. The reason they make fun of me is that, while all previous premiers are pictured in black and white, my portrait is substantially larger and in full colour.

My kids think this is some kind of childish attempt by me to look relevant and modern compared to all predecessors – and that includes my immediate predecessor Dominic Perrottet who is pictured in grey scale and unfairly made to look as ancient as the 1807 Premier Charles Cowper but without the mutton chops. Rest assured, I have nothing to do with the placement of photos in the Premier’s office. But it does put your time in office into its rightful humble existence. I am just one in a line and, sooner or later, I’ll move to black and white and a new colour original will be put ahead of me.

But, as I look back I do so with admiration at the vision and resilience of some of the great premiers of this state. The decision by Premier William McKell – who was Premier during the Second World War – to work with Curtin Government and accept large scale immigration from countries other than the United Kingdom changed Australia for the better and transformed NSW. If only those leaders knew in 1945 that their big leap into a new, and potentially unpopular, policy would in fact work beyond their wildest dreams. And that Australia would be a larger, successful and wealthy country – respected around the world with a functioning harmonious multi-cultural, multi faith community.

It would have given them great confidence to take such a big decision. A decision that many in their party were indeed at odds with. There were two key policy areas that formed the basis of that success: first, the principles of our multi-cultural community and, second, more housing for everyone. I want to speak about both in turn and explain why both those issues are as relevant today as they were in the middle of the Second World War when Australia was a very different place.

Recent events in the Middle East have undeniably had an impact on social cohesion here in Australia. Like many of you I was shocked to see on Sydney’s streets, in recent weeks, naked and unbridled racial hatred and antisemitism. Many people I have spoken to in recent times firmly believed that this kind of public display of hatred was a thing of the past – and could not happen in our modern diverse communities of today. That’s particularly so given that in our streets, suburbs and communities we seem to live amongst each other peacefully, not simply in tolerance of one another – but increasingly celebrating each other’s food, culture and holidays as if they were our own.

The horror I felt as premier seeing those scenes on the forecourt of the Opera House several Mondays ago was compounded by the fact that my job as premier was to protect that space as an area where the Jewish community could come together on that night.

Let me say – loud and clear that there is no place for hate speech in our community or our country. I can tell you that the NSW Police have already prosecuted those spewing violent language and the government will take all steps to ensure that bad actors don’t pull apart our community at the seams. It’s important to not conflate those concerned about the war in the Middle East or those who have worries about the civilian lives of Palestinians with the worst aspects of antisemitism. Their voices must be heard, and peaceful protest is a fundamental part of our civic life.

But civil society must unite and declare without qualification that naked displays of racial vilification will never be part of the Australia that we want to live in. Nor will we tolerate or accept that the lighting of the Opera House is an excuse justifying hate speech and calls to violence on the streets of Sydney. I still believe we have the most successful multi-cultural, multi-faith community in the world. But we have to work at it – and part of that success is a common understanding that we will not tolerate the public commons as a platform for vilification.

That is unambiguously the view of the NSW government. These are fundamental principles laid down in custom and law that have made our community tick – the guide rails that allowed Australia to grow in peace and prosperity after World War Two.

As important as the civic customs of politics is the importance of the built environment – in this case housing for Australians. We see some familiar problems when looking back at the issues faced by governments at the dawn of Australia’s push to populate or perish. Back then, the NSW government estimated that housing shortages would be in the tens of thousands following the war and work needed to begin immediately to bridge the gap so as to provide a place for the returning diggers to live in and accommodate the new Australian’s who were about to call Australia home.

Despite bumps, it was an undeniable success. The National Archives reports that

housing construction made remarkable progress, with the number of houses started exceeding annual targets. By March 1949, 132,000 houses and flats had been constructed since the end of the war and an estimated 600,000 people were living in new homes. In proportional terms this was a massive housing boom. We need a similar housing construction boom in our state right now.

The simple truth is we don’t have enough well-located homes for the people who make up our city. If we are going to tackle this crisis, our city is going to have to change. Cities are not museums. They are homes to millions of people. And every day they are changing.

In a city like Sydney, every day we are welcoming new migrants or new visitors. Families are welcoming new babies. And, sadly, farewelling loved ones. The people who call Sydney home are never the same from one day to the next. And that’s why we need to ask ourselves: Is our city keeping pace with the scale of change that is happening? Is it providing a good home for everyone? And the answer is no. Housing affordability and availability is the largest single challenge facing both the people of New South Wales and its government.

