The NSW Government’s announcement that the Central Coast Regional Development Corporation has been merged with its Hunter counterpart, has been described as “another nail in the coffin for a standalone Central Coast Region”.
On Wednesday, October 10, NSW Minister for Planning, Anthony Roberts, announced that the Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporations would merge under the leadership of, Michael Cassel, as CEO. Minister Roberts said Cassel had been “instrumental in leading change and transforming Newcastle. “When it comes to urban renewal and seizing opportunities to drive economic growth in cities, there is no one better than Mr Cassel,” Roberts said. “The announcement that they will merge is yet another signal that the Liberals are undermining the Coast’s Regional status,” said Shadow Minister for the Central Coast, David Harris, in response to the announcement. “This announcement follows the loss of the Central Coast Business Enterprise Centre and the move from Central Coast Tourism to a Destination North entity, which includes the Hunter and Blue Mountains,” he said.
Rather than having a full-time, long standing business enterprise centre based in Tuggerah, Central Coast small business owners now have access to a weekly pop-up service at the Nexus Smart Hub. “Our Schools Districts have also been altered to move northern schools more towards the Hunter. “The Central Coast’s status as a region has long been debated, with many locals fi ghting long and hard to have it recognised. “Moves such as this have been a pattern for the Government right back to the beginning when they abolished the Minister for the Central Coast. “This sends a strong message to Coast residents that this government views us as a suburb of the Hunter. “The Coast is now the third largest population area behind Sydney and the Hunter, but this government continues to erode the organisations set up to serve our specific needs.”
According to David Harris, the Central Coast Regional Development Corporation (CCRDC) was initially formed out of the Mount Penang Parklands Authority by the then Labor NSW Government. The Honeysuckle Development Corporation had been formed in 1992 to head the revitalisation of Newcastle. “One of the problems it faced, as the parkland authority, was that it never had any money, so we gave it $10m and appointed executives with proven business experience. “Our idea was that it would operate like Honeysuckle in seeking out businesses to invest in the Central Coast. “Unfortunately it was all established around 2010, and when the Liberals formed Government in NSW, they changed the emphasis to it, so that it sort of became a real estate agent.
“The government took the $10m away, so the corporation had no money and it became a non-event. “The merger with the Hunter Development Corporation means that we become just a bit player, we are always the poor cousin, and it sends a signal that their focus is not on the Central Coast. “It is all about centralising power.” Harris said that also applied to the replacement of Wyong and Gosford Councils with the mega Central Coast Council. “They have set up an entity which is Central Coast Council, but they don’t necessarily want them making all the decisions, so they’ve set up a parent (CCHDC) to keep the naughty children in control.” Harris said other regions of NSW were made up of multiple Councils, but now that the Central Coast has a single Council it is being forced to be part of a larger region. According to Harris, another flaw in the new CCHDC is that, again, it has no funding available.
Honeysuckle and Hunter Development Corporation received around $230m from the sale of Newcastle port to fund the city’s revitalisation but, so far, the NSW Government has given no substantial funding to Cassel. The Labor opposition has, thus far, put $100m on the table, should it be elected next March, as a jobs fund for the Central Coast, out of existing funding for regional programs. “At the moment under Restart NSW and the regional funding model, billions of dollars are sitting in funds. “Out of that, we would allocate $100m, because the Coast is a growth area with relatively high unemployment, particularly youth unemployment.”
Harris said he expected the NSW Government to make more significant funding announcements in the leadup to the March election, once their candidates for the various state electorates on the Central Coast had been preselected. He said he believed the use of planning instruments such as State Environmental Planning Policies, could be used by the current NSW Government to push through its key development priorities on the Coast. “That is what they are doing in Sydney.
“If you examine what they are doing under the Sydney Commission, and they are retreating a bit because they have had so much flack about over-development, they created corridors and gave them special planning controls. “Unfortunately, you’ve got this mentality that it is development at all costs, and then you have people on the Coast who say nothing ever happens. “Things are happening, but in a way that is keeping the flavour of the Coast.” Shadow Minister Harris said he would argue that both Gosford and Wyong Councils tried a similar approach to that set out in the 2036 Regional Plan and failed. “Wyong’s iconic sites were an abject failure and Gosford Council offered developers everything under the sun as incentives, and still, when they got the DAs through, nothing happened.”
Source: Media release, Oct 11 Zachary Harrison, office of David Harris Media release, Oct 10 Matthew Porter, NSW Planning Department Interview, Oct 11 David Harris, Shadow Minister for the Central Coast Jackie Pearson, journalist