Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges south-west Sydney:

(a) is one of the key contributors to economic growth in the Australian economy;

(b) is in need of investment to support jobs and growth;

(c) is home to diverse and endangered species;

(d) has a population of approximately 700,000, which is over 9 per cent of the NSW population; and

(e) provides over $30 billion in gross regional product to the NSW economy;

(2) notes that south-west Sydney is chronically underfunded and under-resourced in the following areas:

(a) road infrastructure and public transport;

(b) hospitals and health services;

(c) communications services; and

(d) schools and universities;

(3) further acknowledges that investment in south-west Sydney is required to support jobs creation; and

(4) calls on the Government to provide the necessary support to:

(a) encourage business growth;

(b) encourage jobs growth; and

(c) build infrastructure to sustain growth.

One of the recurring themes I've spoken about during my time in this place has been the need for governments at all levels to provide basic infrastructure and services for our community. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 70 per cent of Werriwa residents left the area each day to go to work. They do this on congested roads and overcrowded trains and buses. It took a concerted campaign over many years for the expansion of parking at Edmondson Park railway station; a station which opened five years ago to cater for tens of thousands of new residents will finally get a multistorey car park. That car park has only now started construction, well after its promised start date. And those who have no choice but to take the car to work are now being slugged by a new toll on an old road: the M5 East. Barry Calvert, President of Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, summed it up well in a recent op-ed:

As the future hub for Greater Sydney and the engine room of the state, Western Sydney deserves an equitable approach to the key issues of transport infrastructure from the NSW Government; including a more efficient, fair and sustainable tolling system that does not plunder the region's pockets.

The people of south-western Sydney are taking their fair share of population growth, but they also deserve a fair share of the infrastructure and services to support it.

In coming years, Austral in my electorate will house a population the size of a regional city. Like those regional cities, Austral and its surrounds will need critical services, like a hospital, police station and ambulance station. It will need arts and cultural facilities and major sporting amenities, yet things are going in the opposite direction. The New South Wales government recently merged police local area commands in my electorate, and a recent report on Liverpool Hospital by Westir found that the local health district was significantly under-resourced in comparison to other Sydney health districts. Under-resourced health districts mean longer wait times for operations, significant strains on doctors and other health staff and poorer health outcomes, which is even worse during the current pandemic.

Education is another area where the people of south-west Sydney are being short-changed. Many of my constituents have contacted me about the lack of a public school at Edmondson Park. Students as young as five are being told they should attend Prestons Public School, which is a really great school, also in my electorate, but it is over five kilometres away, with no public transport links that are easily accessed. The local public high school is still further away, and in another suburb, Casula. I call on the New South Wales government to start building a school at Edmondson Park and to do it now. Too many schools in Werriwa are already over-enrolled; some are 180 per cent over capacity.

Public schools in Carnes Hill, Green Valley, Liverpool, Horningsea Park and Hinchinbrook now have larger classes and smaller playgrounds, because the demountables have been rushed in to take this increase in student numbers. This wasn't unforeseen. The government that looks after these schools is the same one that oversaw the new subdivisions and suburbs. This lack of planning by the state government is laid out only today in the Daily Telegraph: 'Schools in Western Sydney with 40 to 50 demountable classrooms'. This is not about a lack of money; it is about priorities and about the south-west of Sydney being short-changed.

The electorate of Werriwa is also home to the $5.3 billion Western Sydney airport. If successful, the airport will bring residents of south-west Sydney good quality jobs, education and infrastructure that are sorely needed. Revelations regarding the $26 million overpayment do not bode well. Not only did this undermine confidence in the project; it is also a shocking waste of taxpayers' money. That wasted $26 million could have been used to upgrade Cambridge Avenue and Middleton Drive, to improve parks and playing fields in Werriwa and to build a genuine national broadband network that is fit for purpose—and that is just in my electorate.

Werriwa and south-west Sydney as a whole have been let down and neglected by the government. The south-west of Sydney is one of the key growth areas of Australia and is on the cusp of realising its economic and cultural potential. I call on the government, both federal and state to provide the necessary funding and resources to reinforce the growing powerhouse of south-west Sydney.

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