Chris Minns’ Address to The Daily Telegraph’s Future Sydney: Bradfield Oration
PLAYHOUSE THEATRE, SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
FRIDAY, 24 OCTOBER 2025
Well, thank you so much Michael, thanks for that introduction. I really appreciate the opportunity to address this Oration and be part of this annual event.
I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners, the Gadigal people, particularly, considering we’re meeting here at Bennelong point, an important, iconic location for New South Wales and Australia.
Can I thank the Daily Telegraph and Ben English for having me back once again.
And the truth is, we need traditions like this in Sydney, that take us beyond the daily squabbles of politics and encourage forward-thinking, long-lasting city building reform.
And with that spirit in mind, 12 months ago, here at Bradfield, I announced the Housing Delivery Authority.
A massive change for New South Wales to speed up our broken planning system and deliver much needed new homes for New South Wales.
Crucially, this allowed us to bypass Council cutting years off the approval processes and in many cases, it means faster houses, quicker in important locations across metropolitan Sydney.
And after 12 months, I can report back to you today that this new body, announced at the Bradfield Oration, has already declared 96,000 new homes as state significant for New South Wales.
It’s been a big success, and it’s been a success that’s been copied in Victoria and in Queensland, and we’ve copied it ourselves with the Investment Delivery Authority, the IDA.
This time not for housing, but to speed up large scale commercial project projects through the planning system.
Now, to qualify for the IDA, projects must be worth more than a billion dollars, but it will mean massive investment in data centres, logistics centres, and, of course, major energy projects for the state.
We want it.
We welcome it.
We need that investment in New South Wales.
The Bradfield Oration has also shown shone a light on what needs to change in a city like Sydney.
The criticism of my government and previous governments, and what we need to do better, to set a standard, to recognise that Sydney is a world class city and we should settle for nothing less.
Now we don’t take umbrage at this criticism.
The truth of the matter is we need that pressure, and so will our successor government, and so will their successor government.
The areas that come up again and again over the last 12 years, through this Oration, has been more housing, less interference from government.
And more fun, more fun.
So, let’s start with housing and with government.
When we took office, the Business Council of Australia judged that the New South Wales planning system was the worst in the country.
There’d been a 17% decline in housing approvals in New South Wales.
And I have to say, regrettably, parts of the public service were either ambivalent about the chaos in the planning system, or they were focused on other things.
The clearest and most consistent message that Paul Scully, the Planning Minister, Rose Jackson, Daniel Mookhey, and myself, received from firms that were small, medium and very large, was that it needs to be easier to do business in Australia’s largest state.
Get that right, and the dynamism in the economy will come afterwards.
So let me be clear, the number of new housing dwelling completions in the most expensive city in Australia and the second most expensive in the world, has not been anywhere near good enough, and it keeps us up at night.
We’re worried about it, of course, we are.
Our reforms over the last two years have been directly aimed at changing that, and in the process, building more homes for our state.
And in a year and in the year ahead, with a little bit of help from Michelle, I’m confident that we’re going to get there.
Our reforms began with zoning changes, then administrative moves, and then law reforms, and finally a concerted attempt to change the culture inside our government.
An example of that change in culture was Paul’s decision to axe the Greater Cities Commission.
It was one of 10 planning bodies or approval panels that builders in New South Wales had to navigate just to build a block of flats.
Now, the Commission had a staff of 300 people and a ‘thought leadership division’ of 41 people.
It never approved a single home, and since its closure, approvals are up in Sydney by 11%.
Paul also confronted the practice of allowing just one council to have the power to send a development, any development, to the Independent Planning and Assessment Commission.
Which, by the way, added an additional 130 days to that assessment.
As of last week, we’ve abolished that rule.
The pressure and the consequences of our housing crisis are so acute, we don’t have time for navel gazing, thought seminars or ridiculous rules that reward and encourage complaining in our system.
I want to take a moment to credit the New South Wales Opposition here and the leader of the Opposition, Mark Speakman.
Mark Speakman has been true to his word to offer bipartisan support for far reaching planning reform in New South Wales.
He’s backed a Bill that’s already passed the lower house, and will mean, at least this is in the view of most stakeholders, that we move from the worst planning system in Australia to the best.
Now I’d love to have reported to all of you today that that Bill has passed the parliament and will now be law.
But due to a late night filibuster from the Greens, we’re all going to have to wait.
