Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust Amendment Bill 2021 is a good bill and a bill which means a lot to the people of Sydney, particularly those who live around the magnificent Sydney Harbour. Sydney Harbour would probably have the world's most recognisable shoreline; certainly in this country it would be amongst the very best of our natural assets.

The harbour trust itself was an election commitment from the Howard years, back in the 1998 campaign, when the Howard government committed itself to return—and I'm paraphrasing here from the statement in 1988—the Sydney Harbour foreshore defence sites to the people of Australia in order to protect the national heritage values of these sites. The Howard government initially provided a $90 million contribution from the former Federation Fund, which established this trust. It was established as a transitional body designed to protect and preserve the former defence lands which are scattered around Sydney Harbour. We have just been living, in the last 18 months, through a serious pandemic. During the last serious pandemic we had, which was broadly known as the Spanish flu, about 100 years ago, there was a quarantine station set up at Manly which is still used today, although not for its original purpose. It is on magnificent, pristine land up at North Head.

The sites, as I said, are scattered around Sydney. We protected and preserved them in the initial legislation back at the beginning of the century. The trust has been extended as a transitional body again and again through various acts of this parliament. Minister Sussan Ley commissioned a review about 18 months ago to have a look at the appropriateness of the trust. The review recommended, on the basis of significant community input, that the trust be established as a permanent, ongoing entity and arrangement. That's the central point here—that we're committed to preserving these sites not just because they're beautiful but because they give the public access. They provide public access to sites which are not available anywhere else in the world—North Head, Middle Head, Platypus and so on and so forth. So that was one of the central recommendations of the review.

There was a lot of scaremongering at the time from various people, including the member for Warringah, saying it was the end of the world that we were doing a review. But we decided it was the right thing to do to have a look at the structure that was there. The review recommended a permanent solution, and that is what the government's policy is.

I also put in a submission to that review, in consultation with the community. The community here is really key. There is no question that these lands were preserved because of the actions taken by the executive government of the day, the Howard government, which were subsequently extended several times and are now made permanent by this government. But that is only one side of the story. Yes, there has been, to a large degree, bipartisan support. But the community here is at the heart. I have had the opportunity to be able to work with the Headland Preservation Group—with Jill L'Estrange and Julie Goodsir—and the community there and the committee. These people have gone above and beyond in representing the interests of their community by engaging deeply on these issues of how these unique sites can be preserved and protected from a military perspective, from an Indigenous perspective and from a community perspective. We wouldn't be here today without these community groups—without, in particular, the Headland Preservation Group, which continues to do a great body of work not only on advocacy but also in providing volunteers to maintain the sites. There are hundreds of volunteers who work on the trust lands and keep the trust lands beautiful and viable.

Apart from establishing the trust in perpetuity, this bill also ensures that there is a clearer governance framework. It sets out that the trust lands will be maintained by the Commonwealth. They must be held in public hands. But we're also striving to improve the board and the governance and the functions.

There has been a lot of discussion about leasing, and I hear the comments around the chamber that a long-term lease could be a de facto way of privatising public lands. That is a concern that has been shared by the Morrison government, and what we have tried to do with this bill is draw a line in the sand about long-term leases. So the trust can conduct leases up to 25 years under this legislation, which has bipartisan support. If there is a desire to have a longer-term lease, out to 35 years, then that can be done, but it can only be done under a legal instrument which is disallowable and after there's been extensive community consultation. Again, that is at the heart of this. We wouldn't be here without the community advocacy, so we must always ensure that, if there are to be leases longer than 25 years that are desired by the trust and the community groups, there is an extensive process that also results in those legal arrangements being subject to disallowance.

The bill also states very clearly that you cannot have a lease longer than 35 years. The case in which you might find a lease that is longer than 25 years may well be where there is a need to get more private capital to rehabilitate a site on the trust lands. We are also putting our hands in our pockets, as we did in the last budget, to help remediate some of these former Defence lands. In the last budget, we committed $40 million to help remediate. But there is more work that needs to be done on all these sites, so there is money in the budget to keep on looking at the plans that are required to be delivered with community consent.

In summary, this is a very important piece of law—or will be, I hope, a very important piece of law—for the people of Sydney, the people of New South Wales and the people of Australia. When people think about Australia, they think about these sites, and we are ensuring that these sites will be in public hands for ever and ever. That is a great win for the community, and I want to thank again all the community advocates who have spent an enormous amount of time not only on public advocacy but in preservation and grassroots conservation.