Labor faces internal housing battle in PM's heartland

Sydney Morning Herald

5 days ago

With proud Marrickville resident Anthony Albanese in The Lodge, Sydney's inner west has become the centre of Australia's political universe.
It's also the centre of one of the more pressing political issues of our time – how to build more housing in a central part of Sydney which has historically been pathologically opposed to development.
The area is full of progressive Labor-Greens voters fully supportive of high-density, affordable housing in every suburb – barring their own. It's the kind of place where people read Ezra Klein's Abundance book for fun.
Little surprise then that there are a multitude of views around how best to build, baby, build among influential Labor figures in the PM's own backyard.
The council, led by ambitious Labor mayor Darcy Byrne (a good mate of Albo) objected to Premier Chris Minns' Transport Oriented Development scheme and, in May, revealed its own plan to boost density, which involves buildings of six to 11 storeys clustered around Ashfield, Marrickville, Dulwich Hill and Croydon.
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Cue fury among some residents' groups in those suburbs, disgruntled at having to bear the brunt of the council's density reforms. They pointed to the fact that the inner west's leafier areas such as Balmain, Rozelle and Annandale were spared the brunt of the development. To be fair, none of those suburbs is on a train line.
Earlier this month, local Labor MP Jo Haylen, who was a minister in the Minns government before that silly business with taking chauffeured cars to a boozy birthday brunch, wrote to Byrne to voice those residents' concerns. Some of the suburbs slated for the most development sit in her Summer Hill electorate.
In a letter seen by CBD, Haylen urged Byrne to 'give serious consideration' to the feedback on the plan provided by her community.