How A Multinational Property Developer Became The Unlikely Champion Of Female Pay Equality In Australian Sport

Multinational property development corporation Lendlease has bought the naming rights to the NSW Women's Cricket Team in exchange for a boost in players salaries, which the company claims, will allow the women to play cricket as full-time professionals.

In what appears to be a severe underestimation of what it costs to live in Sydney (where the team's players are based) players for the "Lendlease" Breakers will receive a minimum wage of AUD $35 000, with top international players supposedly able to earn AUD$100k or more.

The wage increases will come out of the USD$15.09 billion dollars in revenue Lendlease has generated so far this year through global development projects such as Barangaroo in Sydney; Elephant & Castle and International Quarter London; Paya Lebar Quarter and Tun Razak Exchange in Asia; and Riverline in the United States

Chris Lamb, Global Head of "Diversity & Inclusion" at Lendlease said of the announcement: "For seven years we have supported the Lendlease Breakers and have watched closely as the quality of the game has improved, yet provisions for players have not.

"At Lendlease we are committed to a level playing field giving women and men the same chance to succeed as we know this hasn't always been the case for women in our industry and society."

Cricket NSW CEO Andrew Jones was similarly glowing. "This truly is a landmark moment… Cricket NSW has always been a leader in women's sport and today we are proud to announce another first.

"Every member of the Lendlease Breakers squad now has the opportunity to pursue a professional sporting career.

"I am confident that every state in Australia will now follow the lead of Cricket NSW by giving their female cricketers the opportunity to earn a living wage," he said.

While seen to be campaigning for wage equality amongst female cricketers, there is no denying the property development sector is desperate to curry favour with a political zeitgeist that is blowing in their faces. As Australia continues to struggle through a housing affordability "crisis" that has blown house prices out to 13 times the average annual wage (up from five times in 1975), the property development sector has found itself mired in controversy and corruption scandals.

One less virtuous consequence of the Developer-led gentrification program in Sydney is the plan to evict thousands of destitute, elderly and ill public housing tenants from the communities that have survived them for over three decades. Ironically, it will be women, including single mothers and the elderly, who will be hardest hit by the plans as they fail to keep pace with the city's skyrocketing rental market.

Already there are 206 000 Australians on waiting lists for public housing with a two year wait for the 46% in greatest need. A further 105 000 Australians were listed as homeless in the last census.

To understand just how on the nose multinational property developers are in this city, earlier this month the recently re-elected (by a landslide) Independent Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore stood shoulder to shoulder with Trade Unions as they put a ban on developer's plans to demolish and re-develop public housing in the inner-city into luxury apartments. Under the Mayor's watch, the Trade Unions also vowed to picket any attempts to demolish the housing.

The direct action followed pointed criticisms from several of the city's leading urban planning academics about the effect the Property Development sector's profit-driven agenda is having on the city.

"Low income folks have been pushed out. They don't move, they get pushed or they get replaced. The inner-city has become gentrified and that is a big issue for Sydney and Melbourne," explains Professor, Bill Randolph, director of the City Futures at UNSW, adding: "Most people would probably recognise the (property) development lobby is a very forceful and very assertive lobby. It's able to lobby state government directly and does that very effectively. There are (other) powerful interest groups the clubs and hotel industry has very strong political links and uses that very effectively. It does create an atmosphere where powerful interest groups are able to assert significant impact on critical decisions," he says.