Everyone's smiling but real change yet to be seen

BEFORE report authors Meredith Sussex and Shelley Penn had even boarded their flight home to Melbourne, all the major Barangaroo players were claiming their review as a victory.

Paul Keating said it found the design panel he chaired until quitting a few months back had come up with sound designs and that governance of the project had been equally sound.

Lend Lease said it showed they had always followed appropriate processes and they were on track to start building this year.

Clover Moore said it showed the city's objections about the failures of governance had been listened to and that the project would be better for the review and for her input into it.

Even Mike Collins, who was removed yesterday as chairman of the Barangaroo Delivery Authority board, praised the review despite its criticism of the organisation he led.

But what impact the report has, and how much it will change Sydney's biggest development, will not be known for some time.

Barry O'Farrell stuck his neck out and said he could never understand why there was ever going to be a hotel in the harbour in a move which pretty well guarantees that ''exclamation point'', as Keating once called it, has gone for good.