Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Although it's been a few months now since the federal election, I want to take this terrific opportunity to put on the record my enormous debt of gratitude to my local community, who have placed their faith in me to represent them. Western Sydney is the part of Australia that I grew up in. I take very seriously the obligation I have to make sure that I continually push, hector, badger, struggle and champion local interests in any way I can. I note the presence here of my colleague the member for Werriwa. We believe strongly, as Western Sydney residents, that for too long the voices of the people that we love have been overlooked.

Sydney is a city of two halves, where a lot of the decision-making tends to happen in the eastern part of the Sydney. People can say, 'That sounds like you've got a bit of a chip on your shoulder,' but, for most people in Western Sydney, that's the lived reality. When we get elected to these positions, we recognise the importance of using our time well and making sure that we do things that we believe will make the quality of living better for people. I was elected in a seat named after one of our prime ministers, Ben Chifley, who came from a very modest background and, through the power of education and reinvention, in many respects, made it to the position of Treasurer and then Prime Minister. This is a journey that a lot of people in our part of Western Sydney would aspire to. It was a great honour to be elected to this place in the last election and to have that faith placed in me. It is massively humbling.

I want to recognise a number of people who helped along the way. I'd like to thank them first, because I don't want to risk running out of time as I ramble on about all the other things that I want to use this opportunity to speak about. I'd rather put them first and foremost and extend to them my gratitude for everything that they've done. There are a whole stack of people: Kathie Collins, Ian and Shirley Watt, Bill Archer, Jon Roseworn, Sophie Young, Joelina Kane, Erlinda Sepp, Erlinda Armstrong, Balraj Sangha, Lucas Cayanan, Mapasua Aupa'au, Geoff and Cherie Harrison, Derek Margerison, Richard Amery, Jim Kelly, Lyn Muir, Warren Bunting, Sandra Carter, Colleen Rasack and Steve Sagud, just to name a few. I know there's always a danger, when you start naming people, that you miss people. If you didn't hear your name on that list but you helped out, just know how hugely grateful and indebted I am for your assistance.

I want to reflect on the contributions of the people who've worked with me within the electorate office: Brad and Norma Bunting, Mel Ibric, Emma Jovanovski and Ryan Mahon. Helping me with my shadow ministerial responsibilities was Natasha Bolsin. I thank all of them for what they did during the course of the last term. Also, to those who are with me now into this term: I want them to know that I was massively impressed with what they do to assist, what they do to help constituents and what they do in terms of championing policy and helping me craft messages and policy on issues that we all care about. Thank you so much for that. And I say to people who through the course of last term moved on to bigger and better things: Rosanna Maccarone and Elisha Pearce, I don't forget your contributions. Thank you very much for what you did in particular.

When I look at the types of things that I'm focussed on, not just in the last few terms but also in this term, the biggest thing in my part of Western Sydney in the seat of Chifley is making sure that the people in our area have accessible and affordable health care. It means the world to them across Western Sydney, but especially in our part. One stat that stands out, for example, is that 60 per cent of the general population take out private health insurance. In some suburbs that I represent—they could be Bidwill, Shalvey or Dharruk—that figure might be under 30 per cent, so half that. That means that access to a public healthcare system is a big deal. Being able to get help at the time you need it is huge.

It's very important that I put some of these stats on the record, because they demonstrate that the investment in healthcare infrastructure and the quality of local health networks are absolute priorities for people living in Chifley. Residents in Chifley have amongst the lowest life expectancies in the country. This is nuts! This should not happen. In this day and age, that's just incredible—ranking 138 out of 151 seats in terms of life expectancy. Part of that is that we smoke too much—too many ciggies! I understand that people don't mind having a puff, but the reality of the rates of lung cancer and the take-up of smoking in our part of the world mean that that puff takes you on a pathway to poorer health outcomes. These are things we have to tackle. And at eight per cent, our diabetes rate is more than 50 per cent higher than the national average. I already mentioned the ciggies: we have the highest rate of smoking in the country at just over 30 per cent.

The reliance on supporting our local area through a GP who bulk-bills is crucial. Basically, we have 99 per cent more GP visits in Chifley bulk-billed, which means a strong Medicare system which strongly delivers for people in need in our neck of the woods. Out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, for example, are a big issue, because they're rising under this government. In just the 2017-18 financial year there was a 17 per cent leap in the costs of out-of-pocket hospital expenses for people whose wages aren't increasing and who might not be getting the hours they need. Or they might be pensioners or someone with limited income, and that lifting of out-of-pocket expenses is massive. It has a huge impact on people. I don't ever want to have the situation where people feel they are taking shortcuts with their health because they think they can't afford it out of their household budget.

