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

I am a proud son of Blacktown. I grew up there, was schooled there and bought my first home there. From time to time we have had people suggest our city change its name. But I have never been ashamed of the name of our city—a place that gave me such a great start to life. Recently Blacktown's Liberal councillors floated renaming Blacktown the 'City of West Sydney'—a ridiculous idea that would wash out our identity within a region of nearly two million people. The only thing we would get for being called the City of West Sydney is being known as the city with the dumbest name in the nation.

What intrigues me about the Blacktown name change debate is timing. Timing is everything. Why are Liberal councillors pushing for a name change right now? Surely it would not have anything to do with say, an upcoming mayoral election—one that hinges on the balance-of-power vote of an independent councillor who happens to have wanted a name change for years! If that is the case, then this is nothing more than a clumsy, shabby, disgraceful vote-grabbing exercise, deliberately provoking further questions about our city's standing and self-image within the broader Sydney area. It also impugns the motivations of an independent councillor I have a lot of time for. I do not mind genuine debate, but no-one likes stunts motivated by craven politicking. An issue as important as this should not be captive to that. The bottom line is that I and many others are proud to say we are Blacktown through and through. Why isn't the Liberal Party proud to say the same thing?