A demolition excavator has been spotted clawing at the walls of Allianz Stadium, one day before the last-gasp court bid that will decide its fate in the final stretch of the state election campaign.
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Mobile cranes also moved onto the roof of the Moore Park stadium after the NSW Land and Environment Court gave the state government the green light to ramp up demolition works.
The court last week rejected a bid from community group Local Democracy Matters to halt altogether the Berejiklian government's $730 million plan to knock down and rebuild the stadium.
The group, which is backed by the Greens, will challenge that ruling during a fast-tracked hearing in the Court of Appeal on Friday - little more than a week before NSW residents go to the polls.
The state opposition has seized on the government's divisive stadium policy, vowing a Labor government would keep the stadium and instead pour that money into NSW's schools and hospitals.
Greens MP David Shoebridge said the mobile cranes at the stadium this week indicated workers were "doing the preliminary work for significant demolition".
"The government is fairly transparently doing as much cosmetic damage to the outside of the stadium as it can," he said.
He had been advised that the mobile cranes sighted at the stadium "don't have sufficient lifting capacity to raise or lower the roof", though he had heard reports of holes being cut in the steel roof.
The Land and Environment Court last week paved the way for hard demolition to begin when it dissolved a temporary injunction preventing the stadium's walls and roof from being dismantled.
Mr Shoebridge said an attempt at a further injunction on major demolition was "clearly in the mix" for the appeal hearing.
Local Democracy Matters spokesman Chris Maltby thought the government was "putting on a bit of a show for us".
"We're not overtly concerned [about the cranes], but it's worrying they're pushing ahead regardless.
"We'd prefer no work at all before the election."
Opposition Leader Michael Daley wrote to Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday, urging her to stop hard demolition- which he understood began on Wednesday night - and requesting a full briefing on the demolition timetable.
“[Mr Daley] made it clear in his letter to the Premier that the proposed demolition of Allianz is a matter of serious public concern across NSW, he said that going ahead with the hard demolition of the stadium nine days away from election day was an affront to democratic principles,” a Labor spokesman said.
Ms Berejiklian rejected his request, saying it would be “inappropriate” for a government to contact a contractor and tell them what to do.
“I’m not going to enter political games," she said. "If he wants to write letters, fine, but we’re building projects,” she said.
“Once you issue a contract to deliver a project they have to get on with the job.”
An Infrastructure NSW spokesman would not be drawn on what works were planned for coming days but said that the demolition was "continuing as per the program of work".
Local Democracy Matters set up an online crowd-funding site to help fund it's legal battle.
The website shows the group has raised more than $3000, with donations from Greens supporters and politicians including Mr Shoebridge ($200) and former Greens senator Lee Rhiannon ($300).
