Frank Sartor

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Frank Sartor is an Australian Labor Party (ALP) politician in the state of New South Wales.

A former Mayor of Sydney, Sartor is currently a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Rockdale, Minister for Planning, Minister for Redfern Waterloo and Minister for the Arts.^[1]

[edit] Life

Frank Sartor was born in Yenda near Griffith, New South Wales. ^[2] His migrant parents named him Francesco Ernest Sartor, but he decided life would be easier if he called himself Frank. ^[3]

He attended St Therese's (Catholic) Primary School, Yenda, followed by Griffith High School. ^[4]

He graduated from the University of Sydney, residing at St John's College. Frank Sartor is a trained chemical engineer and accountant. From 1976-1983 he was employed as a chemical engineer and in management roles by Colgate-Palmolive and oil company Total Australia Ltd.^[2]

Sartor served on the Council of the City of Sydney from 1984 to 2003, and was Lord Mayor of Sydney for almost 12 years, from September 1991 to April 2003. During his time on the council he served as Vice-President of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Chairman of the Sydney Festival, Chairman of the Central Sydney Planning Committee, and Board Member of the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.

Using a rule designed for affirmative action, the NSW Labor Party installed Sartor as its candidate in the safe Labor seat of Rockdale, where he was elected on 22 March 2003.^[3]^[1]

[edit] Controversy

During his tenure as Lord Mayor, allegations in relation to sexual harassment were raised in the New South Wales Legislative Council by a Liberal Party politician, the Hon J. P. Hannaford.^[5] Mr Hannaford subsequently failed to provide any evidence to support his allegations, and was in turn investigated by the NSW Parliament for abuse of Parliamentary privilege. ^[6]

Sartor has also invoked the ire of the Australian Indigenous population with his rejection of a plan by the Aboriginal Housing Company to redevelop "The Block", an area of inner-city Sydney, and for saying "Get off your backside Mick, and bring your black arse in here to talk about it," , for which he later publicly apologized.^[7]

Sartor was given this planning power through the contentious Redfern-Waterloo Authority Bill^[8] which was debated at length in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.^[9]

In a column in the Sydney Morning Herald, journalist and former City of Sydney Councillor Elizabeth Farrelly was scathing of Sartor for his intentions to give advertising billboards "carte blanche" on New South Wales roads and freeways, his approval of the "greenhouse belching" Anvil Hill Coal Mine, and for his moves to reduce the planning powers of local councils. ^[10]