Irene in the media

On this page we hope to put links to all media articles that mention Irene.  In the interest of transparency, we’ll put up anything we find, whether it is positive or negative about Irene’s work.  If you see any mentions of Irene in the media that don’t make it up here, please email the webmaster and let us know.

All media releases put out by Irene can be found here.

• 14/5/2012  The Sydney Morning Herald today published an article on past hardships Irene has experienced in her personal life.  Irene chose to make the information public to pre-empt a “dirt file” being put together by a political rival but since doing so has received overwhelming support from the community.  This story was followed up the next day with two supportive letters in the Herald.
• 19/4/2012  City News ran a front page story on the announcement that Irene would be seeking re-election to Council as the Greens Lord Mayoral candidate.
• 12/4/2012 City News ran a story on the Lift Redfern campaign to make Redfern railway station wheelchair accessible.
• 27/3/2012  Wentworth Courier covered Irene’s motion to Council to on encouraging greater numbers of businesses to excercise their right to vote.
• 26/3/2012  Southern Courier covered the story of a resident campaign against a second development application being submitted by McDonalds for a 24 hour outlet in Rosebery, a campaign in which Irene is involved.
• 20/3/2012  Central also gives coverage to the new Local Environment Plan, including Irene’s decision to oppose it, as well as noting Irene’s attempt to reduce plastic bag use in the City, through a range of financial and other incentives.
• 15/3/2012 City News discusses the new Sydney Local Environment Plan, including Irene’s decision to vote against it in the interest of Erskineville residents.
• 12/3/2012  Tharunka published an article on the continued police action against Occupy Sydney, with numerous comments from Irene.
• 24/2/2011  Green Left Weekly mentioned Irene’s support in an article about residents opposing the massive overdevelopment of the Ashmore Estate in Erskineville
• 22/2/2011  Central also covered the issue of urban bandicoots, as raised by Irene.
• 16/2/2011  City Hub covered a rally to support refugees whose cases are currently before the high court, at which Irene spoke representing the Greens.
• 14/2/2011  Southern Courier ran a story on bandicoots in Alexandria after a resident reported to Irene that one had been killed by a dog.
• 15/12/2011  City News sought comment from Irene on the City’s new policy on support for staff suffering from domestic violence.
• 1/12/2011  City News covered the redvelopment of “The Block” in Redfern.
• 1/12/2011 City News ran a story on criticisms of the Police response to the Occupy Sydney protests.
• 21/11/2011  Green Left Weekly covered Irene’s speech at the “corporate tour of Sydney”, organised by the Occupy Sydney collective.
• 17/11/2011  City Hub sought comments from Irene on a Council supported rally for marriage equality.
• 15/11/2011  Central also reported on Irene’s defeated Occupy Sydney motion.
• 11/11/2011 Green Left Weekly reported on Irene’s motion, voted down by Council, to negotiate a new location for the Occupy Sydney protests and request an ombudsman’s investigation into police violence over the issue.
• 10/11/2011  City News ran three stories covering campaigns in which Irene is involved – Council support for Occupy Sydney, Hope Street sex workers counselling centre and Oxford st open air urinals.
• 7/11/2011 SX News and Star Observer both reported on concerns about the location of outdoor urinals being installed in Kings Cross, a matter which Irene is raising with Council.
• 13/10/2011  City News covered the issue of a recycling facility in Alexandria releasing large quantities of dust into the surrounding neighbourhood, an issue Irene has been vigorously pursuing.
• 6/10/2011  City News reports on the approval by the NSW Government of the controversial Potts Point cockatoo cull.
• 29/9/2011  City Hub ran a story, with comment from Irene, on the CIty’s plans to create a network of evacuated pipes to transport, sort and recycle waste.
• 24/9/2011  Green Left Weekly quoted Irene in a story about the eviction of squatters from a building in the University of Sydney.
• 15/9/2011  Irene is quoted in a City News article discussing the money allocated for social housing in the state budget.
• 8/9/2011  City News discussed the Potts Point cockatoo cull.
