City's Tieless Defender Finally Sways The Suits
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday June 15, 2000
Jack Mundey supped with the Property Council of Australia yesterday. It was a bit like a PLO activist entering the Israeli Parliament, he said, or the Pope going into St Paul's Cathedral, London.
The former trade union leader, who fought property developers for much of his life, offered his audience a history lesson, a little advice, some strong criticism and a few kind words.
In return, the property folk appeared willing to recognise Mr Mundey's place on history's good side. ``People like Jack Mundey have made Sydney the beautiful city it is today," said Mr John Batiste, of Suncorp Metway.
Mr Mundey, who led the green bans movement against various developments 30-odd years ago and is now chairman of the Historic Houses Trust, addressed council members on the compatibility of conservation and development.
He said it took courage to join ``all the suits". The tieless Mr Mundey urged the council to affirmative action, by taking on more women.
He said development and conservation must be compatible because ``humankind can't ravage the planet in the way it has done for the past half century".
Australians, the world's second-worst offenders with greenhouse gases, should conserve more and consume less. Ecology and economics should be interwoven.
Mr Mundey said that the Herald had once called him ``the scourge of developers" but more and more people now realised that the stand by middle-class resident action groups, progressive architects and engineers and a union with a social conscience against indiscriminate development was the right stand. It was a ``strange combination" but an ``exciting cross-culture".
He said the Builders Labourers' Federation ``with, dare I mention the word, Communist Party leaders" had fought for conservation and women's liberation and against the Vietnam War and apartheid.
He praised the late Dick Dusseldorp, who created the developer Lend Lease and its construction arm, Civil & Civic, and concerned himself not only with shareholders but with those who worked for the shareholders.
But he criticised developers, who donated limited amounts to Bob Carr's Labor Party in 1995 but much more in 1999, when he was far more popular. (State Electoral Office figures show the Lend Lease donation went from $60,000 to $180,000 and Walker Corporation's from $7,000 to $150,000).
And he praised the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union for placing a ban on a McDonald's in Centennial Park.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald