Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2015-16 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2015-16. In doing so, I seek to avail myself of the practice of speaking widely about the impact of appropriation bills as would apply generally but also specifically in my electorate.

Mr Deputy Speaker—I know you are very much familiar with this—my electorate is the most multicultural electorate in the country. It is very vibrant and very colourful, and we revel in the diversity that that brings. As such, I have the honour of attending many cultural and religious events throughout my diverse community. Recently, I attended—along with you, Mr Deputy Speaker—the Vietnamese Tet festival at Fairfield Showground. Over 10,000 people from all walks of life came together over a weekend to celebrate the lunar new year and welcome in the Year of the Monkey. I certainly commend the tireless efforts of the VCA—the Vietnamese Community in Australia—particularly the president, Dr Thang Ha, and the organising committee of Tania Huynh, Davy Nguyen, Andie Lam, Sydney Nguyen, Tu Le and Thomas Dinh. They all contributed to make this a very special event not only for my region but also for those who came from all over Sydney to attend and celebrate the diversity of this great culture.

I also attended the Phuoc Hue Temple in Wetherill Park, taking part in the midnight countdown to the lunar new year. I certainly thank the venerable monks and nuns not only for what they do in looking after the spiritual welfare of the Vietnamese Buddhist community but also for upholding the traditions, culture, religion and charitable works that are performed throughout our communities. What they do is extraordinary work and it adds to those things we are generally proud of, particularly in Western Sydney.

I would also like to acknowledge the Australian Chinese Buddhist Society. I would like to thank their management committee—which consists of a very good friend of many in this place, Mr James Chan OAM, who is the chair, the president, Vincent Kong, and the members of his executive committee—for all that they do at the Mingyue Lay temple, the Chinese Buddhist temple based in Bonnyrigg. They not only do an extraordinary amount of work providing and caring for the spiritual needs of the Chinese in our community but they do a hell of a lot in respect of aged care, palliative care and the general cultural development of the Chinese members of our community. They are all very senior and accomplished business people in their own right that form these committees, they use their business acumen to ensure that the proper running of their organisation takes place and they are very objective driven in the way that they run their organisations to achieve the needs of the local community. Again, with members here, I congratulate what they do.

There is a measure of disquiet throughout our communities concerning Badgerys Creek airport. This actually remains a tricky issue. It is the second airport in the Sydney basin and residents have mixed feelings. On the one hand, residents have been courted with the idea that this will generate a significant number of jobs, and one thing we do need in Western Sydney is sustainable employment—that is something that people are focused on—but on the other hand, people are concerned about the issue of noise pollution and other deleterious aspects associated with the running of an airport. To date, we have not heard in great detail the make up and the affordability of the necessary infrastructure to underpin the airport plan nor has there been a comprehensive analysis of the proposed development plan presented either to this parliament or, more importantly, to our local communities.

According to the Western Sydney Airport draft environmental impact statement, by 2030, the airport will cater for about 800 domestic flights and 130 international flights per week. Every day there will be approximately 170 passenger planes with 28 freight planes landing or taking off in Western Sydney through Badgerys Creek. For anyone else who does not live out there, it sounds all well and good. But whilst there is an acceptance of the need for a second airport, there remains a significant concern amongst the people of Western Sydney about the health aspects and noise levels above 70 decibels. Even two weeks ago, it was actually acknowledged in the Senate estimates by representatives of Sydney Airport Corporation that, as far as they were concerned, into the foreseeable future, Badgerys Creek will serve as an overflow facility for Kingsford Smith airport.

You see, Kingsford Smith airport has a curfew. You cannot fly there between 11 pm and six am. Government is now saying that, to be viable, Badgerys Creek should not have a curfew; that it should be curfew free. In Western Sydney, we have been saying that that will be an invitation to fly aircraft in and out of Sydney at times when Kingsford Smith will not be operating. That was denied many times by those opposite. As a matter of fact, the Deputy Prime Minister and minister for transport, Warren Truss, made it very clear to us why there will be no curfew at Badgerys Creek. As he said in a statement: the current generation of planes are so much quieter now that you do not need a curfew. Well, Minister, if that is right, if you do not need a curfew because planes are so much quieter then why do you not revise the restrictions that apply currently to Sydney Airport? Because that curfew affects the commerciality of Sydney Airport. It would be able to move more flights per hour and it could have extended times because the planes are quieter now and will not interrupt other people. But the government are not going to do that and there is a good reason why they are not going to do that.

