Lakemba Electorate Infrastructure

Hansard ID: HANSARD-1323879322-102812

Hansard session: Fifty-Sixth Parliament, First Session (56-1)

Lakemba Electorate Infrastructure

Mr JIHAD DIB (Lakemba) (17:35:05):

Yesterday and the day before I had in front of me many budget line items and figures. The overriding question was: How will this budget help the people in my electorate? It is a dynamic and interesting but low socio-economic electorate. How will this budget help them get ahead and to feel more secure and confident about their future? If they are parents, how will they feel about the future of their children? Sadly, after four State budgets, my predictable answer was that there is not much there. It was the same answer last year and the years before that. People are doing it tough; wages have been flat for a long time. Even the Treasurer has been forced to downgrade his forecast for wage growth to an anaemic 2 per cent. Taking inflation into account, it is fair to say that people's wages are stagnant or going backwards.

My electorate has many hardworking public servants and frontline workers and they are concerned about the caps on public service pay and threatened cuts. People on low fixed incomes such as Newstart, on disability or aged pensions or in insecure or low-paid casual work—which is becoming more prevalent—are finding that keeping a roof over their head and a meal on the table is challenging. Many people come to my office clutching energy bills showing inexplicably high and confusing jumps in charges. They hope that there has been an error, but more often than not the bill is correct. It is outrageous. In a few weeks I am hosting a Bring Your Bills Day, together with my colleagues Sophie Cotsis, the member for Canterbury, and Steve Kamper, the member for Rockdale. We are optimists. I am hoping that people will be able to better understand their utility bills and will change energy providers to obtain a better deal. I anticipate that in many cases there will be no plan B. The fact is that privatisation of the poles and wires has resulted in higher electricity prices for families and small businesses. Premier Baird pledged during the 2015 election that prices would not go up but prices have gone up 20 per cent this financial year. That is a huge rise.

Mr Stephen Bromhead:

They have skyrocketed.

Mr JIHAD DIB:

And it is hurting. I am sure people in the Myall Lakes community are hurting as well. When assessing a budget, it is wise to look for what is missing. This year quite a few things that are not in the budget concerned me, such as a meaningful investment in supporting our homeless youth.

TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Mr Greg Aplin):

Order! I remind the member for Lakemba that private member's statements are for matters related to members' electorates. He should not be canvassing issues before the House.

Mr JIHAD DIB:

Some time ago I attended a homeless youth event in my electorate. I was hoping that this budget would allocate some money for them. The NSW Ombudsman said that we must provide quality care to the homeless. More than one-third of homeless people are children. Children as young as 12 are fronting up to charities, the police, schools or hospitals declaring that they have nowhere to live. Many of them are in my electorate. As a parent, that shocks me. It shocks me also that in a budget that has been tagged the "people's budget" homeless children and youth have been forgotten.

It has been clear for a very long time that this Government does not believe in TAFE. Usually, TAFE enrolment figures are released in the budget papers, but not this year. The Government clearly wants to hide those figures because, as we know, TAFE has had devastating cuts. Based on the budget figures and on leaked internal TAFE documents, we know that 175,000 fewer students are enrolled in TAFE and 5,700 teachers and support staff have been sacked. In my electorate, the Chullora campus has been wound down. I know firsthand that those cuts have hurt Bankstown TAFE, which is another key location for students in my electorate. I know also that unscrupulous private providers have ripped off many local students. Some of those students are mature‑aged students who want to make a go of their lives but they have been unable to do so because they have been ripped off. They want their TAFE back.

Time expired.

The budget papers talk about additional police. I acknowledge that more police officers will be employed in New South Wales but I had hoped that this budget would have provided for more than the 100 additional officers over the coming financial year across the whole of New South Wales. I hoped that in my electorate the wonderful Campsie and Bankstown local area commands, which I have spoken of in glowing terms many times in this place, would have been recipients of additional funding for police officers. Yesterday I asked the Government to give us the details of its claimed genuine commitment to schools. Punchbowl and Banksia Road public schools have been identified to receive upgrades but we have been given no details of these upgrades. Parents have asked me what is going on, and I have had to tell them that I do not know. This Government does not like to tell us. That is perhaps why we need a judicial inquiry. There is no new money in the budget to address the crippling school maintenance backlog across the State. This Government is ploughing on but it is not listening to experts or communities. It is more concerned about maintaining power and selling public assets. People across this State do not want billions of dollars spent on stadium rebuilds; they want this money spent on communities. []

Mr MARK COURE (Oatley) (17:40:15):

I am willing to educate the member for Lakemba about the State budget. In this State budget there is funding for the launch of more trains and more train services that will directly benefit the T8 train line, which, when fully implemented, will run up to eight services in peak times in the early mornings and late afternoons. The budget also has funding for upgrades to Canterbury Hospital, in the member for Lakemba's electorate. The budget funds the launch of the Creative Kids Rebate, which will help families with a $100 grant per schoolchild to help to meet the cost of creative extracurricular activities such as language classes, performing arts and music lessons. The New South Wales baby bundle is a package designed to support new parents. The State budget details funding for upgrading schools—

Mr Jihad Dib:

Quick, put it in an email.

TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Mr Greg Aplin):

Order! The member for Lakemba will refrain from interjecting.

Mr MARK COURE:Time expired.

—and commuter car parks that residents will benefit from. []

TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Mr Greg Aplin):

I warn the member for Lakemba that interjecting is disorderly. The member was heard without interruption and will extend the same courtesy to other members.