Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

In Sydney my office is on Broadway. It is in a great location. It is close to public transport. It is wheelchair accessible. It is easy for people to drop in. In the electorate people know that we are there to help, and they can come to us for all of the usual things that a member of parliament's office can provide—tax help, JP services, social security, immigration help and all the rest of it.

On 1 August the ceiling in my office collapsed and my office was temporarily relocated to the Commonwealth Parliament Offices in Sydney's CBD. While we are still in the electorate it is not a place that is easy for constituents to find us, and they are finding it much harder than usual to access those electorate services that we like to provide. So I wanted to take this opportunity to provide my sincerest apologies to my electorate, to the people who have dropped into my Broadway office and found that we were not there to those who have been inconvenienced or disappointed that the usual services they rely on have not been available.

I cannot understand why it has taken 14 weeks for the Department of Finance to fix these problems. The Department of Finance have told me that we will be back in our office before Christmas. I am very disappointed that it has taken this long and that the work has been stopped for so long. I look forward to being back in our Broadway office and to being able to properly discharge my responsibilities as the member for Sydney.

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