Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

I rise tonight to highlight our community fight to save Cudgen state significant farmland. Last week it was revealed that a private consortium will seek New South Wales government approval to advance a megadevelopment on 5.7 hectares of state significant farmland next to the new Tweed Valley hospital at Cudgen. For this massive development to go ahead, developers will need to be working very closely with the New South Wales Liberals and Nationals to change the zoning of the state significant farmland adjacent to the new hospital site.

In response to this extraordinary news I, along with Walt Secord, the New South Wales shadow minister for police and the North Coast, and Reece Byrnes, the Tweed Shire Council deputy mayor, have together called upon the Tweed Nationals MP Geoff Provest to take responsibility and have called on him to resign from state parliament if his government moves to rezone state significant farmland at Cudgen for developers.

When the new Tweed Valley hospital was approved on state significant farmland, locals were repeatedly promised by Tweed Nationals MP Geoff Provest that there would be no further development on the adjoining state significant farmland. And make no mistake about it: Geoff Provest must keep his election promise and ensure that his government does not rezone any part of that remaining state significant farmland at Cudgen. In fact, on PRIME7 News North Coast on 3 March 2020, when questioned about rezoning the land, Mr Provest stated that it was his election commitment to keep that land zoned as state significant and the government would follow through with that. Well, this issue has now become an escalating integrity crisis for Geoff Provest. If this land is rezoned, he needs to take responsibility and resign from state parliament, because his election in 2019 would then have been based on a lie. Everyone wants a new Tweed hospital. But we don't want this to open the door for massive overdevelopment on Cudgen farmlands.

I would now like to turn to the developer of this new project. The private consortium behind the proposed $250 million project are joint partners Centuria Capital Group and Digital Infratech. The director of Digital Infratech is Allan Larkin. The proposed site for the project was purchased in February 2019 by IRBS 1 Pty Ltd, which formerly traded as Aspect Property Group. The owner of Aspect is Allan Larkin, the director of Digital Infratech. At the time of the land purchase, it was widely publicly reported that Aspect had donated numerous times to the Liberal National Party in Queensland. Searches reveal that Aspect had donated more than $28,000 to the LNP in Queensland, including the infamous LNP Forward Brisbane Leadership Fund. So we are now calling on Geoff Provest to publicly release all correspondence he has been engaged in about this specific parcel of land, or the proposed development, including emails, texts or letters from these developers, any lobbyists, colourful National Party identities, or from within his own government or departments. We want to see all of that correspondence.

Labor's always been committed to protecting the Cudgen farmland from development, and that has not changed. While we don't know the full details of this $250 million project—and it may have some merits—it should not be built on state significant farmland. For the record, Labor's always supported the building of a new hospital for the Tweed. Our concern was that the location of the new hospital on state significant farmland would open Kingscliff to overdevelopment. With the re-election of the state Liberal-National government in 2019, the matter of the hospital location was settled. But this new proposed development validates all the concerns that Labor and the community had at the time about overdevelopment in the area.

Straight after the 2019 state election, we made it very clear that we would hold the New South Wales Liberal-National government to account for delivering the new hospital on time and keeping their election promise for free parking at the new hospital, which to date they have failed to guarantee. We also said we'd be holding them to account to ensure that the current Tweed hospital stays in public hands, to stop the New South Wales government from selling off the current hospital site to developers, and we made that strong commitment to hold the government to account to not allow any more development on state significant farmland at Cudgen. We've consistently raised these issues and we will continue to do so. Ultimately, if Tweed Nationals MP Geoff Provest and his government rezones Cudgen state significant farmland for developers, Geoff Provest must take responsibility and resign from the New South Wales state parliament.

I'd also like to pay tribute to our frontline healthcare workers. They have been outstanding throughout the pandemic and they've done this without the support and resources from the Morrison government or the New South Wales government. Today I stand with and support our nurses in New South Wales, who are striking for the first time in a decade. They're doing that because they're just fed up. They can't take it anymore. They don't have enough staff and they don't have enough resources and, therefore, they can't provide adequate care to their patients. I especially acknowledge the incredible nurses on the New South Wales North Coast—the heroes of the pandemic.

Our healthcare workers have been on the front line throughout the pandemic, going above and beyond day in, day out, sometimes putting themselves at risk. They have worked so incredibly hard for our community. The fact is that they're overworked and exhausted. Of course, this issue existed long before COVID, and the pandemic has just increased the problem. What they desperately need is support from the government. Our community values our nurses, and it's time for the New South Wales government to listen to them when they're crying out for more support. The New South Wales Premier and his government have shown no respect for health workers, refusing to listen to their concerns about safely staffing our hospitals. They need to listen. Instead, what have they done? They've frozen their pay; they've refused to look at nurse-to-patient ratios. The government needs to listen and act. Our nurses are at breaking point and our local hospitals are at breaking point.

The Guardian reported earlier this year that Tweed Heads hospital had 18 staff resign due to burnout. The article from 5 January reported that many nurses were doing 'double shifts every day', warning that they're going to 'fall over in a screaming heap'. There are reports the hospital had to source its own triage team and that staff have been forced to drive COVID patients around in their own cars. It's just appalling. This government, the Morrison government, and the New South Wales government knew a surge in cases was coming. They knew and they were still woefully unprepared. The article I've just referred to also mentioned that the hospital was struggling to source adequate PPE, which is just remarkable. Byron Bay hospital in my electorate is under the same sort of pressure, with staff shortages, PPE shortages and a lack of transport options for COVID-positive patients. The Guardian reported on 8 January that 'COVID-positive patients are being left in bays behind curtains' and that one patient waited 45 hours to be transported to the region's designated COVID hospital.

The Morrison government's and the New South Wales government's rolling incompetence and mismanagement have caused this dire situation. First we had the Prime Minister failing to order enough vaccines for the nation. Then we had their bungled rollout. It never seemed to end. Those of us in the regions were desperate to have the vaccine, but then, when we finally did get some Pfizer, the New South Wales government stole it from our region and took it back to Sydney. Then, of course, we had the New South Wales government's incompetence in failing to lock down Sydney fast enough, which resulted in the massive spread of delta throughout New South Wales. Then, of course, we had limited access to PCR testing, which was closed over most of Christmas, and locals were unable to source rapid antigen tests. These tests should be free and easily accessible.

Time and time again we have seen the incompetence of both the Morrison government and the New South Wales government, which has led to this dire situation and put huge pressure on all of our frontline healthcare workers. I stand with those nurses today. We saw thousands of them around the state stand up and say, 'This is not good enough.' They have been working so hard. They have been absolute heroes, and I want to pay tribute to them for working so incredibly hard for our community during this amazingly difficult time. Thank you for your great work. I call upon the Morrison government and the New South Wales government to start listening to these people who are at the front line, doing the hard yards to serve our community throughout this pandemic. The New South Wales government in particular needs to listen to the concerns of our nurses and what they're looking for. We need to have these services provided so these nurses can care for patients more. This is an urgent crisis, and I call upon both the federal and the state governments to listen to our healthcare workers.

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