Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week the New South Wales government once again proved that they only care about our community at election time. After leaving local homelessness shelter Safe Shelter Shoalhaven hanging four months, this service was on the brink of closure. Last year I stood with Labor's candidates for Kiama and South Coast, Katelin McInerney and Liza Butler, as they promised the shelter $250,000 if Labor wins in March. But it took the Liberals until the day of closure before they gave this vital service a short reprieve until June. It's a similar story in Milton, where local families were given four weeks notice that the Milton Early Learning and Care would close because of the New South Wales Liberal government's failures. Local families were left in a desperate and unacceptable situation of the Liberals' making. Once again I joined with Liza Butler and the local community to demand that the Liberals put a stop to this urgently. Late to the party once again, the Liberals gave in with a short-term solution until June.

Neither of these late commitments would have happened without a strong Labor team working with our community to hold them to account. This is what Labor people can do for local people, so I will continue to stand with Katelin, Liza and Dr Michael Holland in Bega because I know that the best thing for the South Coast community is Labor governments, state and federal.