The problem in numbers

The numbers tell the story. Across Australia we need to build 1.2 million dwellings over the next five years. We need to build 377,000 new homes just in New South Wales. But we build fewer homes compared to other states. This is a direct cause for why housing in NSW costs more than it does anywhere else in Australia

Since 1992, NSW has built six dwellings per 1,000 residents on average. Victoria and Queensland have built around eight and nine per 1,000 respectively. Last year, we completed 48,000 new dwellings. Meanwhile Victoria had 59,000 completions. The median house price in Sydney is over $1 million, and almost $200,000 more than the next most expensive capital city (Canberra – $831k). Rents for houses have gone up 13 per cent in the last year according to Domain – and rents of apartments have gone up 28 per cent. The median rent for an apartment in Sydney is $670. That is a full $120 a week more expensive than the next capital city (Canberra – $550).

According to the Grattan Institute, in 2000, the median dwelling in Greater Sydney sold for around six-and-a-half times a mid-career teacher’s salary. By 2022 that same home cost 14 times that salary. These numbers add up to paint a damning picture. Putting simply, when it comes to housing, Sydney for too long has not kept up with its changing population. If we are going to tackle this crisis, we need to think big and bold. And we need to act fast.

Increasing density

It starts with changing the planning system. The need for infill. Like all major cities, the way Sydney is laid out is defined at least partly by the geography of the place.

The planning system in New South Wales has failed to allow enough well-located homes to be constructed for our growing population. And when it has given the green light to housing, for too long the answer has been to allow new housing on an expanding outer suburban fringe. But Sydney is not an endless flat plain like Melbourne. Sydney cannot simply keep expanding north, west and south because we are ringed by waterways, bushland and a mountain range. Increasing density makes perfect sense.

The NSW Productivity Commission found infill development close to existing infrastructure is far more cost-effective than greenfield housing. In fact, it could be up to $75,000 per home cheaper. For too long, the planning system has only worked for those who already own parts of Sydney. And let’s be honest here: this has been largely at the expense of younger people. The NSW Government does not want to see Sydney become a city divided. Between those living comfortably in their own homes and those struggling to find a home they can afford to buy or rent. Attacking this growing inequality is going to drive our government every day we are in office.

Our initial reforms

Over the past four months, we have announced significant changes to the planning system. These changes give both private developers and public and social housing providers a more direct and smoother route to planning approval. They seek to allow for greater height and floor space allowances for developers seeking to build apartment buildings. We have incentivised developers to include affordable housing in their plans. We have made it simpler for social and public housing providers – to construct new developments that are larger and provide more new housing.

I know the Planning Minister and the Housing Minister are working with the industry to get these changes right. We are listening to industry. But we know we are not going to fix things over night.

Principles of further reform

The next wave of planning reforms and our drive to build more homes will be based on a number of principles:

1. We need to increase density.
2. We need well-located houses and apartments near well-connected transport infrastructure.
3. We need more social and affordable housing.
4. We need well-designed houses and apartments, fit for purpose in twenty-first century Sydney.
5. We need to build quickly.

These five points are driving all our thinking when it comes to designing our planning reforms.

I’m not going to detail all of our proposed reforms in planning tonight. And that includes confirming or denying the leak on the front page of today’s Sydney Morning Herald . Suffice to say, the challenge facing the government is a big one. And the scale of the policy solution will have to be big too.

Not everyone will like our changes – particularly around density. There are big interests that believe that infill development will be a net loss for them. And while I believe their concerns are overblown and that density done well is the key for our great city – the vehemence of their opposition can’t be denied.

The great reforms both nationally and in NSW have been bi-partisan. And that’s why tonight I want to make a big open offer to the NSW Opposition to be briefed on our reforms (when they’re ready – not just by reading the Herald) and come on board with the idea of more density and more supply for Sydney. So that the next generation of young Australians can write their chapter into the history of this great city and not up and leave for somewhere cheaper.

It could end up being a policy solution both parties can own and celebrate. I’m happy to share the credit. I’ll even go as far as putting up a colour photo of the leader of the Opposition on my office corridor if it will help. Whether the Opposition comes on board or not, we are determined to pursue this reform because we see no other way for Sydney.

Cities need to strike a balance between dynamism and heritage and it’s undeniably the case that governments at all levels have not done enough. But with the right arguments, with the right reforms and with the right allies, we can do a number of things. We can show the people of Sydney that in solving this housing crisis we can create a better Sydney in the process. We can have thousands of new homes built in great locations near world-class transport. We will create apartment buildings designed for twenty-first century Sydney, in suburbs full of greenspace, where we don’t sacrifice liveability for density.

The next few years are going to be critical. And with the help of all of you, I know we can be successful.