Wentworth Housing Forum: What are Wentworth's priorities to address the housing crisis?

Housing is an issue of serious concern within the Wentworth community from housing affordability, the availability of affordable and social housing, supporting essential workers to be able to live close to where they work and the interaction with State and Local Government regarding planning and development.

Please join us for the second of two dedicated forums to hear from experts about the policy solutions for solving our housing crisis that have been proposed by Wentworth residents and the broader community. This will be followed by an expert panel discussion to explore these options. 

Allegra will joined by Lucy Turnbull AO, Estelle Grech from the Committee for Sydney, CEO of National Shelter Emma Greenhalgh and senior economist at PropTrack, Paul Ryan.

Lucy Hughes Turnbull AO is an urbanist, businesswoman and philanthropist with a longstanding interest in cities, culture, technological and social innovation and Australian research and commercialisation.  Lucy is a Director of Turnbull and Partners Pty Ltd, a family owned business which invests in earlier stage innovative enterprises. In January 2020 she was appointed by the NSW government as Chair of the Sydney Opera House Trust. From 2015-20 she was the inaugural Chief Commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission, tasked by the NSW state government to assist in delivering strong and effective strategic planning for the whole of metropolitan Sydney. Prior to that she spent several years as Deputy Chair and Chair of the Committee for Sydney.  From 2003-4 she was Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney, the first woman ever to hold the position. She has held many other board roles in the not for profit and private sector, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales Trust, National Portrait Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art, Redfern-Waterloo Authority, Redfern Foundation and the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation. In 2011 Lucy was awarded an Order of Australia for her services to the community, local government and business. In 2012 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from University of New South Wales Business School, in 2017 she was awarded an honorary doctorate (Arts) from Western Sydney University, and in 2013-18 she was Honorary President of the German-Australian Chamber of Commerce.

Estelle Grech is an urban planner, passionate about improving social equity in cities. With experience in local government, consulting, and as a senior advisor in the NSW Government, she now leads planning and housing policy at the Committee for Sydney. A Churchill Fellowship recipient, Estelle recently travelled to over 13 cities across Europe and the US to research how to design better cities for women and girls.

Emma Greenhalgh is the CEO of National Shelter, the national peak body that aims to improve housing access, affordability, appropriateness, safety and security for people on low incomes. Since 1976, National Shelter has worked towards this goal by influencing government policy and action, and by raising public awareness about housing issues.Emma is a passionate advocate for better housing outcomes, having worked for 25 years in roles in housing policy, research, social impact assessment, and planning in both non-government and non-government roles. Emma joined National Shelter in March 2022, following her role as Manager of Strategic Projects with Q Shelter. Emma has professional qualifications in urban and regional planning, and is also an Adjunct Industry Fellow at the Cities Research Institute at Griffith University.

Paul Ryan is a senior economist with PropTrack, specialising in housing affordability and financing, market forecasting and big data analysis. Before joining PropTrack in December 2020, Paul spent a decade at the Reserve Bank of Australia conducting research on the Australian economy, focusing on housing markets, lending risks and regulatory effects on property markets. Paul is based in Sydney.

We'd love it if you can come to both forums, but if you can only make one of them, my team will be on hand to capture as much individual feedback as possible.