Jo Haylen MP, Member for Summer Hill, today asked serious questions of Minister for Planning, Anthony Roberts, on the numbers used to sell his mass rezoning of Dulwich Hill.

In an effort to sell his revised Sydenham to Bankstown Strategy, the Minister has been spruiking to media outlets around town that the new plans cut the number of proposed new dwellings in Dulwich Hill by 1,400. But interrogation of the revised plans show that this is not the case.

As shown in the table below, the 2015 strategy proposed 2,059 new dwellings while the 2017 strategy proposes 2,000. This is a difference of a measly 59 dwellings.

The slippery numbers appear to arise in how the existing number of dwellings were calculated. The revised plan mysteriously recalculates the number of existing dwellings in the suburb by 1,400.

Ms Haylen has written to the Minister for Planning asking for clarification on his claims about the strategy.

Quotes attributable to Jo Haylen MP, Member for Summer Hill

“The Minister needs to show his working. There is nothing in these plans that suggest that 1,400 fewer homes will be built that originally proposed. Where did he get this number?

“If the Minister is out there selling his mass rezoning plans will false numbers, he needs to immediately correct his mistake and come clean about the real impact on Dulwich Hill.

“Minister Roberts may not have been the Minister for Planning when the original strategy was released, but surely he at least read the old strategy before proposing a new one?”