Since the Liberals took office, those out-of-pocket costs for specialist appointments, for instance, have jumped by nearly 40 per cent—40 per cent! These are the types of pressures that people are put under and that it's important to raise and tackle. They're certainly things I'll be focused on in the coming term. In Chifley, on average, it costs someone maybe $33 out of their pocket to see a doctor and roughly $88 to see a specialist. For some people, particularly in some of those areas where the median weekly wage is well below the national number, this is a big deal.

The government is delaying the addition onto the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme of more than 80 drugs that have been recommended to them. This also has an impact in terms of out-of-pocket expenses for health care. As I said a few moments ago, these are the types of things that I definitely want to focus on longer term through the course of this parliamentary term.

Public patients waiting for joint replacements in central Sydney wait for three months—so three months in one part of the city. In Western Sydney they're waiting for 14 months, over a year for joint replacements. Breast surgical services are expected to be cut from Mount Druitt Hospital, and in the last week we've had suggestions that Blacktown and Mount Druitt Hospital would see a cut in elective surgery because of a broader ambition by the New South Wales Department of Health to cut $250 million out of its budget. If the federal government are not doing the right thing by funding health care, and are not honouring commitments that were made to state and territory governments in years passed, that puts pressure on state governments. Then state governments cut, and that has an impact on communities like the ones that we live in. Again, this has a big impact on people's quality of life. Elective surgery, in many instances, is not just something frivolous or something that people pursue for the heck of it—it does have an impact on the way that people enjoy living. And, if we're not getting the funding levels right, it impacts that way. People are living a lower quality of life and enduring pain in a situation that can be easily fixed. I give full credit to the state member for Mount Druitt, Edmond Atalla, my colleague, for pursuing this matter in the last few weeks about elective surgery cuts, because it has put pressure on the New South Wales government. While not absolving the New South Wales government—they've got to take their share of responsibility—I am very focused on the level of healthcare funding coming out of the federal government, which contributes to this type of situation. Because, again, patients waiting for hip and knee replacements and surgeries concerning gall bladder, liver, stomach, appendix and breasts would bear a huge burden from those cuts. As I said, the stuff that was being planned would have seen a further 400 surgery sessions over the next 12 months cut at Mount Druitt Hospital alone, and that's only been reversed because of local community outrage.

The other thing that I certainly will be focused on through the course of this term are issues that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Chifley electorate, which has one of the biggest urban populations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the country. Seeing what we can do to ensure that we improve life expectancy and the quality of life for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community is also certainly a big priority.

The other issue in our area is infrastructure. If you look, for example, at a recent survey by the Australian Automobile Association, they reckon that road and traffic congestion is a problem for nearly 80 per cent of Chifley residents, in my part of Western Sydney. So getting somewhere on the roads is difficult, and 80 per cent say they experience congestion. If you try to drive from Mount Druitt to Parramatta, it's one of the biggest traffic bottlenecks in the country, and we're seeing very little work between federal and state governments to actually fix that. Then you might think: 'I'm not getting in the car in Western Sydney. I'm not going to risk going on the M4 and being stuck in traffic, and I'm certainly not going to pay 9,000 bucks a year in tolls going from Chifley into the city using the M7 and M2 everyday'. That's what they've estimated it costs—based on toll costs—if you were to use tollways from our part of Western Sydney to the city and back, just for your working week. If you don't want to do that, you could go and catch a train. If you catch the train, three out of five days you'll be late home, because the T1 Western Line is one of the worst performing rail lines in New South Wales. We often hear the coalition say, 'We want people to be able to get home in time to enjoy their families,' but they've got this sitting right at their feet.

The New South Wales state government is doing very little to fix this. They harp on about the Sydney Metro West—yes, okay, I absolutely get that that will help people living between Parramatta and the CBD—but they're packed like sardines on those trains from Parramatta through to Blacktown through to Seven Hills, where the member for Greenway, who's here in the chamber, is. We've seen it ourselves, standing on those rail lines. I understand the South West Rail Link doesn't fare much better, member for Werriwa. They're packed like sardines into that. It doesn't matter what happens on Sydney Metro West, because people are still going to be having those long trips where they're uncomfortable and where they're running late as a result of the privilege of being on those trains.

Previous Labor governments at the state level have championed things like the western expressway, which were designed to de-congest those rail lines. That is stuff that we should be seeing. I'm sick of seeing the urban infrastructure minister get up in the parliament and say that their idea of congestion-busting is to fund another roundabout. The job of federal governments, working with state governments, should be to make sure that they use the power of their greater funding levels to work in with state governments on things that matter.

