Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning constituents in my electorate woke up to the alarming news that a train had derailed at Kembla Grange. The sight of a four-car train flipped onto its side is going to be confronting and concerning for the thousands of Illawarra residents who use that same service every week. Thankfully, injuries appear to be minor, with three people, the train driver and two passengers, taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. We send them our best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I want to put on the record my thanks to the officers from the Lake Illawarra police command who were quickly on hand to assess the situation. They've now established a crime scene and have my full confidence in getting to the bottom of what has occurred and how lives were put at risk. A shout-out also to the NSW Ambulance personnel who worked quickly to free the 39-year-old train driver who was trapped in the wreckage for some period of time—a harrowing experience for him. I offer particular thanks to the ambulance inspector, Mr Norm Rees, who was on the scene to direct operations, getting the injured to hospital as well as the medical staff who looked after them.

Given the derailment happened at 4 am this morning, we can only shudder to think what would have happened if this incident had occurred just an hour or two later, when the trains are packed. Indeed, while we can be thankful that loss of life and serious injury have been avoided in this instance, this is a wake-up call. Our community is growing quickly as more and more of our fellow Australians locate to this area to take up the wonderful lifestyle and economic opportunities that it has to offer. Unfortunately, the pace of infrastructure growth has not kept up with population growth. I know this area well. West Dapto, the place where this incident occurred, was cow paddocks just a few years ago. The roads and the infrastructure that service these communities are fit for cow paddocks but not for a growing urban area.

I'm not going to pre-empt what the police investigation will find, but it is clear that the cause of the derailment is a collision with a transit van parked in the area. Thankfully, no-one was inside it. It's not too early to observe that clearly there is a need to provide better infrastructure in this area. We need to improve the roads and the rail crossings. There are three level rail crossings servicing the roads into the West Dapto area. They are not fit for purpose. We cannot just plonk suburbs in the middle of cow paddocks and think that these incidents will not occur. This is a wake-up call. We must listen to it. Better roads, better schools, safer crossings.