Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The New South Wales government plans to cut equine courses from Richmond TAFE are ringing alarm bells in the Hawkesbury. The government plans to cut three racing industry courses. Certificate III in Performance Horse Studies and Certificate IV in Farriery will move into animal studies. This will completely shut down the equine studies at the Richmond campus in my electorate, with its purpose-built arena, and slash 12 jobs.

The Hawkesbury has a vibrant local equine industry, which contributes to the rural feel of the region. There's racing, and the Olympic sports of show jumping, dressage and cross-country. There's everything from world-class polo to the grassroots pony clubs. There are studs where private owners are breeding the next champions, weekend pleasure riders with a horse or two on agistment, and, of course, the veterinary industry that supports them all.

The Hawkesbury's local strategy planning statement estimates equine services to be worth nearly $160 million annually to our region. It is completely unfathomable, then, why New South Wales wants to axe these courses in the heart of the Hawkesbury. Global racing giant Godolphin, which has state-of-the-art facilities at Agnes Bank, is among the local operators who've employed students enrolled in the TAFE course. Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Darren Beadman tells me it's something the industry desperately needs. Respected educator Lindy Maurice echoes Darren's views that working with horses is dangerous and employers want to provide the safest environment possible for workers. Darren and Lindy say that the TAFE training helps their workers stay safe.

COVID has meant that people from places like the UK and Ireland, who've traditionally worked in the industry here, are simply not arriving in the same numbers. TAFE boosts the pool of trained local workers, but the New South Wales government is encouraging that pool to dry up. The New South Wales Teachers Federation describes the plan as short-sighted and reckless and said that the government's using COVID to cite low student enrolments as justification to close these courses down. Everything suggests that this is about offloading this training to private providers.

We know the Liberals don't mind seeing the death of TAFE by a thousand cuts, but undermining Hawkesbury TAFE undermines the local equine industry. And what does that mean for the future of the Hawkesbury? If our horse industry goes elsewhere it means more land for development, and the only people who win from that are the developers.

I don't know a single mountains person who would say that there's no need to rebuild the nearly 100-year-old Katoomba Hospital. At a recent community meeting, a doctor who works there said, 'Doctors and nurses achieved extraordinary outcomes despite the outdated facilities.' But he described one of the consequences being that the hospital, at times, delivers Third World results in a First World country. We don't have an intensive care unit or 24/7 emergency surgery. We don't have an MRI. We don't have adequate orthopaedic or rehabilitation facilities. We need better palliative care facilities. Cheryl spoke with me just this week from her own loved one's experience about how desperate that need is.

We need more mental health facilities. Shiny new plans were rolled out on the eve of the last state election, and our community and hardworking healthcare workers were told that improving services was a top priority of the Liberal state government. But, since then, silence. Apparently, those promises should never have been made because there was no commitment by the government to upgrade it. Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle, who's identified the inadequacies over many years, highlighted from the recent New South Wales inquiry that there is no agreement on where a new hospital will go, no funding for the planning, and no current plans to upgrade the existing facilities despite leaking roofs and outdated facilities.

So here we are, back at square one. We desperately need action from the New South Wales government to start the planning so that construction can get underway. Let me be clear: after a decade of inaction by the Liberals, we need action now. We need a fit-for-purpose public hospital in the upper mountains. The community is united in this call. At a local, state and federal level, all Labor elected representatives have been joined by councillors and candidates of all colours. This is a good thing. The hospital auxiliary has been part of this battle. The local Leura garden group has been part of the battle. Doctors and nurses have been part of this battle over many, many years. Now it needs a New South Wales government to hear the calls and stump up the funds for the planning. It's what our community deserves.