Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

() (): On Saturday the Baird government wants the voters of New South Wales to step into the unknown. They want them to vote them back into government even though there is an ASIC investigation into Mike Baird's office over the removal of the headline 'Bad for the budget' from a report about electricity privatisation. Mike Baird has refused to answer questions about that unprecedented intervention to doctor a report. The people of New South Wales deserve better. The people of Victoria had to wait for the Tories to lose office before they found out that the East West Link had a cost-benefit analysis of 0.45. Infrastructure has to be transparent. What we are seeing is that they are hiding from the people of New South Wales. This morning, Mike Baird reaffirmed that there is no plan B—all of their promises fall over if they cannot get electricity privatisation through the upper house. The upper house members will know it is bad for the budget according to their own independent analysis. Voters will also know that there is a two-for-one deal on Saturday—get rid of Mike Baird and you will get rid of Tony Abbott. If you want Bill Shorten as the next Prime Minister—or Malcolm Turnbull or Julie Bishop—vote Labor this Saturday. (Time Expired)

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Saturday the people in my electorate have an important decision to make. They can choose to re-elect the Baird Liberal government or return to the chaos and incompetence that we witnessed four years ago. The Baird government has, among many other achievements, returned New South Wales to being the fastest growing economy in Australia, dramatically improved transport across the state and spent nearly $5 billion to rebuild and expand hospitals.

In my federal electorate of Reid I have three state seats—Drummoyne, Strathfield and Auburn. In Drummoyne, which was neglected by Labor for 49 years, in just four years John Sidoti has delivered upgrades to local ferry wharfs and train stations, obtained funding of $150 million for Concord Hospital and committed $2 million to upgrade the popular Bay Run.

In Strathfield, after 16 years of Labor neglect, in four years Charles Cassuscelli has obtained funding for new public schools; has upgraded, or is in the process of upgrading, Strathfield, Flemington, Croydon and Homebush railway stations; and has spent over $1.2 million on numerous community facilities serving our multicultural communities.

In Auburn, the Liberal candidate Ronney Oueik has served his local community as mayor with distinction. Ronney's opponent is Luke Foley. Luke Foley does not live in Auburn; many locals have asked me if he even knows how to get there. Regardless, he stands in stark contrast to Ronney, who has spent his entire life embedded within his community.

On Saturday, I encourage my electorate to support John, Charles and Ronney and to back Baird.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler is absolutely right: if the people of New South Wales vote out Mike Baird on Saturday, Tony Abbott will be gone by Monday. I suspect there are 39 members of the backbench on the other side who are thinking that they could convince their colleagues in New South Wales to do the deal and save the country from perhaps the most chaotic leader it has ever had in Tony Abbott. Not only does this government dump every promise it has made; it has actually dumped almost every conservative value. There is nothing it will not dump to save its own skin. There is nothing it will not dump to satisfy an unhappy backbencher or an unhappy constituent.

We have Tony Abbott, the man of 'surplus, surplus, surplus' before the election, now openly saying that a debt to GDP ratio of 50 to 60 per cent is 'a pretty good result'. It seems the only value they will not dump is the selling of assets. We have a Treasurer trying to encourage his state colleagues—first Campbell Newman and now Mike Baird—to sell assets that belong to the people of their respective states and that actually generate a return, a dividend, to the people of those states. This is extraordinary. We have Mike Baird dancing to Tony Abbott's tune and planning to sell the extraordinary assets which belong the people of New South Wales. It seems there is no value they will not dump—except this one: sell the assets, sell off the farm, sell off what we own.

Nickolas Varvaris (Barton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Saturday is an exciting day for the people of Barton, because they can choose a government that listens and responds to their needs or choose the party that has done nothing in 16 years. The Baird Liberal government has delivered the funding to St George Hospital that the previous Labor Party could not. It was not the lack of funding; they just did not care. For 16 years, St George Hospital, a major infrastructure facility and employer in the Barton electorate, was left to languish. The member for Kogarah, Cherie Burton, had her chance to represent her constituents and for 16 years she did nothing.

My constituents are disappointed that their area was neglected until the Baird Liberal government came along. Within their first term, $8 million was delivered for a new mental health unit, $39 million was delivered for a new emergency department and $307 million was delivered for a St George hospital rebuild. The key word here is 'delivered'—not talked about, not promised but delivered.

An increasing population in the St George area also requires better infrastructure to support commuters. Pinch-points in the area have been overlooked time and again by New South Wales Labor. Under the Liberals, $13 million has been confirmed to upgrade the overpass at Allawah station, which is due to start this year. A further $240 million has been confirmed to fix intersections in Kogarah, Beverly Hills and Hurstville. This is a real win for residents. The people of St George deserve a voice in parliament that represents their needs, someone with a connection to the area they represent and not someone who choses to live in Kurnell or Nowra. A vote for the Baird Liberal team will ensure this excellent track record continues.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to inform the House of what the Baird and Abbott governments have done to our community. The Killara women's refuge in Randwick is the only women's only domestic violence shelter in our community. As a result of the Baird government's Going Home Staying Home reforms, the Killara women's shelter is about to close. Some women fleeing domestic violence in my community will have nowhere to go and will be forced to live in halfway houses. Often they leave home with their children, fleeing domestic violence situations, with nothing else but the clothes on their backs. That opportunity for a women's only shelter is now closed in our community.