The planes that come in and out of Sydney come in or out over Sutherland Shire—close to where you live, Mr Deputy Speaker Kelly—or over North Sydney. So we are going to protect various conservative electorates and not upset people by looking at their curfew but it is okay for the people of Western Sydney because they accept whatever we give them. We have already said they are going to get thousands of jobs. As a matter of fact, when they started planning this airport and talking constructively about this within the community, they said this is going to generate 30,000 jobs. Then it got up to 40,000 jobs. The Sydney Chamber of Commerce got up and talked about 60,000 jobs at Badgerys Creek airport, which is not bad. Sydney Airport now, if you take all the flight operations and everyone who works there—people who refuel aircraft, people who lug the baggage and people who run the duty-free shops—only employs up to 27,000 workers now. So this is going to be one hell of an airport they are going to build in Western Sydney for us and one which is going to operate, according to the government, 24 hours a day.

According to those who are more than likely going to exercise their right for operation of this airport essentially for the foreseeable future, this is going to be an overflow facility which will, in turn, be used to fly planes in and out of Sydney in times which they are prohibited from flying in and out of Mascot. So I think that actually shows that they expect that if you live in Western Sydney to suck it up, just like they expected us to when the Liberal government of New South Wales wanted to move nuclear waste from Hunters Hill to Kemps Creek in the middle of Western Sydney. Again, the people of Western Sydney will cop it. There is no room in this parliament to be referring to people as second-class citizens. We will not cop that.

If Badgerys Creek airport goes ahead, it must go ahead on a proper basis. It must go ahead on the basis of: if there are going to be jobs, what guarantees are going to be put in place so that priority is given to people of Western Sydney? It is all very well to say, as they did before the go-ahead for the airport, that they are going to generate 60,000 jobs. If you are going to generate jobs, we would want to see priority given to people in Western Sydney. If we are going to have an airport that is going to serve the whole of our communities, we want to make sure that we have the benefit of localised employment opportunities, which is a little bit hard to some extent when you think about it.

Whilst we are saying we are going to generate all this skilled employment there on the one hand, on the other hand you have the New South Wales government looking for every opportunity to cut back New South Wales TAFE. I do not know where we are going to actually get all this technical expertise coming in to fill all these jobs. Just like they normally do in Western Sydney, we will probably go and get people on 457 visas. We can bring them in from overseas to take these jobs. That sort of money is not going to go to extending the employment opportunities or the economic opportunities for developing Western Sydney. I think all of us that have the honour of representing people in the west, regardless of our political parties, should hold hands on this issue and ensure that employment opportunities for Western Sydney go to the people of the west.

Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, the recent electoral redistribution that has occurred has seen many changes in your area and mine. The consequence, if I just speak about my own area, is that I get to take in a number of new areas that I now have the honour of representing, principally, the areas of Greenfield Park, Prairiewood, Abbotsbury, Bossley Park, Fairfield East, Chipping Norton and Warwick Farm. In respect of Chipping Norton and Warwick Farm, I know I actually inherit those areas from you, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker. I have made it known that there will be a continuation, in terms of looking at files and things that can be handed over, and that we will genuinely do our best to look after people out there. Notwithstanding the fact that you are on the other side of politics, I appreciate your cooperation in ensuring that there is some continuity in the way we look after people in those areas and I will respect that.

Fowler, as you and many know, is very colourful and very vibrant. It is the most multicultural community in the country. But, regrettably, it also has significant pockets of disadvantage. We also have a high proportion of migrants, obviously, and a very high proportion of refugees, and we will also receive a significant proportion of the current refugee intake which has been planned by government as a result of what is occurring in the Middle East—principally, in Syria. There are significant pockets of disadvantage in my community. There are many that work very constructively to do something about this and make life better.

One of the things in my community that is certainly moving to enhance the life and development of younger people, so they can exploit their potential in our great nation, is what our schools are doing. That is why it pains me that, whilst our schools are working very hard—particularly to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds—and whilst schools are doing their bit to do that, the government's cutbacks in respect of the final two years of the Gonski funding reforms are certainly going to impact on educational attainment in our area.

St Johns Park High School certainly has a high proportion of students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. This school now has a 91 per cent retention rate in year 12, and 146 of its 200 graduates last year received university offers. As the principal, Ms Susan French, says, it is due to the Gonski funding money received by the school over the last three years that the school is able to employ occupational and art therapists, particularly to assist those kids coming from war-torn backgrounds.'

In areas of great need we need to invest in people. Unless we invest in our young people's educational attainment we are jeopardising the future of not only these students but also our nation.

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