Callan Park needs you!

The state government is still trying to ruin Callan Park.

In October 2008 the state government admitted defeat in its fourth attempt to hand over Callan Park to developers. It pronounced the University of Sydney takeover dead. (There were over 4000 objectors. Even the NSW Department of Planning’s long withheld report found the university’s plans an over development.)
The government also announced that two-thirds of Callan Park would be given to Leichhardt Council.

However, there was not just one catch but two.

First was the cost shifting. Except for the upgrades of the sea wall and the Bay Run and even for these there are no timetables the cost for Callan Park would fall on our Leichhardt Council.

Just mowing the grass and patrolling the area would cost Council $1.2 million a year. A master plan to guide the future use and management of the site would cost an equivalent amount. Restoration of the heritage listed convalescent cottages would cost $5 million. Then there is the unknown cost/s of decontaminating parts of the site.

To put these costs into perspective, Council’s total rate income is $35 million a year and rate increases are pegged at about 3% or about $1m most of which will be absorbed by the annual increased costs of running Council. No wonder Council is asking the government to stop trying to dodge its financial responsibilities for the site.

The second catch was that the state government would abandon the most modern mental health buildings on the site.

Things have not got any better on the mental health front in NSW. Hundreds of people with a mental illness are still being sent to prison magistrates and judges don’t want to do this, it’s just they don’t have any alternatives. We know that up to75% of homeless people in the city suffer from a mental illness, according to the Rudd government’s own white paper on homelessness.

In the latest research (reported in the Medical Journal of Australia, April 6, 2009) we learn that overcrowded emergency departments in Australia’s hospitals are causing the deaths of up to 1600 people a year. The reason that these departments are clogged with patients particularly mentally ill ones is because there are just not enough inpatient beds to send them to.

And yet perfectly modern buildings stand empty and ready for patients at Callan Park.

Re-opening the psychiatric hospital or at least extensive mental health facilities at Callan Park is a pressing humanitarian need.

This demand is not some cry in the wilderness. Last September the then Premier Nathan Rees said the state government has dropped the ball on mental health. On two occasions last year Barry O’Farrell, the Leader of the Opposition and possibly the next Premier, reaffirmed the Opposition’s promise to restore a world-class psychiatric hospital at Callan Park. But we cannot expect prompt action if we do not press for it.