Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) | Link to this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, I have to rise again in the House to defend the property rights of the people of Horsley Park, Cecil Park and Mount Vernon—people whose property rights have been ripped up by the New South Wales Liberal government. There have been updates since I last addressed the House on this matter. There has been a tiny step forward. The government has made further changes to this unfair SEPP, and they have announced: 'To ensure fair and reasonable consideration of requests for subdivision prior to commencement of the aerotropolis SEPP, subdivisions applied for prior to the commencement of the aerotropolis SEPP on 1 October 2020 are to be permitted with consent.' So, if you've applied, you'll be allowed to, but all those people who planned to subdivide their land—in many cases, for many decades, as part of their estate planning for their children—still have their rights ripped up by this Liberal and National Party government in New South Wales. This isn't good enough, and I will continue to speak up for these people and I will continue to point out that they are not being listened to by their state government. The state government claims to have 'listened to the community', but the consultation process ran from 8 October to 5 November, so there was less than a month to put in a submission. That is not listening to the community.

I've written to the people of Horsley Park, Cecil Park and Mount Vernon, letting them know of these developments and that there has been a tiny step forward. I do continue to encourage these residents to voice their opposition to these ridiculous changes.

There has been another change. I do want to be fair here. There has been a ministerial reshuffle in New South Wales and there is a new minister for planning, and this isn't his fault; he didn't do this. I have written to the new minister for planning, Minister Roberts, encouraging him to revise the changes made by Minister Stokes and to correct this wrong. I say in this House: I've worked very closely with the Mayor of Fairfield, Frank Carbone, to pursue this case. I am happy to work cooperatively with Minister Roberts and with the state member, Tanya Davies, to get this fixed. All I want is to see this fixed. These are people who have worked hard and who have committed no crime other than to plan to perhaps one day subdivide their five acres for their children. These rights have been ripped away for no good reason.

Badgerys Creek airport is as far from these people as Drummoyne and Concord are from Kingsford Smith airport—two highly developed suburbs with high-rises and apartments everywhere—yet the state government thinks it is appropriate to say: 'You can't take your five-acre farm and turn it into two 2½ acre farms, because you're vaguely somewhere in Western Sydney, somewhere near Badgerys Creek airport.' This stinks, and it's got to be fixed! These are people's property rights that have been ripped up retrospectively with no consultation.

Minister Roberts has a chance to fix this. I will work with him to see it fixed, so that these good people can have their rights restored as citizens of Australia and as people who deserve nothing less.