All are to be funded from WestInvest,a pool of money the Coalition has set aside from the sale of the WestConnex tollway system to support community projects in Western Sydney.
Announcing its theatre and venues policy for western Sydney as the election campaign kicked off,Labor says it wants to extend a heritage airspace scheme from Sydney to Parramatta and investigate it not only for the Roxy but for other heritage buildings scattered across the state’s regional and suburban centres.
The City of Sydney manages such a scheme,where the unused development potential of a building is traded for a developer’s rights to increase floor space in another part of town.
Labor’s arts and nighttime economy spokesperson John Graham said the opposition believed in a role for government to support investment in live music and theatre venues,and mandates like those imposed by the Carr government on redevelopments of former Crown Land which transformed Walsh Bay and Moore Park.
While NSW had lost many important live performance spaces and venues,some had been preserved by local and state heritage schemes.
“Many have been repurposed or adapted to other economic uses,such as residential or retail,” Graham said. “In many cases however these places now sit empty. Many of NSW’s town and regional centres have an abandoned theatre or venue sitting at their heart.”