Battler

After 111 years Auburn will lose it’s Post Office

The doors to Auburn Post Office will close on Wednesday 28th August. Australia Post Boss, Paul Graham claims the Post Office will close because profits have declined by 35% over the last four years. However residents say Auburn Post Office is always busy with extra long queues. Of course the real problem is that Australia Post Management don’t want to provide the many services that don’t make big profits.

NO COMMITMENT

Jason Clare MP, the Federal Member for Blaxland who represents a significant part of the Auburn electorate announced that Australia Post had agreed to reopen the Post Office at a new site some time in the future. The problem is we have NO COMMITMENT when the new Post Office will open and what services it will provide.

CORE SERVICES NEEDED

Auburn Post Office serves the needs of 41,757 residents, our Community is one of the most diverse in Australia with one of the largest refugee populations and an elderly population with 16.7% over 60 years of age. Many of the services are core to the proper functioning of our community – witnessing official documents, passport applications, police checks, Identification checks, banking and bill paying services on top of the normal postal and packaging services.

PUBLIC SERVICE VS PRIVATE PROFIT

Australia Post is a Government owned business however the character of Australia Post has changed dramatically. Private Profit has become the priority in their corporate culture sweeping Public Service aside. They have made no secret of their plans to close a large number of post offices across Australia with recent closures at Campsie, Rockdale, a reduction of services at Silverwater and mail deliveries reduced to every second day.

NOT ENOUGH PROFIT

Australia Post Boss, Paul Graham announced a half yearly profit of $33.6 million but also warned that more Post Offices needed to close. Paul Graham talks about Post Shops not Post Offices, this is important because Post Shops are only about making money where traditionally Post Offices are a community hub and seen as a place providing public services that are important for the health of our communities.

PEOPLE ARE IMPORTANT

It’s the people who make an important difference at Auburn Post Office. It’s the staff with multiple language and cultural skills, familiar faces that help with filling out our passport applications, witnessing Government documents, locating lost mail or parcels, assisting our seniors with paying utility bills. These services might not make a profit but they’re important glue in holding our community together.

INCREASE THE PRESSURE

It was an important victory for our community when Jason Clare MP, Lynda Voltz our State Member and Mayor Lisa Lake felt enough pressure to lobby Australia Post and force an announcement from Australia Post Boss, Paul Graham to open a new site in Auburn. The problem is since the announcement Australia Post has put out notices about the closure but no mention about reopening a new site in Auburn. We need to increase the pressure on our local politicians to get a commitment on a new site, a date for reopening and a guarantee that we will have the same services.

IMPORTANT COMMUNITY ISSUE

Labor understands that the closure of the Auburn Post Office is an important community issue and we need to be cautious that the announcement of the new site was not a way to make the issue go away during the September Council elections. Our Community can use the Council elections as a pressure point to get those commitments on a new post office.

LOOKING FOR A NEW POST OFFICE

We have walked the streets of Auburn Town Centre and we can’t find a suitable site to replace the site at Auburn Central. Retail and Commercial sites in the Auburn CBD have been in short supply and expensive for a long time. An alternative site could be the former Auburn Council Administrative building with entrances off Auburn Rd and Susan St, the advantages are the building is more accessible and has off road carparking . Cumberland Council would probably be able to offer a much cheaper lease than Auburn Central.

SIGN THE PETITION

A first step towards getting a commitment on the new Post Office and Services is signing the Petition – Declare the new site for Auburn Post Office. Letters to Jason Clare MP for Blaxland – Suite 7, Level 1, 400 Chapel Rd, Bankstown – 2200 or Email: jason.clare.mp@aph.gov.au and Phone: 97902466. The Battler is always happy to help if you need assistance writing a letter or email, contact us Mobile: 0451 635 924 or Email: localbattler@live.com.au .

Join us and send a message to Labor “AUBURN NEEDS A PROPER POST OFFICE”.

