Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about HMAS Platypus, which takes up 1.8 hectares on Sydney Harbour, in Neutral Bay, in the middle of my electorate. It is a historic site. The site used to be a whaling station and was also part of a gasworks. Following their commissioning by the then Minister for Navy, it became the home for the Oberon class of submarines, and thus became HMAS Platypus. Adjoining the site is Anderson Park, where I grew up playing a lot of organised sport. It is only recently that I discovered that it was also the runway for Kingsford Smith, who took off in what would have been the equivalent of a bandaid plane and flew to what is now Kingsford Smith Airport before undertaking his great, landmark journey to London.

In 1996, when we came into government, this was one of the surplus defence sites that was identified for sale by the then Howard government. I argued to my community that the site needed to be used for housing in order to help fill part of the fiscal hole left by the Keating government. That was a very hard thing to do, but it was the right thing to do at the time. As time passed and we discovered the extent of necessary remediation of toxic chemicals on the site, which is now assessed at $46 million, it became even more necessary to sell the site. But I think that one of the great legacies of the previous coalition government—and I pay great tribute to John Howard for this—was the creation of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. A number of sites across the harbour in both Labor and Liberal seats were put into the trust and used for the community in Sydney. This land could never be recovered once sold. Woolwich Docks, which is down the road from Hunters Hill, where I am, is one of the sites that John Howard preserved. It is now a vibrant centre of activity. North Head, Middle Head and Cockatoo Island are other great examples.

I pay tribute to the member for Griffith, who is here, because he was, as Prime Minister, able to continue with the legacy of remediation of the site at Platypus, and he continued to allocate money for remediation. I understand that remediation is continuing. The $46 million includes whatever barging of toxic material is necessary. Barging of the toxic material is hugely important because, if it were to be trucked out, it would create massive dislocation in one of the key arterial roads to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and it would cause gridlock beyond what we already have at the harbour bridge.

I thank the community advisory committee and the local state member, Jillian Skinner, who has been a very strong advocate of the interests of Platypus. This is a long-lasting community facility. The site is probably worth around $40 million to $50 million. It is about to have $46 million spent on remediation. After that there will be a 1.8 hectare site on Sydney Harbour—on prime land—for our community. This is the most significant physical contribution to my electorate in many, many years from the federal government, and it is most welcome. In an area where there is high-density living, these sorts of sites represent the very fabric of the community.

The protection of our harbour foreshores should enjoy bipartisan support. The continuation of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust and the protection of the greatest harbour in the world, Sydney Harbour, and the fact that we are all working together to make these things reality mean that even in some of the most adverse of circumstances we can all work together to make our community a better place to live.

See this speech in context