Granville Electorate

Hansard ID: HANSARD-1323879322-103678

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

Granville Electorate

Ms JULIA FINN (Granville) (18:14:48):A few months ago the Premier claimed she and the Liberal Party "own" Granville. That kind of arrogance is one of the main reasons the Liberals lost the seat of Wagga Wagga after 61 years, with a massive 29 per cent swing. So what has this level of Liberal arrogance and hubris done for Granville in the last long eight years? Westmead Public School has 1,620 students, it is the largest in the State and it is growing by hundreds of students every year. The Government has announced a new school, but no funding and no site. The Government has reintroduced the loathsome M4 toll—on a road the residents of Western Sydney have already paid for, which was then privatised to lock the tolls in until 2060. That moved 42,000 cars a day off the M4 onto Parramatta Road and our local roads to avoid the M4 toll. It created a dangerous mess at the Church Street off-ramp, which was known as "crash alley". To fix that mess, instead of getting rid of the toll, barriers were put in to make it harder to get off the M4.

When she was transport Minister, the Premier cancelled 100 train services a week at Granville in 2013, including the 28-minute city express services. In 2017 this Government took Granville off the Western Line altogether during daytime services, blowing out peak-hour travel times to 43 minutes—a 50 per cent increase in travel times for train commuters from Granville station. In my first few weeks in Parliament I called on the Minister for Transport to review the train timetable and to reinstate the rail services at Wentworthville, Westmead, Granville and Guildford stations as a priority. Instead, the Government made it worse. Thanks, Minister Constance.

As well as cutting train services and choking our local streets and Parramatta Road with cars avoiding the M4 toll, the Government has forced 5,000 units on us as part of the Parramatta Road Revitalisation Strategy. Every time I am at Granville station, people come up to me and ask, "Whose fault is that?", pointing at the new units built just next to the train line. I let them know that the design, materials and colour palette are largely the developer's fault and that the council approved it, but the State Government decided the height and bulk it wanted and drove the redevelopment of the area. Council wanted taller, leaner, more elegant buildings, but the State Government decided that 26-storey bulky-looking towers constitutes a good design outcome.

The Government has shut Parramatta pool, which people from Westmead and dozens of local schools used, and the Government-appointed Cumberland Council administrator tried to shut Wentworthville and Guildford pools too until the community fought back. Granville South Public School had a roof that leaked so badly the water came through the electrical wiring and the classrooms had to be evacuated. I succeeded in getting them a new roof, but until then the Government just ignored the problem and replaced the rotten carpet instead.

Like so many places in New South Wales, the Granville electorate has a 10-year wait for social housing, and this Government is selling off more homes than it is building. Our local hospital at Westmead, the State's biggest, is chronically understaffed, with maternity leave positions not backfilled and surgery shutdowns being extended—instead of from Christmas to New Year it is from Christmas to Australia Day, and instead of the Easter weekend, it is often from Easter to Anzac Day. In fact, the number of New South Wales patients waiting for elective surgery has reached an all-time high of almost 78,000. That is an increase from 66,000 in 2011.

The Government closed our motor registry at Merrylands and now sends everyone to Auburn. The Government also sold the historic Granville TAFE buildings on South Street and has destroyed TAFE across the State. Since 2011 the New South Wales Government has cut funding for education and training, sacked TAFE teachers and support staff, cut TAFE courses, slashed class contact times and drastically increased student fees. Over the past year alone 72,105 fewer people were enrolled in TAFE in New South Wales, even though the Government could see how dodgy private vocational education providers can be with examples such as Granville's Unique International College, where fewer than 1 per cent of students graduated and which has been in the news again this week. That college is just down the road from the great and beautiful TAFE buildings this Government emptied and sold off.

Power prices have gone through the roof since this Government pushed through privatisation and retail price deregulation, going up 20 per cent last year alone. The Liberals promised prices would go down, knowing full well that they would not. In suburbs like Granville, Guildford and Merrylands these huge increases have a massive impact on the cost of living. All that is on top of the stadium splurge. The Government is about to demolish Allianz Stadium just so the people of New South Wales cannot send the Government a message about its priorities next March.

According to a number of 2ME listeners from Granville, last week, in the aftermath of the Wagga Wagga by-election, the former member for Granville Tony Issa told 2ME—and it was in Arabic, so I am paraphrasing 2ME's translation—that the people of Wagga got it wrong and that they should not have thrown out the Liberal Party, which had served them so well for 61 years, just because of a corruption scandal. Wow. The voters never get it wrong. No wonder the people of Wagga Wagga booted out the Liberal Party. March 2019 cannot come soon enough, when the people of New South Wales will put schools and hospitals before stadiums and boot out the Berejiklian-Barilaro Government.

Mr MARK COURE (Oatley) (18:19:57):

Let me say this: During the 16 years of Labor, Western Sydney—a bit like the St George region—was totally and utterly forgotten. The Government is rebuilding Westmead Hospital with just under $1 billion. Western Sydney's unemployment rate has fallen to the lowest level—

Mr Stephen Kamper:

You wouldn't have a clue.

TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Mr Greg Aplin):

The member for Rockdale will come to order. If he wants to make a private member's statement I advise him to be quiet.

Mr MARK COURE:

The member for Rockdale has never been to Western Sydney! Western Sydney's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in 19 years. On this side of the House, as part of the Federal Government's plan, we are building an aerotropolis right through Western Sydney. The Government is building a new university, which will focus on science, technology, engineering and maths. Western Sydney is an economic powerhouse. Speaking about powerhouses, the Government is building a cultural powerhouse in Western Sydney. There is a lot of money going into Western Sydney.