The Supreme Court of NSW, court of Appeal handed a second win to the residents of Lidcombe in the case Piety vs Cumberland Council.

Piety (SAUDI BACKED DEVELOPER) has lost its second attempt at blocking a proposed rescission motion by Cumberland Councillors to overturn a decision to sell the council car park on John St, Lidcombe for High Density Apartments. The court decision has been a long time coming. the original rescission motion was to be heard at a Council Meeting in November 2021 but was held up by a court order. The tactic by Piety to delay and drag through the court system is an indication of how deep their pockets are how far they are prepared to go in extracting profits from our community. The first vote to sell the Council Car Park at a Cumberland Council meeting was defeated by one vote when the former Liberal Councillor Tom Zreika abstained from the vote due to a conflict of interest. Miraculously at the next meeting Tom’s declaration of a conflict of interest had disappeared and the vote to sell the John St car park was carried on the casting vote of the OLC Mayor, Steve Christou. Our Local Community (OLC) and Liberal Party Councillors formed an alliance to sell the car park. At that meeting a rescission motion was signed by three Labor Councillors to overturn the sale. That rescission motion has been the subject of court cases since 2021.

On the former Auburn Council there had also been a controversy with the majority of Councillors agreeing to sell the car park to one of their own the notorious Deputy Mayor and Developer, Salim Mehajer. The sale of the car park later became one of the issues that the Auburn Public Inquiry investigated and recommended should be overturned, the Administrator appointed to Auburn Council followed through on that recommendation and overturned the sale. It should be noted that Salim Mehajer tried to Appeal that decision through the Courts and failed.

The common theme with both attempts to sell our car park on John St is that it has been attempt by Councillors to sell a public asset that belonged to the people of Lidcombe and maximise the profit of a private developer at the expense of the people. The Battler has a proud record of consistently opposing the sale of the Council Car Park on and off Council.

On Wednesday night, 6.30pm 7th August the matter of the Rescission to stop the sale of the John St Council Car Park will be debated at the Council Chamber, 16 Memorial Ave Merrylands. We encourage residents to attend the meeting, our presence in the public gallery will guarantee a better outcome for the meeting.

On Saturday July 13th residents bordering Amy, Maunder and Smith Streets Regents Park woke to the sound of screaming chainsaws ripping through a pocket of much loved bushland. 64 trees a big variety of natives and non natives ranging in height from 22 metres to 3 metres Corymbia citradora, Eucalyptus saligna, Liquidambar styraciflua, Angophora costata, Corymbia maculata, Eucalyptus sideroxylon, Eucalyptus grandis, Eucalyptus microcorys, Grevillea robusta and Jacarandas flourished on the site. The pocket of bushland in the centre of suburban Regents Park was a refuge to a wide range of native birdlife including rare sightings of the black cockatoo, the sounds of birdlife has now disappeared from our local streets.

Initially residents thought that the chainsaws were the actions of a rogue developer, illegally cutting down trees and as often is the case the Developer factors in the fines into the cost of the new development but we were amazed to find out that the Environmental Vandal was in fact the Land & Environment Court. Stupid us, we were naïve enough to think the Court should play a role in upholding Environmental conditions for local residents.

The Developer Sam Darwich took the case to the Land & Environment Court appealing the refusal of his Development Application for 1 – 3 Maunder St, Regents Park. Cumberland Council had refused DA2022/0393 for the demolition of houses on the site and the construction of 16 attached & semi detached dwellings. We were starting to think we could congratulate Cumberland Council for trying to stick up for the interests of residents in Regents Park untill we learned that in fact the Council took part in a conciliation conference and did nothing to defend conditions that had previously been established with the Sydney Central City Planning Panel decision to rezone the site to R3 Medium Density. Protecting the trees of significant value and the refuge for birds and wild life was a key condition of the panels decision. The courts decision overturned those conditions allowing the developer to vandalise and remove trees that had taken sometimes centuries to grow.