• 7/9/2011  South Sydney Herald ran an opinion piece by Irene on the carbon tax (relevant article on page 10).
• 7/9/2011  Central also covered the cockatoo cull
• 3/9/2011  Sydney Morning Herald ran a story on the proposed cockatoo cull, quoting Irene on the issue.
• 2/9/2011 City Hub ran a story on the issue of large numbers of stray cats in the City, an issue Irene has been pursuing in the interest of animal welfare.
• 1/9/2011 City News covered moves by Council that Irene initiated to make e-waste recycling more accessible.
• 18/8/2011 City News discusses the possibility that a City funded trial of an electrified bird repellent, suggested by Irene, may be used as an alternative to cockatoo culling in Potts Point.
• 8/8/2011  Irene discusses problems with the City’s new draft street tree master plan in an article in City News.
• 21/7/2011 City News covered the growing campaign against the culling of cockatoos in Potts Point, initiated by community members after hearing about the issue on this website.  Irene was also quoted in an article about a revolutionary new sustainable waste treatment system to be set up in the City. 
• 21/7/2011 City Hub covered a peace rally at which Irene spoke as well as getting her comments on the “Our House Swap” website, which helps public housing tenants negotiate mutually acceptable transfers between each other’s properties.
• 14/7/2011  Irene’s concerns about open ended height limits in the latest Redfern- Waterloo Built Environment Plan and discussed in an article on the plan in City News.
• 30/6/2011  City News ran a story on Irene’s campaign against the planned cockatoo cull in Potts Point.
• 28/6/2011  Irene is quoted in an article in the Daily Telegraph explaining why the term ‘invasion’ is an appropriate description of the arrival of European colonists in Australia.
• 24/6/2011  Irene was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald advocating for the word ‘invasion’ to be officially used by Council to describe the arrival of Europeans in Australia. 
• 16/6/2011  Irene was quoted in stories in Central and City News questioning the effectiveness of the review into Barangaroo after it was announced that previously approved works would not be subject to the review.
• 25/5/2011 Central ran a small story on Irene’s campaign to find a new home for the Keeping Place collection of Aboriginal art.
• 17/5/2011 Epoch Times printed parts of the speech Irene made at world Falan Dafa day in Sydney, praising the community for raising awareness of human rights issues.
• 12/5/2011  City News reported on comments from Irene in a story about the formation of new resident advocacy group ‘groundswell’.
• 5/5/11 City News covered the ‘Bat Human Project’, an exhibition exploring the relocation of the grey-headed flying foxes in the Royal Botanic Gardens, and quotes Irene on the contentious issue.
• 21/4/11 City Hub quoted Irene in an article on the massive overdevelopment of the Ashmore estate in Erskineville, imposed on the City by the previous state government.
• 21/4/2011 Central published an interview with Irene discussing the concept of a boycott of Israeli goods and services, in which she said she felt it would not be an appropriate action to pursue on City of Sydney Council.
• 6/4/2011 Central ran a story on the former Government’s demand that the City dramatically increase allowable building size and density in the Ashmoore estate in Erskineville.  Irene has been campaigning on the issue and is quoted in the story.
• 1/4/2011 Inner West Independent ran a story on the Glebe ‘Affordable Housing’ Project, covering opposition from Irene and others to the large amount of privatisation of public land that will result from it.
• 9/3/2011 Inner West Courier reports on a statement by Clover Moore, Verity Firth and others condemning the Greens on their stance on the Glebe Affordable Housing project.  Irene, as a long time advocate for public housing, has opposed the project because it destroyed the existing public housing communities on the site and spent public money on private housing, with little net public housing increase. 
• 24/2/2011 A brief article in City News mentions that the Broadway cockatoo cull as been cancelled, in a large part due to Irene’s campaigning on the issue (second article from the top).
• 23/2/2011 Irene is mention in a story in Central covering the unsuccessful attempt by conservation group Bat Advocacy to have the Botanic Gardens bat relocation plan overturned in court.
