NSW Premier Mike Baird agreed on November 15 to meet with residents campaigning against the controversial $17 billion tollway WestConnex. His promise came after they staged a sit-in at NSW Parliament House that day.
At the start of question time, three protesters attempted to drop a banner from the gallery that read “No WestCONnex / Baird it’s time to listen”.
The trio then chanted “No WestConnex” and informed MPs that dozens of residents were waiting for Baird to speak to them. They were escorted out by security.
The sit-in went for over an hour with protesters only agreeing to leave after Baird made the promise to meet with them.
“Opposition to the disastrous WestConnex toll road is rising by the day,” said No WestConnex spokesperson Paul Jeffery, “but the Premier is still refusing to listen to concerned residents.
“Instead, he’s allowed secretive private companies to take control of billions of dollars of our money and make huge decisions that will affect the future of our city without any transparency whatsoever.
“By allowing private tollway interests to hijack the WestConnex planning process, Baird has turned this $17 billion publicly-funded project into an undemocratic farce,” Jeffery said.
“Baird has even refused to consider independent evidence that WestConnex will fail western Sydney, worsen costly traffic congestion and divide rather than connect communities,” said WestCONnex Action Group spokesperson Anne Picot.
“We look forward to meeting with Premier Baird to discuss our call for an immediate halt to all work on WestConnex, and for a public inquiry into how this destructive and poorly planned project got so far without any accountability, transparency, or consideration of its disastrous impact on Sydney,” Picot said.
Also on November 15, residents organised a picket outside the NSW Major Projects Conference to let Sydney Motorway Corporation CEO Dennis Cliche know how unpopular WestConnex is.
Meanwhile, the November 14 Australian Financial Review reported that NSW Treasury has hired infamous investment bank Goldman Sachs and law firm Ashurst, along with accountants PwC, to provide advice on financing and the potential sell-off of WestConnex to corporate investors in stages.
A privatised WestConnex would reap a bonanza for those big corporations involved, as motorists face huge and growing tolls on each section of the motorway.
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