Business Sydney’s Executive Director Paul Nicolaou has launched a cross-party coalition opposing the Albanese Government’s proposal to sell Sydney’s Victoria Barracks, urging the Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles to abandon what he described as a “diabolical idea.”
Nicolaou, speaking alongside state and federal politicians and veterans in Sydney, backed the newly formed non-partisan group campaigning to stop the inclusion of the historic Paddington military site in a broader plan to divest 67 defence properties nationwide.
The coalition includes state Labor MP Marjorie O’Neill, state Liberal MP James Griffin, federal independent MP Allegra Spender, former prime minister Tony Abbott, NSW Labor MP Greg Warren and former state minister David Elliott.
“We know that defence personnel – the senior officers of this place and across the Army – have been gagged,” O’Neill said at the media conference outside the barracks, alleging serving officers had been told not to speak publicly against the sale.
The Defence Minister’s office rejected the claim, saying there was no gag order and describing the assertion as “unfounded”.
Griffin labelled the proposal “madness”, arguing Victoria Barracks is “not surplus land” but “the beating heart of the Australian Army”.
Spender also criticised the plan, saying the site was “an important piece of defence infrastructure” and should not be sold off, warning the decision would not “stand the test of time”.
Nicolaou’s comments added to growing political pressure on the federal government, with the coalition demanding the sale be withdrawn and the proposal “called off” entirely.
Source: Daily Telegraph.