We can’t imagine what was going through the mind of the Land & Environment Court Commissioner, Ms Gwenda Kullen. What we do Know is if this development had been proposed in the Northern or Eastern Suburbs and bushland was threatened it would not get the green light. Its obvious that there are different rules for ordinary working class folk who live in places like Regents Park. Not only the Court but successive Governments including the Minns Labor Government thinks its okay to drop any old shit on the mainly working class residents of Western Sydney. We expect Developers to try and maximise their profits and badly impact our lives but we should not have to expect that the Courts, State Government and our own Council play along with the Developer and do damage to our lifestyle and families.

The victims of this Environmental Vandalism in Regents Park is not only the native bushland and birdlife but our children. The significant pocket of 64 trees behind Amy, Maunder & Smith Streets played an important role in filtering the air that we and more importantly our kids breathe. Amy Street fills up with cars morning and afternoon peak times and has a constant flow of traffic through out the day which equates to large amounts of carbon monoxide being pumped out into our local atmosphere and thats where our 64 trees play an important role, those trees suck in that awful bloody pollution and the result is carbon in the tree and the ground and cleaner air for our children to breathe. Younger children with less developed lungs are at greater risk from the carbon monoxide pollution and often it is connected to higher levels of respiratory diseases like asthma.

And this brings us to the BIG CONTRADICTIONS. Our State Government and Council are constantly talking about sustainable development, even the developers parrot the same message about planting more trees and reducing the heat in our suburbs. In reality they are doing the opposite with every new development comes the loss of open green space, the reduction in trees, the increase in hard surfaces like concrete, the loss of deep soil penetration and more pressure on our local infrastructure. It all impacts on our lifestyle and local environment. When we get heavy rains there are less places for the storm water to go, concrete wont soak up the excess water and the same when we get hotter temperatures there are less trees to shelter and protect us from the heat and the suns rays.

Amy, Maunder and Smith Streets are not an isolated example of the loss of open space and 64 trees, on the other side of Joseph St where the Botanica Estate sits there is another approved development which involves relocating the MS Centre close to Joseph St and stealing the open bushland around the original Centre for another private housing estate with the destruction of 467 mature trees. Every new high density development is another loss of trees and deep soil penetration.

The big question is what can we do about it? Nothing short of Institutional Corruption where our political leaders neglect even discriminate against the majority of our population and it starts at the local level with the Councillors we elect who regularly compromise our interests. The Council election on September 14th gives us an opportunity to hold them to account and at the same time send a message to the mainstream political parties that we wont be taken for granted. No Councillor in our ward told us what was happening in the area around Amy, Maunder and Smith Streets and we only found out after the chainsaws had ripped the area apart and close to Botanica the Labor Councillor’s actually told residents they would get a school when it was never going to happen.

The best outcome for our area is that we turn it into a marginal electorate where any politician who wants to be elected has to work for our vote and our interests and as soon as they turn against our interests we kick them out.

Steve Christou, Councillor and Mayor of Cumberland Council has recently immersed himself in controversy over the decision by the Land and Environment Court to reject an application to build a Mosque in Factory St, Granville.

He has created a backlash on social media where he is seen to gloat over the decision by the Land & Environment that rejected an appeal against the Councils decision to not approve the application for the Mosque and calls it a victory.

The Mayor, Steve Christou was right to support the overwhelming majority of residents living in the streets close to the proposed mosque in opposing the development. The Battler has a core principle that the residents should be able to decide what gets built in our streets and surrounding area, we call this real local democracy.

The reality was a large number of residents in surrounding streets from diverse ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds opposed the application to build the Mosque because of traffic, parking and noise issues. The same residents also opposed an extension to a Korean Catholic Church a few years earlier in Factory St for the same reasons.

