Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to condemn the New South Wales state government and their woeful budget. I see they are busy high-fiving themselves all over the front pages, talking up their massive surplus and posturing themselves as some sorts of economic geniuses.

It is easy to arrive at a massive surplus when you flog off just about every single public asset that you own. Let's not forget, and it feels like only yesterday, that Mike Baird had finished privatising every public asset in sight when he finally decided to privatise himself. How lucky we are in New South Wales that Gladys Berejiklian is there to continue his legacy of pawnbroking everything in the public purse.

We have seen so much crowing about the size of the surplus, but let me say this: what good are these rivers of gold if they are not flowing through all of New South Wales, least of all Western Sydney and its mighty Nepean River. Their investment in Western Sydney has been pitiful. For all their bluster, celebration and massive billboards about the Nepean Hospital, this budget only secures $34 million of an estimated $550 million required to complete the upgrade. This budget was a test of the Liberals' commitment to fixing Nepean Hospital.

I do not know about the members opposite, but for this side of the House seven per cent on any test is an absolute fail. It could not be clearer, and it gets worse. Rather than using these funds to ease pressures on families struggling with the rising cost of living, they are ratcheting it up. We have a government that is looking to slug my constituents even harder with their tax on Western Sydney with their WestConnex toll. I condemn the New South Wales government.