Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The Sydney Morning Herald reported this week that the Prime Minister has a premier state strategy. The Prime Minister intends to target 10 regional and marginal seats in New South Wales to win another term in government. Reading this headline, I had to smile. Not only has the Prime Minister shunted the responsibility of COVID-19 to the states but now he wants to ride on the coat-tails of Premier Berejiklian to win another term in government. Let me say this: the people of Paterson have long memories. They remember well before COVID and they know what is going on in their lives right now.

My community has some of the highest youth unemployment figures in the country. We have vast casualisation of workers and we have seen wage growth suppressed under this government. People, I feel, when they speak to me, know what is going on. They are not sure they are up for another three years like the eight that has preceded them. A classic example of short-sightedness of this government was when, after years of lobbying, they finally agreed to fund the strengthening of the runway at Newcastle Airport. My community has been completely united, from business groups to community groups to all levels of government, including me, beating the drum about how important it is for us to have a strengthened runway at Newcastle. And finally, to its credit, the government has come to the party on this $60 million spend through the Department of Defence. That is a good thing.

However, the craziness of this is that the M1, which is the last chokepoint between Sydney and Brisbane, needs to be upgraded as well. It is the vital piece in how we get people to and from the airport and that is still years away. Even though the government wants to say they have delivered it, all they did in the last budget—not the one we have just had, but the one before—was say that they would fund it to the tune of $1.6 billion. But they put it in the forwards; they put it off into the never-never. When is this road going to be built? Well, I caught up with Transport for NSW last week when we were away from Canberra and I was told that the government has no plans to commence works until 2024. By any measure, this is the height of incompetence. This is basically like building a new housing subdivision but the council comes along and says, 'There will be no roads, so you can have your house but you cannot get to it.' Honestly, this is a crazy situation. We have a liberal state government in New South Wales and a liberal federal government and they cannot collectively work together to fix this vital piece of infrastructure. We know it will create thousands of jobs. We know the money is there; it has been put aside. Why doesn't the state government get on and plan it and then have it built? It beggars belief, and everyone in the Hunter is talking about why this has not been done. A number of people in Sydney are talking about it too. In fact, I was at the Junction Inn at Raymond Terrace with my staff a week or so ago celebrating the announcement of the runway. Some people from Coffs Harbour were chatting to me. They said, 'Meryl, it's a nightmare, that Hexham Bridge. When is that going to get fixed up?' I said, 'Good luck! We're all trying to get that sorted out.' It is really ridiculous. It's not a cash flow problem and it's not because the workforce isn't available. It's just because these two governments cannot get on with it and do it.

My electorate also has one of the most extended waiting lists for aged-care packages. Many residents have packages available, but they can't get the vital support services that they need, because the government hasn't approved enough providers. Take Paula from Kurri, who was 91 this April and contacted by office after waiting two years for her aged-care package to be approved. When you're 91, two years can be an absolutely critical time frame, let me tell you. Paula has seen a few years and said, 'I'm not too happy about having to wait another two.' There's Delia, who turned 76 in March. All she wanted was some assistance with her home cleaning, but she was told all the funding had been exhausted and she'd just need to wait until July—is this really the standard that this government wants to set?—only to then learn that she can't access support for yard maintenance because this government hasn't approved enough local providers. This is at a time when we want people to age well at home, because heaven forbid they should need to go into a facility that can't help them or doesn't have enough nurses or staff to look after them adequately. We're saying, 'Age well at home,' but it's impossible for people to maintain their yards. In fact, that's one of the biggest complaints I hear. People are reasonably happy to try and stay in their home, but it's the maintenance. It's the yard. It's the upkeep. It's the physicality of those things that make it so much harder, and yet we're not providing that support, even though we want them to stay at home.

Let's look at phone reception. The government has some woeful gaps here. Indeed, the residents of Boat Harbour and much of Port Stephens, in my electorate, have been fighting this government to get some decent reception since the early 2000s. I told the story about a resident for whom phone reception was only possible if she got on a little stepladder and hopped onto her kitchen sink. She took phone calls up there on the sink, with her head tilted towards the window. Lucky we're agile in Port Stephens—seriously! Bob Baldwin, the former Liberal member, failed to deliver any of this infrastructure before I came along, and now my community is dragging the same old government kicking and screaming to get even the most basic funding for issues like mobile reception.

Port Stephens is a frequently visited holiday destination. In fact, just this week, we were named the No. 2 best holiday spot in Australia, so we know how good we are and we want people to come. We want people to experience our beautiful beaches. In winter, there are whales. Seeing a whale at sea is one of those rare and wonderful life experiences. But we've got terrible mobile phone reception, also at Boat Harbour, to the point where the locals are worried that, if someone gets into strife on the beach, they won't have the mobile phone service they need to be able to save them. This is a life or death reality. The government just has no credibility on this in the Hunter.

