Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy Affordability) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge the passion for Western Sydney held by both the member for Werriwa and the member for Macarthur. I do see that in this place, but I think the member for Werriwa was a little bit off when she talked about media releases. Quite recently, the only communications we've received from the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has been via media releases at midnight informing our community in Western Sydney that (1) we would be the most impacted community under flight paths, and (2) about the infrastructure that was ripped away and then restored.

It's actually disappointing, the outcome, for people in Western Sydney under this Labor government. Infrastructure projects had begun and the minister has now taken away funds for projects like the M7-M12 interchange. This left the New South Wales government gobsmacked. Projects have had funding more than the halved, like Mulgoa Road stage 2, which is in my electorate of Lindsay. I'd like to ask the minister where is the $117.5 million that's missing for this particular upgrade for the community of Lindsay? And we had to wait more than 90 days for the review which saw the minister take funding off the table for Western Sydney.

Greater Western Sydney is home to around one in 10 Australians and deserves a government that will listen to our community and meet the region's continuously growing infrastructure demands. The government's immigration numbers keep climbing, yet housing construction rates are not keeping pace at all. Across every part of Western Sydney, whether you're in Camden, Fairfield or Parramatta, you are experiencing a diminishing of your local services and infrastructure. Hospitals and schools are bursting at the seams. We know this; we hear this every single day. Local roads are clogged and trains are hard to get on in peak hour. We need a government that recognises that if growth in the Western Sydney population continues to rise, then we need a lot more money invested in infrastructure rather than it being taken away. We have an airport that will face access issues as the minister refuses to invest in local roads. And there is an aerotropolis that desperately needs investment to get it going so as to meet its full potential.

I want to take us back to 2022 and some of the actions of this Labor government. The infrastructure minister committed to the previous coalition government's infrastructure agenda. Then, she backflipped and did a 90-day review. The problem is that the review was not 90 days and it uneased so many communities in Western Sydney that had been hopeful of the infrastructure commitments they were relying on. The minister, on 6 May, finally did come to Western Sydney, so she did do something other than write a press release and release it at midnight, to make her announcement about new infrastructure funding. But it wasn't new funding at all. Our shadow infrastructure minister, Senator Bridget McKenzie, has noted the 90-day review took away around $2.5 billion from our communities, yet the Labor government has only reallocated $1.9 billion. There's meant to be a north-west Sydney corridor package, but we're yet to see the full details of this. South-west Sydney, as we know, is growing at such a rapid pace. It is ridiculous that the government has made these communities wait to sign back on to critical funding to ensure families can get to work and home again sooner and safer.

We've seen money ripped away from the Blue Mountains with the axing of the Great Western Highway upgrade, which would have transformed how the Central West meets Western Sydney. That was $2 billion of funding ripped away. There's funding for a Western Sydney rapid bus infrastructure upgrade, but local mayors are already frustrated at how this will work. It was a hot topic during last week's New South Wales parliamentary hearing for the inquiry into public transport for the airport and the aerotropolis. We also know many local governments want a metro from the airport to the south-west as quickly as possible.

The 90-day infrastructure review is one failure from the minister, but let's not forget the Western Sydney Transport Infrastructure Panel she set up to review funding across the region. She received the report, but she chose to release it too late and she didn't listen to all of the recommendations—she didn't listen to the experts that were appointed to discuss multiple projects. One of the big ones was the local rural roads around Western Sydney International Airport that will soon be major freight roads. I've stood on those roads. They're in the member for Werriwa's electorate. They've got potholes on them. We have a major international airport on our doorstep. Our community deserves much better.

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