Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

I wanted to talk tonight about a debate that's occurring—or you can see the waves building in this debate—and how it relates, in particular, to my part of Western Sydney. The debate that I'm referring to is in reference to this push by Senator Dean Smith from WA to have a discussion about population policy. I've enjoyed travelling to WA and have been there regularly. I didn't realise that there was a crush of population that was impacting on Senator Smith's psyche and that he felt compelled to push this, but whenever population debate gets mentioned there are a number of us that wonder what is actually being mentioned here. Is it about population policy or is it about scapegoating certain groups of people for the failure to make the right decisions and the right calls in other areas? I watch with interest a debate where we're talking about the size of Australia—25 million. A lot of our neighbours are way bigger.

Before some get excited and argue that I am in some way pushing for this 'big Australia' policy—and this comes up from time to time, given our term in government previously—that is not the case. Certainly in Australia, with its population, people in some parts of the country feel the growth, but in other parts of the country they don't necessarily feel the same. I am deeply concerned that certain groups of people are being scapegoated, particularly migrants that are being scapegoated as being responsible for all the congestion that's occurring in some of our major cities, the way that our cities are growing and expanding and the type of daily inconvenience—which is a serious inconvenience. I represent a part of outer Western Sydney, an outer suburban seat. My friend the member for Lalor, here, also represents an outer suburban seat. I have seen the distances travelled in her seat, and obviously we share, we parallel, those experiences our constituents are having.

But population growth that is not matched by long-term planning and the parallel commitment of investment by governments to ensure the building of infrastructure is what lets down the people of big cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne, where the freer movement of people in the city, within the city footprint, is one of the big issues that are being faced. If Senator Dean Smith wants to look at population policy he should go back to his party room and get them to take a much clearer view about the way that federal governments have failed the regions through a lack of longer term commitment to investment in infrastructure. At the federal level we're seeing a drop in infrastructure funding in relative terms, and we're seeing state governments in both New South Wales and Victoria being forced to increase significantly their investments because of the failure of leadership at the federal level.

I hear the Prime Minister talk about congestion busting, particularly in my part of the world, and then the throwing in of dollars to signify that there is a commitment being backed up by money to bust congestion. Let me tell you, in my part of Western Sydney that money is not going into the things that will actually free up the movement of people in Western Sydney. I still have people stuck for ages, crammed like sardines in trains from the most western part of Sydney into the inner city every day on the western line of the Sydney rail network. On every major motorway in Western Sydney there are long lines of lights as commuters from the furthest parts of Sydney's outer boundaries travel into the city for work. You can see this early in the morning, from 5.30. They are crammed on the M7, M5, M2 and the M4. On the M4 now, because of decisions of coalition governments, they have to contend with tolls on roads that were paid for previously.

The infrastructure of railway stations is not keeping pace with growth. We have 1950s railways that don't have amenities. For example, we encourage people to use public transport, but there are no public parking stations at railway stations to allow people to get their cars there and then get onto a train instead of being stuck on motorways. We have to beg for a Medicare licence for an MRI machine in our local hospital because the government won't stump up the money. People in our hospitals right now pay hundreds of dollars upfront to get an MRI scan to work out if they've got cancer, because the money isn't being put in. Some of the schools in my area are being listed on maintenance backlogs because federal funding to the state government is being clamped. The state government then looks at cutting back maintenance, because it's the easiest thing in school budgets to cut back on when funding isn't available. We're seeing all these things but, by the way, $10 billion is going into Sydney for infrastructure. Do you know what project it's going to? It's going to the Western Sydney Airport—one project.

So when I hear 'congestion busting' in my part of the world, and I'm being told there are billions of dollars going in, am I to say to people: the way to fix your clogged motorways, stop you from standing for ages on public trains, improve the quality of your local hospitals and free your schools from being stuck on maintenance backlogs is through an airport? Give me a break! They'd tell me to have a Bex and a good lie down. That is the way decisions are being made in Sydney. The needs of outer Western Sydney simply cannot be ignored any more. We shouldn't have to beg for an Medicare licence for an MRI machine at a hospital. We shouldn't be jammed on every single motorway; they should be investing in other motorways for future growth, particularly the M9. We shouldn't have to see commuters crammed like sardines for an hour travelling on the western line of the Sydney rail network. And we shouldn't have to wait for upgrades to public transport. There should be better funding flow to schools, especially public schools, in my area. We should have an NBN rollout that actually goes ahead rather then being promised, stalled and then given no idea when it's going to happen.

There should be further thought, for example, on opening up—we're talking about new rail lines being opened up while other existing rail lines aren't being attended to—the corridor on the M7 in Western Sydney, for example, and putting in bus lanes. Public transport would operate right down the M7 that connects north-western Sydney to south-western Sydney. It would be able to be scaled up very quickly and provide for access across our region. That corridor exists right now, within the easements that are sitting right in the middle of the M7, one of the biggest motorways in Western Sydney, and no thought has been given to that.

This is the type of thing that needs to be thought of longer term, the type of investment that should be made to free up movement in a region, Western Sydney, that will dwarf the east of the city in years to come. And it is where, I might point out, the number of elected representatives from Western Sydney will probably outstrip what you would see in Tasmania, South Australia, and, dare I say—with the greatest respect to my friends in WA—WA as well. We need to have a serious look, backed up with a serious commitment to investment, at our part of Western Sydney and parts of Melbourne and Sydney—and I suspect, in time, Brisbane will experience the same growth—at where we can see a better movement of people and a much better way for those regions to exist and thrive and grow. I hope that in any discussion about population policy we will see less of the scapegoating on particular groups and more of an accountability by governments who should be doing better.

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