The issue about Steve Christou being a fit person to hold the Mayor’s job is more to do with his lack of sensitivity and his record of making inappropriate comments on social media. Not a good look when the Mayor of a Council with a substantial Muslim population and time and again Christou uses social media to air a variety of questionable views on Muslims. The ABS statistics for Granville Ward show that 24.7% of residents nominated Islam as their religion, of course not all Muslims think the same but its certainly not smart to insult them on social media. He’s reproduced the standard bigotry of Mark Latham, One Nations Upper House MHR. Christou is fond and appears to use of all people Donald Trump as his mentor and seems to have the same Laiss’ez faire attitude towards COVID 19. In a recent video posted on Twitter he makes derogatory comments about Muslim volunteers in a canteen at sporting event in Bankstown not serving Egg and Bacon rolls to spectators. As is often the case with bigots they get it all wrong, there was no deliberate intent by the volunteers to not serve bacon and egg rolls but one of the volunteers who normally serves the bacon didn’t make it to the event. We wouldn’t expect a devout Jew to serve bacon, so why would we have that expectation of a Muslim? And if Christou was genuinely concerned he could have easily volunteered to take the other persons place in the canteen.

So there we have it, not one out of place comment about the Land & Environment Court decision but a continuous trail of bigotry and division coming from a person who holds a leading position in the Community. We think it say’s a lot about Mayor Christou, if you are polite you might describe his behavior as incredulous. We tend to agree with those in the Community who call it “Stupid”.

So what is Mayor Christou’s background? In 2017 Steve Christou was elected as a Labor Councillor for Granville Ward of Cumberland Council. In September 2020 he put himself forward as a candidate for the Mayor’s job but none of his Labor colleagues thought he was worth supporting. Christou got upset about this and joined Our Local Community as part of a deal with the Liberals to then support him for Mayor. Interesting, all three Our Local Community Councillors are Ex – Labor and Ex – Liberal and if you think there differences are on principles you would be wrong. All three jumped ship because they couldn’t realise their personal ambitions in the major parties of Labor and Liberal. Their party colleagues didn’t think they were worth supporting. In fact Mayor Christou before becoming a Councillor worked in Laurie Ferguson’s electoral office.

Since coming to the office of Mayor, Steve Christou has opened an electoral style office with ratepayers money on Merrylands Road coincidentally right opposite the State Members Electoral Office. Steve Christou is also using a full page in Friday’s Telegraph Newspaper to promote himself every week, not cheap and again at the ratepayers expense and all of this at a time when Cumberland Council has spiraled into debt mainly due to Amalgamation. Council Staff tell us that the Mayor has hijacked Councils Media Team for his own personal use and this comes at a time when residents in Regents Park and South Granville Wards have had Council services reduced and will be expected to pay an increase of $400 per year over five years on our rates. On top of this Mayor Christou’s alliance Liberals and Our Local Community Councillors voted in December to sell off Council’s Child Care Centres and Seniors Units, another blow to low income earners in our Community. Do you think there was any discussion at Council to curb the Mayor’s extravagant expenditure? You would be correct if you guessed No.

You probably wont be surprised to learn that the Mayor is also a hypocrite while he rails against the building of the mosque in Factory St, Granville he and his alliance have been more than happy to support dramatic increases in the heights of buildings in our Lidcombe and Auburn Town centres and this comes after horror findings of shonky apartment blocks in Auburn. In his own Ward of Granville he hesitated about voting down a Development Proposal in Manchester Road Auburn that would open a bridge through to Seventh Ave Granville and flood local residential streets with thousands of cars daily. It was only after he was outed by the Battler that he decided to vote against the proposal. Yes, Steve Christou has had his token campaign against a proposed development on the corner of the Great Western Highway and Woodville Road but more important watch how two of his Pro Development Alliance Councillors Ned Attie and Eddie Sarkis vote on the Greater Sydney Planning Panel. We think that Liberal Councillor Tom Zreika, a former President of the Lebanese Muslim Association would be feeling very uncomfortable with the Mayor’s litany of anti Muslim comments. Its worth pointing out that Tom Zreika’s vote helps to keep Steve Christou in the Mayor’s job and we would encourage concerned residents to contact Tom and make their views understood.

