Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the most pressing challenges facing our region, the Macarthur region, is the urgent need for better infrastructure in south-west Sydney. Across the—

Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hear, hear!

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fowler for that. There is an urgent need for better infrastructure across our whole region, across the Campbelltown and Camden LGAs, and the surrounding local government areas of Liverpool, Wollondilly and Wingecarribee, which encompasses the Southern Highlands and the area between Camden and the Southern Highlands. We continue to see exponential population growth; however, the investment into infrastructure and other critical services has failed to keep pace. This is a critical area for many of the young families that are moving to Macarthur. For too long, the approach, particularly under the coalition state governments, was simple: approve the housing and watch the growth but fail to deliver the infrastructure that makes those communities livable. For example, we had brand-new suburbs, in areas that were farms, being filled with young families with young children, but no schools. They had to beg for schools in their areas in spite of what was promised. Today our residents are paying the price. Every resident I speak with, regardless of their political leanings or their socioeconomic demographic, is feeling the strain of this. It frustrates me greatly, as our region is part of the ever-important economic powerhouse that is Western Sydney, yet we are being held back from thriving due to the lack of infrastructure investment.

I'd like to congratulate the Prime Minister for his very strong commitment to our area and particularly his announcement last year that our federal Labor government will invest over $1 billion for land acquisition for a future rail corridor linking South-West Sydney to the brand new Western Sydney airport, where flights will start from October. This is a critical step in addressing the longstanding transport gap that our region faces. This funding is specifically for preserving and securing key growth area land between Macarthur and the new, soon-to-be-opened Western Sydney airport. This safeguards this corridor for future rail construction, which I continue to urge the New South Wales government to build. They've built rail infrastructure in other areas, but for some reason they are refusing to provide public transport that is urgently required to the Macarthur region.

It's unacceptable that the state government has failed to match the pace of growth in South-Western Sydney with proper infrastructure, and I feel that residents are becoming even more aware of this. Western Sydney airport is a momentous economic opportunity for South-West Sydney, yet the absence of an integrated rail network to Campbelltown, Leppington and Camden and further on to Picton and Wollondilly and connecting with the Wollongong area risks losing a wonderful opportunity for our area to have the connectivity that people in the inner city, the North Shore and the Eastern Suburbs get and that we deserve but don't get. Commuters don't have an efficient means of travelling around our area and beyond other than their cars. We have poorer air quality because of the funnel-like effect of the Sydney Basin. We have many, many trucks and cars that could be taken off the road if we had proper public transport infrastructure.

This perspective is lacking from those within the planning and infrastructure departments. In fact, I called some years ago for a royal commission into infrastructure in New South Wales. South-West Sydney residents often travel the furthest for employment. They often spend more time on trains and roads, particularly in their cars. They spend more money on tolls and now more money on fuel and have less time with their families or looking after themselves. Kids even have to travel for university. They have to travel for work. They have to travel for everything they do. This leads to really significant cost-of-living pressures and, of course, healthcare problems. As I mentioned, we have poor air quality. We have a very high incidence of asthma and chronic respiratory disease such as COPD. When residents are time poor, they're more likely to eat less healthily, and we have a very high incidence of diabetes. Interestingly, there is a diabetes summit happening in parliament today. David Simmons from South-West Sydney and Glen Maberly from Western Sydney, who lead Western Sydney diabetes programs, are prominent among the speakers today. They are worth listening to because they talk about the social determinants of health, and it's certainly true that there are social determinants in the diabetes, obesity and broader health space. We have rising diabetes rates across South-Western Sydney, we have very low physical activity rates in adults and now in children, and we have more chronic diseases such as heart disease, peripheral vascular disease et cetera.

It makes me so frustrated with the lack of proper infrastructure investment in our region, not just as a doctor but as someone who sees that poor health has a socioeconomic basis. I'm really frustrated with the lack of foresight and understanding from those who can make a real difference, such as planning departments, health departments and politicians, particularly at the New South Wales government level. We hear that the rail hasn't started yet because it costs so much money yet how much money is being wasted on peripheral projects that really don't have much social return in other areas? We don't look at this as an investment in people's health and in our society; rather, as a costly afterthought. This wasn't thought of when they were developing the Sydney metro projects to areas like Parramatta, yet we have nothing in south-west Sydney. Fifty per cent of the greater Sydney population lives in Western Sydney, with hundreds of thousands expected to come over the next decade or so. This means more strain on exhausted infrastructure, more traffic, more pollution and more health and social pressures on residents.

I recently hosted a regional roundtable with the Mayor of Penrith, Todd Carney, with the Parks forum, which is a collection of Western Sydney mayors and general managers, including Wollondilly, Camden, Campbelltown and Liverpool. I'd like to also thank the members for Werriwa and Hughes for attending also and for their valuable contributions and advocacy for greater investment in our region, particularly for infrastructure. We spoke about the need for better transport and better healthcare infrastructure in our booming regions, and all attendees, regardless of their political party, interestingly, agreed; they all agree that infrastructure is the biggest need in our area. We just need to get it done.

I'm again calling on the New South Wales government to invest in and provide the transport and healthcare infrastructure our region needs. The strain on the emergency departments at our hospitals, including Campbelltown and Liverpool, grows day by day. These two healthcare institutions are bursting at the seams and, collectively, they serve a region of over one million people. We are trying to help the New South Wales government and ease the burden on New South Wales hospitals by rolling out Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across south-west Sydney, and that's a great thing. The Campbelltown Urgent Care Clinic opened in December 2023 and has had nearly 28,000 presentations to date. This takes significant pressure off our emergency departments. About 25 per cent of these presentations would have been admitted to hospital through the emergency department, but instead they went to the urgent care clinics and were able to be treated without hospitalisation.

In total, our federal Labor government continues to help take the pressure off the New South Wales government by delivering Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, has record investment to expand bulk-billing incentive for all Australians. Medicare, mental health clinics, the 1800 Medicare line, cheaper medicines for every Australian and recently we announced an additional $25 billion for public hospitals across the country. I am therefore calling again on the New South Wales government to help take the pressure off south-western Sydney residents and then to invest and deliver infrastructure and services we so desperately need.

Our schools, built and designed in the 1960s, are in urgent need of repair. Campbelltown Performing Arts School is a wonderful school that has had some amazing graduates in the performing arts space yet its performance hall is almost 40 years old; it's just not fit for purpose. Campbelltown residents are expected to put up with this in the major performing arts school for 500,000 people. The school is basically falling down, and it's true of many other schools in the area.

One positive note is the state government is investing in preschools attached to some of our local schools, and this is very important, but more needs to be done. We could do much more if only the state government would recognise the need for infrastructure in the Macarthur region. I look forward to continuing to press for this and I won't stop until it's done. Macarthur residents deserve better.

Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further grievances, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting. The Federation Chamber stands suspended until 4 pm.