• 18/2/2011  Inner West Courier ran a story, quoting Irene, on the disappointing resolution of the court case to stop the Botanic Gardens bat relocation – the judgement came down in favour of the Gardens, meaning the bat relocation may begin again in May.
• 16/2/2011 Central published an editorial on the Glebe Affordable Housing project, quoting Irene and fellow Greens Councillor Chris Harris.
• 14/2/2011 South Sydney Herald quoted Irene in a story about the debacle over Rushcutters Bay Tennis Centre, where the much loved operator of the centre was forced out after 27 years by an overly onerous new contract (article on page 4).
• 7/2/2011 Articles in SX News and City News covered the decision by the Anglican Church to keep protests out of Town Hall Square following Irene raising the matter in the media.
• 30/1/2011 Irene is mentioned in this article in Green Left Weekly and an article in City Hub covering Invasion Day protests held in Sydney.
• 27/1/2011 The Australian quoted Irene in their coverage of Israeli produce labelled as Australian in Coles supermarkets in the City.
• 25/1/2011 Southern Courier ran a story on the appalling state of public housing properties in South Coogee, an issue that Irene has been working on for some time.
• 19/1/2011 Inner West Courier quoted Irene in a story about the state government’s decision to hand control of a number of City roads over to the Barangaroo Delivery Authority.
• 4/1/2011 Southern Courier and City Hub both covered the issue, first made public by Irene, of foreign produce being labelled incorrectly as Australian in local supermarkets.
• 23/12/2010 City News quoted Irene in a story about residents rallying against coal seam gas drilling in St Peters.
• 16/12/2010  City Hub reported on a protest in defence of Wikileaks and published a quote from Irene about what she saw excessive use of force by the police in attendance.
• 6/12/2010 Inner West Courier covered the eventual eviction of the Redfern squatters and quoted statements from Irene about how this should serve as a catalyst for rethinking the way empty buildings in the City are used.
• 2/12/2010  Green Left Weekly also gave coverage to Irene’s attempts to stop the eviction of squatters in Redfern.
• 30/11/2010  Inner West Courier covered the story of attempts by the City to evict squatters from a vacant property in Redfern and quoted Irene and fellow Greens Councillor Chris Harris speaking in opposition to this move.
• 18/11/2010 City News quoted Irene’s criticism of the manner in which community consultation into the proposed works on Fitzroy Gardens were carried out.
• 16/11/2010 The Daily Telegraph ran two stories (available here and here) on opposition, being spearheaded by Irene, to the building of a cycleway through a piece of bushland next to Johnsons Canal in Forest Lodge.  It should be noted that Irene is not generally opposed to cycleways, this one is just unneccessary and will damage a piece of bushland and hinder residential amenity for no meaningful gain.
• 7/11/2010 Sydney Morning Herald covered the rising public anger at the plans by the state government to authorise further culling of cockatoos in Broadway.
• 21/10/2010 City Hub and City News published stories on the plans by NPWS to potentially revive the Broadway cockatoo cull.
• 20/10/2010 Central published a story on the campaign to have the ‘Keeping Place’ Aboriginal art collection housed at Barangaroo.
• 14/10/2010 Music NSW covered Irene’s support for allowing the Oxford Arts Factory to trade during the day.
• 14/10/2010 City News covered plans for a second cockatoo shooting in the City (3rd item down).
• 13/10/2010 Southern Courier and Wentworth Courier also discussed the ‘Rugby League Central’ plans and quoted comments on the matter from Irene.
• 6/10/2010 Street Corner published Irene’s comments on the plans for the construction of the ‘Rugby League Central’ complex at Moore Park.
• 30/9/2010 City News ran a story on Council’s decision to set up another 34 alcohol free zones around the City, a plan which Irene has been a vocal opponent of.
• 27/9/2010 Sydney Morning Herald covered Irene’s decision to oppose Council’s flawed planning proposal for the Harold Park site.
• 23/9/2010 Inner West Independent covered the acquittal of Susan Stringfellow, who was charged as a result of a protest against the development of Orphan School Creek which Irene also attended.
