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

Thank you; I apologise. For our community, the Prime Minister has committed over $5 billion in taxpayer funds to build a second airport after the Sydney Airport Corporation has labelled the project not feasible. If Sydney Airport says it is not feasible, how will this government, with its proven incompetence with big projects like the NBN or even the comparatively simple task of a census, not to mention the robodebt scandal, manage a $5 billion project? I have to say this airport and funding commitment will do nothing to reduce our hospital waiting periods, which are the longest in New South Wales, and nothing to contribute to the education of the young people in my community who most need it. It will not provide skilled jobs for the community it will impact most negatively on.

An airport will do nothing to reduce the congestion on our roads in Lindsay and will do nothing to ease the pain of the public transport disaster. It will do nothing to make houses more affordable for my local families. Yet again the things we actually need in Western Sydney are being neglected and ignored. Instead of delivering on services and supporting the working families, we have a government tone-deaf to the things that actually matter.

On top of this, the budget confirms the $22 billion being ripped out of Australian schools—this from a government that promised to match Labor's school funding plan dollar for dollar at the last election. It is an absolute disgrace for this Prime Minister and his unfair government to try and pass off their new plan as better for Australian kids. It is a $22 billion cut, and that is according to their own briefing documents. Far from matching our plan, now they are cutting funding and reducing standards. That is their plan. It is shameful and harmful to our kids, and we will fight it every single step of the way.

See this speech in context