By the way, is there a more stodgy, NIMBY, Boomer outfit in this country than the New South Wales Greens?
It’s been three years since I’ve heard them mention the environment, and they spend most of their time hyperventilating about apartment buildings.
When the truth of the matter is, for most young people, their first home will be in an apartment building.
We need to build more of them.
Sorry for that on the side, but it was a long time coming, and I’m glad I got it out.
Look, can I also say the Tele has been at the forefront of confronting that sort of latent opposition to progress in everything from housing to fun.
The city’s not a museum, it’s not an antique store.
We’re making a concerted effort here or an attempt to change that culture.
For example, ending the system of a single noise complaint, closing down music venues, and John Graham has been leading that since the day he was inaugurated in office.
We’ve lifted the concert cap in Moore Park that sided with a tiny minority of objectors, over 50,000 people rocking out at the football stadium.
A few weeks ago, we cleared the way for more festivals and events at Centennial Park, increasing the cap on major events by 50%.
And today, I can announce that same approach is coming to the iconic Randwick Racecourse.
Currently, Randwick can only host one cultural event with more than 5000 people every year.
But as of next year, we’ll lift that number to 10.
It’ll encourage more concerts, more exhibitions, more festivals, more community gatherings.
Now the truth is, we’ve got some incredible venues in Sydney, but we’ve been holding them back with rules just like this.
And I want to be clear today to people of all ages, having fun in Sydney is not a crime.
It’s a healthy part of life.
It’s a big part of our economy, and we want to encourage it here in New South Wales.
Friends this year, we’re gathered at the Opera House.
It’s a famous building and architectural wonder of the world, but first and foremost, it’s a concert hall.
Every night of the year, multiple shows are held in these rooms, and every night, people come here.
They catch a show, they spill out onto those steps, they get dinner, they have a drink, they experience that rare spark that you can only ever find with a live performance.
So today I want to announce the next big chapter in live performance and entertainment in Sydney.
As of this morning, we are opening up the tender process to revitalise the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park.
And the heart of that vision, as set out in the tender, is a new indoor concert arena of up to 20,000 seats.
It’s exactly what Sydney needs.
With the loss of the Entertainment Centre down in Chinatown a decade ago, a decade ago, we’ve been missing that kind of venue in the city, and this would be a perfect place to put it.
I don’t want to knock, and I’m not knocking the current businesses that are located at Moore Park.
There are fantastic things that happen at Liberty Hall and the Hordern Pavilion and the pubs and the restaurants located in and around it, but I think that there’s a widespread feeling that the area has fallen short of what it could be.
We’re talking about 11 hectares, located in prime location, a few 100 metres from downtown Sydney, 300 metres from the light rail.
But currently, there’s a sense that it’s walled off from the surrounding areas that it’s hard to navigate.
Frankly, we could do a lot better, and we agree.
We can’t wait to make the Quarter one of the best places to go out in Sydney.
A place that hosts events all year round, on a daily basis, every night, on weeknights and on weekends.
A place that flows easily into the city, into the cricket ground, into Centennial Park, where you can go and hit a golf ball… for a while.
Or a place that holds massive concerts, but crucially, that also has great pubs, great restaurants right next door to it.
You want to arrive early and linger late afterwards.
Now I don’t want to pre-empt the architects and designers. I’ll leave the details up to the experts, but considering the specs and the location, the sky’s the limit here.
We’re talking about, if the sky’s the limit here, it will be fantastic for our city. It’ll be fantastic for our state.
The truth of the matter is, the New South Wales Government talks a lot about housing.
Housing is the first priority, because without a steady home, without a roof over your head, it’s impossible to build a proper and fulfilling life.
Housing, we believe, is the foundation, but it’s not the end point.
People need to be able to build a home and raise their kids.
Those kids also need to grow up in a city that encourages their interests and their passions.
A city of music, a city of sport, a city with nighttime entertainment, a city with culture.
If in the past, we’ve sometimes viewed those past times with suspicion, if we’ve shut them down or we’ve regulated them out of existence.
We have to change that culture in Sydney.
We believe it is changing.
Sydney’s never been a city of wowsers or killjoys.
It’s a great global city of people that want to enjoy life and live it to its fullest.
And I want to thank the Daily Telegraph for having me here today, for encouraging that spirit in Sydney and for always supporting this great city.
