Don Harwin and Brian Lindsay. Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit:

How does one manage to bungle every angle of an astonishingly-expensive purpose-built new art precinct to be built smack bang in the centre of Greater Western Sydney?

Just ask Arts Minister Don Harwin and his bureaucrats, who have managed to not only infuriate residents near the Powerhouse Museum’s current Pyrmont site but also those near its new home on the flood-prone banks of the Parramatta River.

It’s been almost five years since the government announced plans to move the institution — officially the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences — to Parramatta at a cost to taxpayers of around $645 million. Cynics fear the museum’s current inner-city digs will soon make way for major commercial and residential developments.

As CBD reported late last year, Dexus chief executive Darren Steinberg made a quiet exit from the MAAS Trust, which runs the museum, after it became clear the property giant had some interest in acquiring the site. He had been appointed less than a year earlier.