At the Prince of Wales hospital in Randwick, our local hospital, the Baird government have cut $30 million from their operating budget over the last three years—30 beds have closed, two physiotherapists have been sacked. My wife is a nurse and she tells me of the pressures that nurses are under at the local hospital because when nurses leave they are not being replaced.

Our local TAFE college in Randwick has lost 40 teachers over the last four years. There has been $1.7 billion cut from the TAFE budget in New South Wales and 1,100 teachers have been sacked. I have an email from a constituent who says that the cost of a certificate III in jewellery has gone from $419 in 2014 to $10,651 now. That is what a Liberal government does to education in our community. (Time expired)

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Saturday, the people of New South Wales have a clear choice: strength and unity from the Liberal National coalition or Labor on L-plates. Strong teamwork is exactly what we are delivering in my part of New South Wales, with state members Pru Goward in Goulburn, John Barilaro in Monaro, Jai Rowell in Wollondilly and Katrina Hodgkinson in Cootamundra. And the benefits are flowing fast.

In Goulburn alone, $120 million from the Baird government will be spent on redeveloping Goulburn hospital. There is federal funding for a new headspace centre, $12 million in joint state and federal funding for much-needed bridge rebuilding and the NBN will rollout to 9½ thousand premises. At Yass, up to $15 million in shared state and federal funding has been announced for the Barton Highway—funding to kick-start the plan for a staged duplication. Close campaigning by all three levels of government in Yass—federal, state and local—has put the Barton back in the spotlight. Labor will do nothing on this issue and has been totally silent.

The love will keep coming for communities in my electorate, because the teamwork between state and federal MPs is concrete, as concrete as the bridges we are building near Young and Goulburn. These are the projects that matter. To voters in Monaro, Goulburn, Wollondilly and Coota, the choice is clear this Saturday: vote 1 for the strong teamwork of the Liberal National coalition.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is actually rare when you have an election at a state level that you can send a message to two governments—a hard-hearted coalition government in Canberra and an incompetent one in Macquarie Street in New South Wales. At the federal level, you see the federal budget has cut $80 billion in spending on schools and hospitals, and infrastructure spending is below what it should be. How does that translate at the state level? We have seen a cardiac ward closed at Mt Druitt hospital. We have seen a failure to provide and support health infrastructure in our area. We have seen schools lose their funding. And on infrastructure, there is one particular body in our area that will suffer as a result of political football playing between Tony Abbott and Mike Baird. The Mt Druitt Learning Ground, based at Bidwell, has been there for 10 years helping students who have been kicked out of school, making sure that they are picked up and kept on the path to training and fulfilling their future aspirations. That facility will be shut because Tony Abbott's government will not fund it and Mike Baird's government is trying to work out how he can avoid funding it. We have young people in our area denied the opportunity to fulfil their potential and denied the ability to follow-up on that potential. This is what happens when you have two levels of government team up and hurt our part of Western Sydney. It is completely unacceptable. So this weekend, send a message to both Tony Abbott and Mike Baird and vote to support your local area.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We expect election campaigns in this country to be fought hard. But the campaign we are seeing from the New South Wales Labor Party has taken us to new lows. Before our eyes, we are witnessing the most dishonest, the most deceitful and the most hypocritical campaign in our nation's history. But do not take my word for it; take the word of former Labor minister Martin Ferguson, who said: 'It's just deliberately misleading the public, creating unnecessary fear and trying to scare people into voting for Labor not on merit but on misinformation. In many ways, I am ashamed of the Labor Party.'

Or take the word of former New South Wales Labor Treasurer Michael Costa, who said, 'Lie after desperate lie is being thrown at the public in an attempt to frighten the electorate into rejecting the Baird government's sensible and moderate reforms.' But now even the Race Discrimination Commissioner, a former Labor staffer, has launched a scathing attack. He said: 'We should not be inflaming xenophobia. In this case, it is disappointing that political advertisements of the Labor Party have resorted to such fearmongering.'

New South Wales Labor remains totally unfit to hold office. The challenge is now on for all those members to either stand up and condemn this or to be part of it and complicit.

Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday, the people of New South Wales have a chance to stand up to the gutless Baird regime. Mike Baird has been gutless in standing up to his surfing buddy, Tony Abbott, and his gutting of New South Wales, which has stripped $220 million already from the Hunter and Central Coast hospitals—gone from 1 July last year. He has been gutless in standing up for the 27,000 pensioners in my area, who have already seen their pension and concessions cut under the Abbott-Baird party.

The impact of electricity privatisation will be devastating in my region. We will see it, and we have seen it already in Victoria under the Kennett regime, and we will see it under Mike Baird if he is returned to office. There are 1,000 Ausgrid workers who work at Wallsend, in my electorate, and at least 400 of their jobs will be under threat because they are in the backroom. These are 400 families who will suffer because of the privatisation from those opposite. God knows what will happen to the maintenance regime, which is so important to our electricity network. All of that is under threat because of their privatisation.