I'm proud of the hard-fought battles that my community and I have waged and won since I was elected in 2016, including the outcome for PFAS victims, who were most terribly done by in my electorate; the strengthening of the runway at the Newcastle Airport; and Testers Hollow. These are all good victories. I've encouraged and assisted countless individuals, schools, councils and community groups to apply for funds through the grants process, but, for every one I assist, there are many, many more in need. This recent caper by the government to outsource all the grants to the local member's office means we are overwhelmed by the need in our communities and the grants are incredibly oversubscribed. For one of the recent grant rounds, there was close to $800,000 worth of applications for $250,000 worth of funds. So the community are screaming out for assistance. The only people who will listen and take action are a Labor government.

Labor founded the NDIS and we will always ensure that the funding for that doesn't go backwards. Under this government, we see an attempt to reduce resources to the agency and to outsource vital decision-making. This minister was quoted as saying she believed public servants had too much natural empathy. I mean, honestly, is this the government's view—really? Maybe the government, rather than paying for empathy consultants, just need to go and work for the NDIA or Centrelink for a week and they might garner some empathy from the professionals who work in those organisations. Under the watch of this government, we have seen millions of dollars wasted on pork-barrelling, sports rorts, land acquisition, deals done for 10 times the value of the land like the Leppington Triangle. This is the government that has cut Medicare rebates, cut Centrelink staff and spent $10,000 per person on the trial of its Indue card scheme, which has proven not to be effective, created a stigma and traumatised some of our most vulnerable Australians. The government tried to hide the cost of this scheme because they felt ashamed that they had wasted 18.9 million taxpayers' dollars to vilify vulnerable Australians. Then they only spent $2.6 million on support services for the same vulnerable Australians, but gave $18.9 million to the company owned by their financial and banking industry mates. How does that even add up? Labor founded the NDIS and we will always make sure funding does not go backwards.

Since the 2019 election I've continued to campaign hard in my local area on the cuts to Medicare bulk-billing and the incentives that have literally driven GPs from my area. I've worked hard to hold this government to account for its commitment to match Labor's pledge to fund the M1 Raymond Terrace bypass and have continued to demand that this government fix our NBN. This Prime Minister can target all he likes, but still the track record of this government is appalling and the Prime Minister's inability to deliver is a shining example of how the Liberals don't understand the needs of regional communities like mine. Energy prices in New South Wales and, indeed, in my electorate of Paterson have continued to rise under this government. As Treasurer, Scott Morrison signed off on power privatisation and undermined investment in renewables, pushing up power bills for families and small business. Mr Morrison has been at the helm as Australians have seen more than 23 failed energy policies that have resulted in market instability and rising costs.

The Liberals have scared off private investment, so is it any wonder they're now trying to deliver a gas plant in my home town of Kurri Kurri? They've come up with a solution to a problem of their own making. They want to ride into town on a silver steed and say, 'We are the heroes of the day,' when, in fact, they've created all of the chaos that has proceeded this resolution. It's a problem of their own making. Only a Labor government will better regulate power prices to protect families and small business from price gouging by big energy companies. Also, it's only a Labor government that is going to upgrade the grid and is going to support manufacturers, like Tomago Aluminium in my electorate. One thing we've learned from COVID is that we need to continue to make things here in Australia. We've seen some incredible disruption to global supply chains. If we do not continue to manufacture in Australia, we know that we will be designated to be an economy that is not as rich and as diversified as it needs to be. We need to keep high-level manufacturing because it underpins all of the other manufacturing that comes around it. We need manufacturing in Australia, and this government isn't committed to it in the way it should be. Labor is committed to projects that stack up economically, environmentally and for the benefit of our people. We're going to work to reduce the cost of household energy bill and generate jobs in the energy and renewables sector. This government sold out Australian workers by supporting agreements that allow companies to bring in workers from overseas without even advertising their jobs.

This mob have seen the $1.2 billion robodebt disaster, our first recession in 20 years, the death of Australian manufacturing, no wage growth, $30 million paid for a $3 million property, water theft and shady deals, prime ministers with big foreign bank accounts, peaceful protesters told they were lucky not to be shot, vaccination rates amongst the lowest in the developed world, lies about vaccine supply and lies about the rollout, botched quarantine and endless amounts of scapegoating. Mr Deputy Speaker, we had a young woman raped in this building, and the Prime Minister couldn't even go down to meet with the women of Australia. The standards have never been lower. So, again, I say to you: it is laughable that this Prime Minister without a shred of credibility is coming after me and my community. Bring it on, I say!

See this speech in context