Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

I'd first like to acknowledge my Western Sydney colleague the member for Macarthur and his passion for Western Sydney. But I feel on this occasion it's a little bit misplaced because on the other side of Western Sydney I am now waiting for those commitments the Labor government made during the last election, with no delivery in sight, and I'd like to thank the member for Robertson for bringing this motion to the House today because it enables me to speak about these commitments the Labor government made to my community that we are now waiting for. There were some interjections earlier when the member for Bradfield was talking about 'all announcements and no delivery from those opposite'—well, that would be amusing if it wasn't actually extremely true in Western Sydney.

At the 2019 election I fought really hard for the upgrade to Dunheved Road in my community, and this upgrade has been needed for so long. I achieved half the amount that was needed so I went back to the Commonwealth and fought for some more, and at the 2022 election the Labor candidate and the Labor Party committed to fast-tracking this project. We are now a year into the Albanese government, and I would like to know what the Prime Minister's interpretation of fast-tracking a project is, because we are not fast-tracking. I'm still waiting to hear from the council about when this project will start, if in fact fast-tracking happens—typical Labor announcing something and not delivering for my people in Western Sydney, just like committing to a Medicare urgent care clinic during this election, by this May, for Lindsay, yet this won't happen on time either. It may have even been delayed to the end of the year, as we heard in Senate estimates. So already from the last election we have one election commitment that we know nothing about, we have heard nothing about, from the Albanese government and another one that has been delayed months and months.

Another example is the $264.9 million that has been delayed for the Sydney Metro project as part of the new Western Sydney international airport. It's interesting that New South Wales Labor want to cut additional Sydney Metro corridors for Western Sydney, and it seems like their colleagues in the federal Labor Party want to do the same. So I'm asking the question on behalf of my community: what does this Labor government have against public transport for people in Western Sydney and particularly my area of Western Sydney? Another delay that will impact my community is the $3 million that was committed for Werrington Arterial Stage 2 planning. There is absolutely no indication where this is at. Even searching on the website there are no start and finish times for this project, so again we're waiting. A commitment has been made, $3 million from the federal government and also the state, and we're waiting for that to happen.

The motion notes the Castlereagh corridor, which actually runs through my electorate of Lindsay, and again this was an election commitment. So this is election commitment 3 from the 2022 election we're waiting on, and we're not hearing anything about this Castlereagh corridor. Unfortunately the department's website says start and end dates are yet to be decided. So we have Dunheved Road fast-tracking, no fast-tracking; we have the Medicare urgent care clinic being delayed; and we have no information on yet another election commitment, the Castlereagh corridor, which runs through my electorate.

The Treasurer's first budget, in October, was an absolute dud for the people of New South Wales on transport infrastructure: $2.3 billion slashed from the infrastructure program over the forward estimates for projects across my home state, and around the country $4.7 billion cut from key programs to benefit small to large-scale projects that will allow importantly—and I know this because it happens in my electorate—people to get to work and home again. People in my community have to commute, and, when infrastructure projects are cut or delayed, this has a real impact on families that spend so much time commuting to work and home again. This is time they could be spending at home with their kids and having a better quality of life, so I ask the government: please come forward with further information on the projects you committed to for my community, the delays, and whether you're actually going to go through with them at all.

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