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

I rise to make a contribution to the annual infrastructure statement and, in doing so, I want to focus particularly on the severe lack of investment by this government in Western Sydney and the impact it is having on our growing community and our growing economy. This has all come about following the Prime Minister's self-congratulatory diatribe last Thursday that would give a couple of Xanax a run for their money in sending people to sleep. It showed us that this Prime Minister and his Liberal government are completely out of touch with ordinary Australia and do not understand the infrastructure needs of Western Sydney.

In almost all things, Western Sydney is being left behind when it comes to government investment and, yet, governments from all levels are too keen to take from the pockets of Western Sydney families and small businesses week after week without a plan or ability to deliver. I have said it before and I will say it again: Western Sydney deserves nothing less than the attention and the investment given to other major growth areas around the country by the federal government.

First and foremost, we need a jobs plan that secures and encourages stable and meaningful employment and we need a jobs plan that trains and supports young people trying to get a start in life. The lack of this could not be more highlighted in the government's PaTH—which should be called 'PaTHetic'—program for young people and its inability to answer the country's housing affordability crisis.

Too much opportunity has been ripped out of Western Sydney by Liberal governments failing to support young people and failing to invest in retraining workers for the 21st century. Too much opportunity has been squandered by this infrastructure-lazy government that talks big but delivers little. In fact, as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out last week, this government repeatedly falls billions of dollars short on its own infrastructure-spending rhetoric. That is billions of dollars worth of promises delayed and neglected and billions of dollars of local benefits not flowing into communities like mine in Lindsay.

So while this government says it is building, the cold hard numbers printed on the pages of their budget prove otherwise. Meanwhile, they continue to rip money out of worthwhile projects that funnel cash into questionable projects without proper analysis being carried out or completed and without proper consultation with affected communities being undertaken.

One major issue of concern in my electorate is the process this government has undertaken around Western Sydney airport, which can only be described as a complete shambles. Last week the Leader of the Opposition labelled the process a mess, and I agree. We still do not know what the flight paths will look like; we still do not know how many flights there will be; we still do not know what transport options will be built; we still do not know what jobs will be created and we still do not know the true impact this airport will have on nearby residential areas, as well as our valuable and local natural habitat and national parks.

I will park here and hover over the jobs plan and the 'tick and flick' this government has undertaken in relation to Western Sydney airport, aka Badgerys Creek. Whilst I acknowledge that during the construction phase there will be jobs generated on this massive infrastructure project, the government has not landed on any semblance of a jobs plan for Western Sydney. The jobs numbers they are quoting for this airport are significantly higher than Mascot employs and when the government is pressed on the kinds of jobs we might get as a result of this airport, we are told retail and car hire. However, this government promised a jobs plan back in May and we have nothing concrete or meaningful, only a few numbers plucked out of the sky.

Yet, with all these unknowns, this government has jumped feet first, ticking and flicking this project, and then has the hide to present it as some sort of revolutionary solution to the issues we see facing Western Sydney when, in fact, it is a perfect example of everything wrong with this government's approach to Western Sydney. No consultation, no long-term solutions, no upfront discussion about pros and cons or noise mitigation plans: just a proclamation made by a Prime Minister from Point Piper and an urban infrastructure minister from the Upper North Shore. I do not believe for a second they have considered what it is we need to build and support our growing community. If they had, they might have reconsidered their second-rate NBN rollout in Western Sydney that is constraining growth and reducing our productivity capacity, affecting thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs in my electorate of Lindsay.

We hear time and time again from those opposite how they consider themselves to be the better financial managers in this country, and yet they have doubled the cost of the NBN while delivering a network that will be half the speed; yet they want us to trust them with a billion-dollar airport build. I use the word 'delivering' very loosely, considering they are hopelessly behind with the rollout of their second-rate NBN, even though they have been in government for more than three years. They promised everyone in Australia would have access to very fast broadband by the end of the year and, with only 32 days left, they have nearly eight million premises to go; not to mention that this government had to look to Ireland to bring in tradespeople who can lay copper infrastructure.

Something that has been pointed out time and time again by me in this place is the health infrastructure that the people of Lindsay sorely need that neither the Liberal government nor state Liberal government have managed to invest in or build in almost four years at the federal level and six years at the state level. Nepean Hospital sorely needs urgent infrastructure investment. That simply has not been a priority for the Liberals. The level of incompetence on display is truly astounding. But as a government their indifference to creating and supporting local jobs is even worse. If they cared about Western Sydney families and if they cared about being a government that creates opportunities through infrastructure, rather than entrenching disadvantage, they would support local workers by guaranteeing Australian apprenticeships will get a go on major infrastructure projects. They would make sure local workers are prioritised— (Time expired)

See this speech in context