Champion of good taste - and giant, ugly malls

Paul Keating has been an unashamed champion of the Lend Lease plan for Barangaroo, with its waste dump headland, its new coves to give unobstructed access of contamination to the harbour and one of the world's biggest and ugliest shopping malls crammed onto Barangaroo South.

One has to ask why a self-proclaimed champion of good architecture has been supporting such bad design, and why he attacks any critic as though his life depends on it. Think back on his vitriolic attack on the winner of the Barangaroo design contest, Philip Thalis, on Stateline in early 2010, his denigration of the National Trust, and his most recent rant against the petition signed by 11,000 people calling for a commission of inquiry into Barangaroo delivered to Parliament by the lord mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore.

Keating claimed that tabling the petition was ''scandalous and irresponsible behaviour'' by a lord mayor who had ''a misplaced understanding of what is and what Sydney can become'', and that ''she is an inappropriate person to be lord mayor''. As Moore responded: "The fact that 11,000 people signed it signifies that it is a matter of major concern."

In my view, there are fair questions to be asked about the relationships between Keating, Lend Lease and the former premier Kristina Keneally and what role, if any, they have had in the Barangaroo happenings.

Keating is a chairman of the investment bank Lazard, which claims Lend Lease as one of its main customers. Lazard and Lend Lease are investors in the electric car company Better Place, and the husband of Keneally is a significant shareholder in Better Place.

Perhaps it is time the new government took the petition seriously and conducted a commission of inquiry to unravel the strands of this sorry saga.

Ian Campbell President, Barangaroo Action Group