The Battler doesn’t oppose the Mayor Steve Christou because he supported local residents in campaigning against the Mosque, we say Councillor Steve Christou is not fit for the job of Mayor he encourages bigotry and division in our community and does nothing to preserve secularism. Islamophobia and Prejudice have no place in our Council area and we need a community leader who brings residents together on those issues that can unite us.

Residents living in the Regents Park and South Granville wards of Cumberland Council (former Auburn Council) are set to be whacked with an increase in rates $80 per year and $400 over 5 years, this is on top of standard annual rate increases (CPI) and increases due to higher land valuations.

The rate increases are a result of the amalgamation of Auburn Council, Holroyd Council and Granville which was formerly part of Parramatta Council.

It is part of a misnamed process called rates harmonisation where the three former Council areas had three different levels of residential and business rates, rates harmonisation will increase the rates up to the highest level. The former Auburn Council had the lowest rates of all the Councils in the Sydney Metropolitan area. Auburn Council was made up of a high number of low income earners according to the most recent ABS statistics, people who can least afford a big increase in residential rates.

When promoting Council Amalgamations, the Liberal State Government was keen to stress there would be no increase in rates during the first four years of Amalgamation apart from standard increases. The Government was deliberately deceptive and never mentioned its intention to increase rates through rates harmonisation knowing full well this would provoke greater public opposition to Amalgamations.

Most Council Amalgamations were forced on residents living outside Liberal Party electorates and ironically many Councils saved from Amalgamation were smaller Councils in wealthier parts of Sydney. Hunters Hill Council has 14000 residents compared to Regents Park ward in Cumberland Council with approximately 35,000 residents.

Another bitter twist is the money that was supposed to compensate Amalgamated Councils (Stronger Communities Fund) with a quarter of a billion dollars was spent on Councils that were not forced to amalgamate in mostly Liberal Party strongholds.

The Amalgamation of Councils has been disastrous leaving a large number of Amalgamated Councils in debt, out of 20 Councils forced to amalgamate the debt is estimated at $1.03 billion. Cumberland Council was rated as number 7 of the 10 worst performing Amalgamated Councils losing a hot $81.6 million.

The former Auburn Council with all its problems with corruption and over development was financially healthy and provided pretty decent levels of services to residents and our rates were still the lowest in Sydney. Since Amalgamation we have lost services, verge cutting, our garbage collection has been contracted out with a lower level of service and now Cumberland Council is planning to sell off the Seniors Units in Auburn and Lidcombe. Council operated Childcare Centres are also on the chopping block.

Liberal and Our Local Community Councillors have voted to pass the cost of Amalgamation on to us the residents and cut our services. All Councillors including Labor are willing to pass on the cost of Amalgamation through increased rates ($400 over 5 years) for former Auburn Council residents. Our Mayor Steve Christou has to be the greatest hypocrite, he talks about back to basics when cutting our services but at the same time wastes ratepayers money on promoting himself as a candidate in the next State Election. He currently takes out a full page advertisement in the Daily Telegraph every Friday at Councils expense. The Mayor has opened a shop front office on Merrylands Road just opposite the local MP’s office and you don’t need to be a genius to understand the office is a defacto election office. Council Staff have told us the Mayor has hijacked Councils Media Team for his own use. We were mistaken, we thought the Mayor was supposed to be a leader and for us any rate we believed a leader was supposed to set a good example, thats right lead by example but many residents tell us he’s an ass and some are blunt and call him an arse. We will leave that up to your judgement?

