Christian Kerr writes:

Strange things are happening at Sydney City
Council these days. When Clover Moore was only the Member for
Bligh she fought for residents against the big
property developers. Now as Lord Mayor of
Sydney she snuggles up to the top end of
town, including the Property Council of Australia.

Clover
Moore has voted twice against having
major construction sites in the City closed over long weekends. Closing these
construction sites would benefit residents who could enjoy long weekends free
from construction noise and construction workers who could spend the entire
weekend with their families.

After a Labor motion supporting long weekends
was defeated in November 2004, Labor and Greens councillors saw a possible way
of passing the motion this year.

Robyn Kemmis, a councillor on the
Moore team, would miss the first
council meeting in August while on holiday. Another Clover member
Marcelle Hoff was known to be in favour of the
long weekend motion due to her concern about residents and construction
workers.

After discussions among the CFMEU, Greens and
Labor councillors, Councillor Chris Harris introduced a motion at the August
1 council meeting banning work at large construction sites in
Sydney City over long
weekends.

Labor and Greens were confident of success
with the support of Hoff. They would win five votes to four (the remainder of
Clover Moore’s team plus Liberal Shayne Mallard).

Suddenly two days before the council meeting,
Labor Councillor and former Keating minister
Michael Lee decided he had to attend a
meeting in Moree.

Labor councillors planned for six weeks for their
first major win against the Moore block on Council, so why did
Cr Lee suddenly decide to miss this
crucial council meeting? Was Sussex Street concerned about all those large
property developer donations they had been receiving for
years?

Regardless of the reason for
Cr Lee’s absence, he missed the meeting
and the motion was lost four to four with
Moore then casting the deciding vote in
her role as Lord Mayor. This defeat happened in spite of Hoff crossing the floor
to vote for the motion.

Are there now strange bedfellows on Sydney
City Council doing the bidding of the top end of town – Moore and the bloke who wanted her job,
Labor’s Michael Lee?