Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I want to update the House on our fight to have the Central Coast declared as a standalone region, with Gosford as our capital city. That's because while the Central Coast has been classified as a region for years now, for too long we have been lumped in, up to twice as often, with other regions compared with being considered as our own standalone region—this includes, for example, the start of the Greater Sydney lockdown.

I am pleased to advise that recently the Central Coast was redefined by the New South Wales government to be part of regional New South Wales for the purpose of the lockdown. That means that, while these restrictions will remain in place until at least 10 September, if case numbers on the Central Coast remain low and health advice allows it our region could potentially come out of lockdown with the rest of regional New South Wales sooner, rather than with Greater Sydney.

I really do want to thank the 13½ thousand people across the Central Coast who signed our petition to have the Central Coast declared as a standalone region. It's a really important step forward to ensure that we are considered as a standalone region by all levels of government and all departments and agencies for all purposes. The Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister has agreed to our request to have the federal Deregulation Taskforce look into the impact of the many classifications of our region at a federal level, and I've also written to the New South Wales Premier requesting that the state government conduct an inquiry along similar lines. It's way past time. The Central Coast— (Time expired)