After James Packer announced plans in 2012 for a second Sydney casino at Barangaroo, the backlash was swift. Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore led the charge, criticising it as a "clumsy Dubai-style hotel with a new mega-casino right in the middle of Barangaroo Central".

Moore and others were horrified at the prospect of Packer's proposed new hotel and casino resort encroaching on that part of the harbourside development exclusively reserved for cultural and community use. The prospect spurred former prime minister and ex-design excellence panel chair Paul Keating to seek a meeting with the billionaire to make it clear that the "principal civic dividend" of the project was nearly 60 per cent public open space.

Keating said he told Packer he regarded "the public amenity of these lands as inviolate". In other words: back off from building on land reserved for the public's enjoyment.

Five years and much discussion later, Packer has approval for a 275-metre tall building on Barangaroo South, abutting the sensitive central portion of the site that was the subject of the initial angst. Notwithstanding complaints about the height and bulk of the approved building, the intervention by Keating, Moore and others at least protected the central area.