It took me six years of hard graft

It took me six years of hard graft to complete a degree in architecture (including an honours year) - it was a gruelling program but at the end of it I like to think I had some insight into the esoteric world of design. The idea that a bored, under-employed dilettante like Paul Keating can set himself up as the arbiter of taste would be fun if he didn't appear to wield real power with the potential to do permanent damage to Sydney's urban fabric.

His appointment to the Barangaroo Authority allows him to give vent to his post-PM incarnation as a frustrated architect and allows him to indulge in pet projects such as his folly in spending $200 million to create an ersatz headland to ape the original 1788 foreshore.

If Keating wants to play pretend architect then let him go off and get some proper training - a degree in architecture would be a good starting point. Unfortunately it appears that, notwithstanding a parliamentary inquiry, Sydney will be forever blighted with an over-scaled, over-height, over-developed, development at Barangaroo that will deliver little more than large profits to Lend Lease and a ready boost to Keating's already healthy ego.

Andrew Howell Newtown