• 16/9/2010 City News took comments from Irene on the split within the Clover Moore Party caused over Barangaroo.
• 15/9/2010 The editorial on page 5 of Central gives coverage to inquiries from Irene about the fate of developer contributions paid by the Redfern Waterloo Authority.
• 11/9/2010 Irene was asked to write an article on the significance of  Barangaroo and the controversy surrounding its redevelopment for the Green Left Weekly.  The article is available here.
• 10/9/2010 The ABC’s Stateline program covered the hunt for a new home for the Redfern Keeping Place, with commentary from Irene and a number of other prominent advocates for this amazing art collection.
• 9/9/2010 City News and Southern Courier covered the scrutiny given by Irene to plans for a Kings Cross nightclub to extend it’s trading hours.
• 9/9/2010 South Sydney Herald ran a story about the moves, initiated by Irene, to have a skatepark built at Barangaroo (story on page 4).
• 1/9/2010 Inner West Courier covered the outrage from City of Sydney Council in general, and Irene in particular, about the state government’s plans to shoot cockatoos in the inner city.
• 26/8/2010 Central also covered Michael Kirby’s involvement in the search for a new home for the Keeping Place.
• 20/8/2010 Sydney Star Observer ran a story on Justice Michael Kirby’s decision to join the campaign of Irene and others to find a new home for The Keeping Place Indigenous art collection.
• 10/8/2010 Southern Courier ran a story on the cancellation of parts of the M5 expansion, giving significant coverage to Irene’s campaign on the issue.
• 10/8/2010 Inner West Courier also gave coverage to Irene’s motion on poker machines.
• 4/8/2010 City news ran a story on Irene’s motion to give Councils planning authority over poker machines.
• 4/8/2010 Irene’s support for the court case against the botanic gardens flying-fox relocation is mentioned in this article in Central.
• 29/7/2010 Irene was quoted in relation to the appallingly high number of suicides to occur at Joanna O’Dea and the recent safety audit conducted there in the South Sydney Herald(relevant story on page 4).
• 28/7/2010 Inner West Courier mentioned Irene’s decision to vote against the rushed planning controls for the redevelopment of Harold Park.
• 20/7/2010 Central also covered the dispute over poker machines in South Sydney Leagues Club.
• 13/7/2010 Southern Courier covered Irene’s response to legal advice received by the City of Sydney informing them they had no power to stop poker machines being installed in South Sydney Leagues Club.
• 8/7/2010City News ran a story on Irene’s campaign to have an Aboriginal Cultural Centre built as part of the Barangaroo Development.
• 1/7/2010 City News covered the postponement of the flying fox relocation and Irene’s motion in Council on the matter.
• 30/6/2010 Central gave coverage to two of Irene’s campaigns; the call for the state Government to find a new home for The Keeping Place Aboriginal art collection which is soon to be evicted from it’s Redfern home with no alternative venue available and the plans by the Royal Botanic Gardens to postpone the relocation of the resident bat colony (in editorial on second page of the digital edition).
• 3/6/2010 City News ran a story on attempts by Irene and local residents to have a community park built on land surrounding the Eastern Distributor emissions stack in Darlinghurst.
• 3/6/2010City Hub quoted Irene in a story about plans by two Councillors from Clover Moores team to set up a new Barangaroo protest group alongside the already existing Barangaroo Action Group.
• 26/5/2010 Central ran a story quoting Irene criticising Evangelical Ministries for their views on homosexuality.
• 19/5/2010 Central and City News both printed stories on local resident anger over the RTA’s decison not to filter the ventilation stack of the eastern distributor tunnel and to sell off surrounding land for development.  Irene will be speaking at a rally against this hosted by local action group “Attack the Stack” on Saturday 22nd of May.
• 18/5/2010 Inner West Courier and Central both covered the decision by Council to push for a skate park to be built at Barangaroo.  The motion to do this was moved by Irene and carried unanimously at a Council meeting on 10th May.  We will now have to wait and see whether or not the Barangaroo Delivery Authority will co-operate with this forward thinking proposal.
