Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My father's grandparents lived in a place called Dagworth. Now it's called Testers Hollow. They had a little wooden boat, and when the rains came, they would have to row the boat because there was no road—they were isolated. Let's roll forward over 100 years. The people of Gillieston Heights in my electorate still need a boat to get out of Gillieston Heights, except now there are 3½ thousand people who live in this mushrooming suburb of the Paterson electorate. Thousands of people have moved from Newcastle and Western Sydney to live in beautiful Gillieston Heights. The problem is the New South Wales government keeps letting them down.

In 2016 I ran on a campaign of raising Testers Hollow. We put forward $15 million. The New South Wales state government could find only $2 million to do the job. I say to that government: Stump up some more money and do Testers Hollow properly so that we don't have a once-in-25-years flood proof level for the road but a once-in-50-years or once-in-100-years level. It needs to be fixed. I say to the New South Wales state government: Come on, fix Testers Hollow. In this day and age, we can't be having the New South Wales SES having to run food, nappies and water to people who are completely cut off on Gillieston Island, as it became known. It's not good enough.