When I stepped back from Council, I did so with clarity and optimism — not just about where our cities were headed, but about the role planning could play in shaping our future. For over two decades, I’ve worked at the intersection of planning, politics, and community, as a mayor, consultant, and researcher. I’ve seen the power of good planning to create liveable, inclusive, future-ready places. I’ve also seen how easily it can be derailed by short-term thinking — and how costly that can be for clients, communities, and councils alike. Greiss Planning exists to bring clarity, rigour, and steady leadership to the approvals process, so good projects can move forward with confidence.
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South West Sydney is not the edge of the city. It’s where Sydney’s growth is happening, where families are raising kids, where real lives are lived — and our people are entitled to the same justice, dignity and safety as anyone in the east.
Campbelltown is the legal hub for the fastest-growing region in Australia. We carry Local and District Court functions for South Western Sydney and we host a Children’s Court that exists in only a handful of places across NSW. Yet the facilities we ask our community to rely on are outdated, inaccessible, and in some cases unsafe. When victims and alleged offenders share the same public access point, when children and families have no secure or private spaces, when a person using a wheelchair can’t even serve on a jury because basic access isn’t there — that isn’t a minor inconvenience. It is a systemic failure.
And the consequences are not abstract. Delays in the justice system leave victims in limbo for years, push vulnerable witnesses into unsafe environments, and keep young people on remand while their matters crawl through the system. When innocent children spend months in custody before being found not guilty, the damage doesn’t disappear when the verdict is delivered. Justice delayed isn’t just a slogan — it shapes lives.
We were promised better. A three-tier-funded masterplan for a Community and Justice Precinct in the Campbelltown CBD was meant to be the pathway forward: more court capacity, modern accessibility, safe rooms, secure waiting areas, spaces where families can be treated with dignity. Council did the work in good faith — including finalising strategic business case work and investing in planning and consultation — but without a firm commitment from government to deliver the court infrastructure, the promise becomes another delay our community is forced to absorb.
That’s why this is bigger than politics. With an election approaching, I’m calling on all sides to step up and commit to funding the redevelopment that South West Sydney needs. Not because we’re asking for special treatment — but because equality means the justice system must work fairly, safely and swiftly no matter which side of the city you live on.
Read more → Unfair: our outdated court facilities put victims of crime at risk