Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the lead-up to Christmas, as we race to get things done, we also race to get the shopping done. I feel particularly badly this year for Bidwill residents, who will be forced yet again to travel some distance to get their basic needs because of the lack of a viable shopping centre in their area. I previously expressed my disappointment about the development. After it had finally opened, after a long community campaign, it suddenly shut, earlier this year. Residents have been forced, as I said, to travel some way to get basic necessities or have been forced to use the local pub just to get milk and bread.

I previously criticised the developer, who was not too happy about that. I told him that, if he had reopened his shopping centre by the time he had promised, July, I would go to the public square outside Bidwill and I would apologise to the community. Guess what? I will not have to make that apology, because the centre still remains shut.

But it is not necessarily him who should be held to account for this but rather the Baird government, which owns the site through Housing New South Wales, which has failed to come up with a game plan to get this shopping centre reopened. It bumbled its way through it, and Bidwill residents have been forced to pay the cost. Perhaps the person who should stand in front of that community or in that town square is the New South Wales Minister for Social Housing, Brad Hazzard. He should explain to people why Bidwill residents still have to wait for basic shopping necessities.