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

Following in the vein of the rest of my good colleagues that have been talking about this government taking their communities for granted, I hate to be the person to join that chorus and tell you what a disgrace this government's treatment of Western Sydney is. On Friday I was lucky to host the Labor Medicare task force, who came out to my electorate to talk about all things to do with Western Sydney health care. Let me tell you: Mike Freelander, the member for Macarthur, and Sharon Claydon, the member for Newcastle, did a fantastic job listening to the concerns of my community, and not just the members of the general public. When 10 doctors are turning up to your Medicare task force in Western Sydney to tell you what a disgrace this government's treatment of their profession is and what contempt it's treating our community with, you've got to start to stand up and take notice. That's what I'm here today to do: to tell those opposite to take notice of what my community is saying.

Nepean Hospital is the most under-pressure hospital in the state. I think the ears of the people in this place are probably bleeding from me mentioning it time after time, day after day. The $550 million pledge the Liberal government in New South Wales has given us is an absolute pittance compared to what the rest of New South Wales has been afforded. I stand here and say it's a pittance when you see the members opposite from areas like the north of Sydney and the east of Sydney, who are seeing over a billion dollars funnelled into their healthcare system. I will also mention that we have the fastest rate of growth in population in any part of New South Wales, so the $550 million isn't enough. The task force says, 'Give us a billion dollars now.'