• 13/5/2010 The National Indigenous Times gave a mention to the footprints for peace reception Irene organised at Sydney Town Hall.
• 13/5/2010 City News also covered the ongoing saga surrounding the eastern distributor tunnel exhaust stack in Darlinghurst.  Irene has long been advocating on behalf of the community to have filtration equipment installed in the stack and create a green corridor on surrounding land.
• 13/5/2010 City News ran a story where Irene voices criticisms of the community consultation process being undertaken by the Barangaroo Delivery Authority.  The latest series of forums seemed more like an excercise in PR than an attempt to get any real input from the community.
• 12/5/2010 Stories in three different publications quoting Irene came out today covering the security situation at the Joanna O’Dea public housing estate in Camperdown.  The situation has now come to a tragic head with yet another suicide occuring in the building.  The story has been covered in Southern Courier, Central (relevant article on page 5) and the South Sydney Herald (article on page 4).
• 11/5/2010 The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Irene expressing concern about Government developer Landcom’s proposal to dramitcally increase the size of it’s development at Green Square without paying any additional contributions for community infrastructure.
• 11/5/2010 The Daily Telegraph quoted Irene’s criticism of the suspected anti-gay agenda of a Christian group using the City’s facilities.  City News also covered the story on the 13th of May.
• 6/5/2010 City News ran a story on resident complaints about construction noise in College st Darlinghurst.  Irene expresses her frustration at the difficulty of following up such complaints in order to get a resolution.
• 23/4/2010 City News ran a story on the redevelopment of CoFA, discussing the disappointing decision by UNSW to try to abandon the construction traffic management plan agreed to by Council and the community and instead revert to plans that will see dozens of trucks per day use some of inner Sydney’s quietest streets six days a week for over two years.  The article includes quotes from Irene about the flawed NSW planning system that allows situations like this to occur.  For more information on the subject see this blog post or check out Irene’s statements in full on the media releases page from the 12th of April.
• 14/4/2010 City news covered the ongoing dispute between the City of Sydney and South Sydney Leagues Club over the redevelopment of their premises in Chalmers St Redfern.  Irene has long opposed the inclusion of poker machines in the club, which is directly above a supermarket, as well as aspects of the development that will result in a large balcony overlooking a preschool and nearby homes.
• 8/4/2010 City News wrote this article on Palestinian journalist Sameh Habeeb who is currently touring Australia talking about his experiences of the Gaza conflict.  The article finishes with comments on the issue  by Irene, who has been a long time activist supporting the plight of the people of Gaza.
• 26/3/2010 The Sydney Morning Herald also ran a story, quoting Irene, about the issue of Clover Moore serving on the Barangaroo Delivery Authority Board and whether or not this is a conflict of interest.
• 25/3/2010 City News has published an article outlining the concerns that Irene and many members of the public have about Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s role on the Barangaroo Delivery Authority Board.  For background information some of the issues surrounding Barangaroo, see the relevant page in the campaigns section.
• 16/3/2010 – An article (and later on the 24th of March this article)was published in Central about the decision of Lord Mayor Clover Moore and her team to abandon plans for a skate park in Millers Point.  This decision is a blow to the skating community of the City, who had been looking forward to this new project and had invested a lot of time and energy into consulting and planning with Council and staff.  The Greens feel this decision was motivated by the Lord Mayors political goals more than by sensible policy and will continue to advocate for facilities such as this that provide healthy and sustainable recreation opportunities for the young people of Sydney.
• 10/3/2010 – Central published this article about the recent upgrades to security and maintenance at the Waterloo Green public housing estate.  They included comments by Irene about how, while this was generally a good thing, there are some important unanswered questions about the delivery of the project and also massive equity issues created by the vastly different treatment of Waterloo Green and other public housing estates, like Joanna O’Dea Court in Camperdown.  The article also includes a couple of minor errors but Central have kindly published below it a comment left by Irene correcting the record, so please make sure you check that out too.