Another thing that gets talked about a lot is the New South Wales government's plan to connect Badgerys Creek airport and St Marys railway station. While a lot of people understand that you want to have public transport links to airports, if you haven't fixed the congestion on the Western Sydney rail line by the time you put that metro in, you'll be forcing people to cop an intolerable travel situation. You've already got trains on the Western Line running late, and then you'll be feeding more people up from the airport onto that rail line. Something has got to give, and I am certainly committed to championing that matter and making sure that we get better public transport options and good quality transport infrastructure. When you get to a railway station you should not have to walk ages to get there. As the member for Greenway said, you shouldn't have to pay for an Uber to get from where you parked your car to a railway station. You should be able to park close to the railway station and that station should be modern and should have, for example, things that don't prevent older Australians or people with a disability from using that station. For instance, in Doonside I had to go to the extent of lodging a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, using disability discrimination law at the federal level, against the New South Wales state government, because for more than 10 years they've ignored the needs of Doonside residents in getting their own railway station. We'll be lodging that action in the coming weeks. That's the type of stuff where you can make a difference with federal funding. We're just not seeing it happen, however.

There are 150,000 people moving into north-west Sydney. You can see what's happening now on Richmond and Windsor roads, as they are starting to get congested—after they have been expanded. We need to see investment in a road network parallel to the M7—and that is the M9, the orbital. The New South Wales Liberal government have just played politics. They have said that they won't build that roadway, because they don't want to upset their own constituencies. But the reality is that if we don't build the M9 roadway we are going to have massive congestion in north-western Sydney. North-western Sydney is continually overlooked on infrastructure investment, I might add. We do need to see a greater focus on that. For example, both sides of politics at the state level have committed to the building of a new hospital in north-west Sydney, around Rouse Hill. Without sounding ungrateful, we're going to need more than just a hospital to make people's lives more comfortable in that part of Western Sydney.

We've heard the government go on about Badgerys Creek airport and that investment. They say it in the context of congestion busting. I'm sure a lot of people in south-west Sydney would love to catch a plane from Badgerys Creek airport to the CBD. That is not congestion busting. The money that they've put to upgrade the roads around that airport should not be labelled as a Western Sydney infrastructure project, because it's basically the stuff that needs to happen if you're putting that airport in. There are a lot of other roads in Western Sydney where congestion is an issue—for example, between Mt Druitt and Parramatta on the M4. They need to find ways to fix that up. Mind you, when they do go on about WestConnex at the federal level, they conveniently overlook the fact that when Labor was in office last time we said we would extend funding for the construction of WestConnex provided that it actually linked up to Sydney airport and that a toll did not go on it, that a toll not be reintroduced on the M4. The New South Wales Libs have reimposed a toll on the M4—after the people had paid for that roadway—to help fund WestConnex. So it's no surprise that, as a result, we've got congestion now as people try to get off the newly tolled parts of the M4 and do the rat run through Parramatta using Parramatta Road. We've got to do better.

On education, another big thing, we have 63 schools in the Chifley electorate. We took to the election a commitment to provide an additional $24 million to Chifley schools on the basis of schools in need, looking at the makeup of those schools and considering what local students required. We wanted to see better, targeted funding in there. As I've said previously, I've seen an improvement in results in our neck of the woods. For example, I have remarked about how at Crawford Public School they have said that the maths results of students who were falling behind improved when additional teachers were put in place to help those students catch up to the rest of the pack, as it were. We should definitely see more and targeted support for schools in need.

We need also to ensure, longer term, that young people in our neck of the woods have got the skills that will hold them in good stead in the years to come. That's why I've supported in my area the establishment of a tech skills hub based at Doonside Technology High School with the Colebee Learning Community. There are about 5,000 students and, through the work of Google, Australian Schools Plus and me, we'll will ensure that kids get to see and learn about AI, robotics and the types of things that will become more commonplace in workplaces in the future.

The other week we had an Amazon Web Services team up with Eagle RAPS at Doonside to make sure that young people in Doonside get that level of support as well. This is critical in the longer term and certainly another area where I'll continually focus to make sure that kids in western Sydney aren't left behind. We need to see more investment in skills, not because they necessarily want to go into tech but, as most of us know, you have to be able to navigate your way around the sorts of equipment that you're using—your mobile phone, your iPad, your desktop, your laptop or whatever—to get the most in your workplace. We should be thinking longer term about what will put young people in the best position to get ahead in years to come.

While these are just a few issues, I always take the opportunity in parliament to speak up for our local communities on various issues. These are not the sum total of the issues I'll fight for, but I hope that people do realise that when I commit to something as a local MP I'll see it through and make sure I stand up for the people I care about. (Time expired)

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