At the Battler we have been consistent with our argument that Amalgamations would never work in the interests of ordinary residents. It doesn’t make us feel good that former Auburn Council residents are going to be hit with a sledge hammer and pay higher rates while losing important services. The issue for us is about Democracy, Local Democracy thats where we get a say over what gets built in our street, what happens in our local environment and what type of services are provided in our local community and Amalgamation (Big Corporate Councils) have done the opposite stripping more of our rights away.

The Battler argues that part of the solution is dis amalgamation, smaller Councils and smaller wards. Yes, like Hunters Hill Council we want a smaller Council with smaller wards where residents know our local Councillor, the Councillor is forced to be accountable and take notice of our residents. Our Councillors need to know they are answerable for their actions and decisions. We believe residents should have the right of recall and when the majority of residents agree a Councillor is not doing their job, we have the right to get rid of them.

South Granvile ward Councilors who voted to contract out our child care services and sell off senior units. They also supported increasing your rates.

Regents Park ward Councilor who voted to get rid of council child care services and sell off our senior units. Also supported increasing your rates.

Local residents are angry with the decision to close their local branch.

The Branch closed temporarily eight weeks ago and local residents were told that staff had been transferred to a call centre as a result of COVID19 and staff shortages.

Local residents became suspicious and realised it was bulls**t when they saw Regents Park staff working at the Chester Hill branch.

Small businesses and many older and long term customers of the Bank feel cheated. The closure has a negative impact on our local Community, many of our older residents have serious mobility issues and find it difficult to travel even to places like Chester Hill but it also means they often have to wait longer times to be served while in pain.

The local Bank branch had an important place in our community especially for busy local businesses, again people working often 14 – 16 hour days it was convenient to have a place to pick up change, do daily transactions and do business efficiently and quickly.

Our Community wont take this blow lying down, Regents Park has a history of fighting back.

We would have thought the Executives of the Commonwealth Bank would be a bit more sensitive towards Communities after the scandals of the last few years and the rorts exposed by the Banking Royal Commission.

The Commonwealth Bank has a poster in the window of our local branch and it says “We’re here to support you however we can.”

We aim to hold them to their words.

We are in the process of collating old material from our former website and developing new content for the Battler Webpage.

The Battler is a grassroots community organisation active in the suburbs of Auburn, Berala, Clyde, Granville, Lidcombe and Regents Park.

We are a secular organisation and our members represent a cross section of ethnic and religious backgrounds in our Community. Our members come from a range of Political backgrounds, former Labor and Liberal Party members sick of the divisive politics of the Big Parties, sick of people who use our communities to advance their own political careers at the expense of ordinary people. Many of our members have no political background but understand the need for our Community to stand up to overdevelopment, bad planning, dirty Industries, noise pollution, traffic congestion and the lack of local services. Our aim is to unite as many people and organisations at a local level to help improve our communities, to improve and protect our local environment, to protect our heritage and campaign for better infrastructure.

Residents living in Western Sydney have been the poor cousins for far too long, we have suffered an unfair burden of increased population density and overdevelopment without proper infrastructure. The Battler argues its about time we balanced the scales, that population is distributed more evenly, that jobs and public infrastructure are funded in our communities, that we get our fair share of funds for Schools, Train Services and Hospitals.

The Battler campaigns for Local Democracy, for a full participative Democracy where residents can make decisions about their local environment, what gets built nextdoor, in our street and in the local village/town centre. We believe Democracy is more than electing a Councillor every four years, its about our Councillors being accountable, reporting back to residents regularly and the right of residents to recall a non performing Councillor.

The Battler supports the dis amalgamation of Cumberland Council, the restoration of Auburn Council and the restructuring of Council with a larger number of smaller wards. Local Government for us is small Government that is close to the people, where residents know their Councillors and where residents can make sure the Councillors are working in our interests.

The Battler is about defending and organising ordinary working people in our Communities, about bringing our talents together, about giving a voice to those without a voice and empowering our communities.

LETS WORK TOGETHER.