I say to those 1,000 workers at Wallsend: if you care about your jobs, if you care about a great electricity network, stand up and vote out Mike Baird. The beauty of Saturday is that, if you vote out Baird, you get to vote out Abbott, because, as sure as day follows night, if Mike Baird goes on Saturday Tony Abbott goes the week after, and we can enjoy what happens after that. So stand up for your region.

Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Saturday, the Central Coast voters have a clear choice between a Baird coalition government, which will keep New South Wales working, and the increasingly desperate New South Wales Labor Party. Unsurprisingly, we have seen Labor conduct the most dishonest election campaign in New South Wales history, with a scaremongering Labor Party willing to say and do anything to deceive their way back into government.

These are the facts: the Baird government is seeking to lease—lease, not sell—49 per cent of the state's electricity distribution network, and the government will retain full ownership. By doing so, the government will be able to invest $20 billion to build new assets, which will be owned by the people of New South Wales.

Sadly, the Labor Party have no ideas of their own. Their modest plan for New South Wales will leave residents of the Central Coast worse off. Our local candidates—Sandra Kerr, in Wyong; Michael Sharpe, in The Entrance; and Adam Crouch, in Terrigal—have stood up to Labor's dishonesty, bullying and dirty tactics, and have presented a positive plan for the Central Coast.

Ms Hall interjecting—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

The bullies are in the room now—the members for Shortland and Charlton. You don't get worse than that pair.

In 2011, the coalition said— (Time expired)

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In two days time, the people of New South Wales head to the polls to elect a new government. They will be faced with a choice: to back the Prime Minister's best mate, Mike Baird, or to vote for a Foley-led government under Labor, the party with a robust, progressive plan for the state, which does not involve selling off the electricity network to make it happen.

The bromance shared between the Prime Minister and the Premier is obviously on the rocks. They have hardly been seen together in public, and when they are only one of them is allowed to talk. It is time for the voters in my electorate of Newcastle and across the state of New South Wales to end the disruptive and destructive relationship on their behalf, and kick Mike Baird and the Liberals out of office.

The Liberals have caused untold damage in my electorate with their shocking acts of betrayal and dishonesty that were uncovered by the Independent Commission Against Corruption last year. From taking envelopes full of cash in the back seat of a former lord mayor's Bentley to producing sham invoices to cover up developer donations, the acts of Liberal members in Newcastle have tarnished our city's reputation and have totally betrayed the trust of our community. Thankfully, most of them are now gone, with Labor winning back the seats of Newcastle and Charlestown at the recent by-elections, forced by the resignations of disgraced Liberal members.

I look forward to the election of Labor members across Newcastle—good, decent local members who will stand up for the interests of their community rather than their own self-interest.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As you well know, Deputy Speaker, we on this side of parliament are always builders. We build things. They break things and we build them.

I only have 90 seconds left; I had better get going. I want to go through three state electorates, and they have a stark choice this Saturday. In the electorate of Clarence we have Chris Gulaptis, a great MP. He has promised, and they have already started to build, a $150 million new bridge in Grafton. Bob Carr promised it 20 years ago, but guess what? It did not happen. But it will happen under the Baird government. There is $7 million for the upgrade of the Grafton hospital and $4 million for a new HealthOne precinct at Coraki to replace the hospital that was shut by the previous government.

I will move onto Lismore—I could go on with Clarence, but I have to keep moving. Thomas George has promised $180 million—I will say it again: $180 million—for the stage 3b upgrade of the Lismore Base Hospital—a new car park there. There is millions of dollars for a new health facility at Bonalbo.

I have to keep moving; I have to go to Ballina. Kris Beavis, the candidate there, who was the CEO of the local Westpac rescue helicopter and is also the chairman of his surf lifesaving club, announced $50 million on a new school and $50 million on a new rail trail, which will bring a whole new tourism industry to our region. So there is one choice for the North Coast: vote for the Nationals.

Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the people of New South Wales go to the polls this Saturday, there will be an opportunity for them to cast a verdict not only on the performance of Mike Baird and his plans to sell off the poles and wires in this state but also on this Prime Minister, because it is Mike Baird in New South Wales who is collaborating with this Prime Minister to cut the funding from our schools. It is Mike Baird in New South Wales who is collaborating with this Prime Minister to cut the funding to our hospitals—over $55 billion worth of funding cuts throughout the country. And not a peep from Mike Baird as he pulls his surfboard out and goes surfing at Manly on a Saturday with this Prime Minister. He is collaborating with the Prime Minister to cut funding to our schools and to cut funding to our hospitals. He is collaborating with this government over here to privatise our poles and wires, against the very wishes of the people of New South Wales.

Anybody who has knocked on a door in New South Wales over the last month will tell you that they want to keep the poles and wires in public hands. They do not agree to the bribery of this Prime Minister and the Premier of New South Wales, and this Saturday will be an opportunity for them to cast a verdict on both of them.

Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Saturday is a vital day in the history of New South Wales. Labor has conducted—

The SPEAKER: It being two o'clock, I declare, in accordance with standing order 43, that the time for members' statements has concluded.