Why does the city have to lose a cultural icon, the Powerhouse Museum, treasured by families as an interactive temple to technology, to reinvigorate culture in the west?
Where did the idea that the CBD must lose something, in order for western Sydney to gain, come from?
It would be absurd for a government to fund an upgrade to Westmead Hospital by shutting down a hospital in Sydney's east.
The Baird government's announcement that the Powerhouse will move to Parramatta, and its existing site in Pyrmont sold off to apartment developers, is an obvious loss for families being sardined into ever-more apartments in the city.
But the shift to Parramatta will also be a loss to children across NSW, adding an extra 30 to 45 minutes to public transport journeys from north, south and eastern suburbs.
The Transport NSW website trip calculator says a journey from Botany to the Powerhouse takes 45 minutes. Botany to Riverside Theatre in Parramatta is 1 hour 20 minutes. From Wollongong to Parramatta takes 2 hours 22 minutes.
The Powerhouse is next door to the largest tourism destination in the city – Darling Harbour. It attracts twice as many visitors from interstate (20 per cent) and elsewhere in NSW (14 per cent) than the Australian Museum.
Half of the Powerhouse's 381,582 visitors last year were Sydneysiders. In the bullseye centre of Sydney, kids from the east, west, north and south have equal access.
The Powerhouse annual report outlined ambitious plans to tap into the Darling Harbour redevelopment, and the education and cultural industries in Ultimo. But the rug was pulled from under the museum with a key phrase in the State Infrastructure Strategy released in November: "The Powerhouse occupies a constrained (but very valuable) site."
Baird has promised that all of the money gained from the sale of the property would be reinvested in the new Parramatta museum. That is, the museum's masterplan to expand would only be funded by the sale of its site – no new government money. Insiders say it is unlikely the Powerhouse name will be kept.
Infrastructure NSW, a group of businessmen focussed on roads, deemed the Powerhouse outside its vision for a CBD cultural precinct, despite the high visitation to Darling Harbour. The state couldn't pay to upgrade all of the city's cultural venues, its report argued.
Baird last week boosted funding for Sydney Opera House capital works, and the Walsh Bay theatre precinct near the Harbour Bridge, as per Infrastructure NSW's report.
But this doesn't compensate for the loss of the Powerhouse. The venues attract vastly different audiences. Kids like to twiddle and interact, not sit still.
The Powerhouse offers families a low-cost day of culture that pricey commercial tourism ventures in the city don't. It is cheaper than the zoo.
Growing up in Penrith, I recall family and school trips to the city to visit the Powerhouse. I would hate to see kids from other parts of Sydney miss out to bring it closer to the west.
Western Sydney leaders were adamant that a branch of a city museum or gallery wasn't enough to anchor a Parramatta cultural precinct. They wanted something to call the west's own. Fair enough. But the creative challenge should be to create something vibrant and new, not take it away.
