Member for Macquarie Fields, Anoulack Chanthivong MP, has called on the Liberal Government to act urgently to fix a schools crisis in one of the fastest growing suburbs of Sydney.
Edmondson Park in Sydney’s south-west straddles the Liverpool and Campbelltown Local Government Areas.
Around 6000 new homes are earmarked for the suburb, with more than 1000 households – close to 2000 people – already calling the suburb home.
Yet despite the suburb’s enormous growth, there is currently no public primary school or public high school to cater for the growing number of families moving to Edmondson Park each day. Many parents are frustrated to have moved to the growth area from other parts of Sydney only to find that plans for local public schools in Edmondson Park are still several years away.
“Here are young families paying thousands of dollars in stamp duty to the Government only to find that when they move to Edmondson Park there are no local public schools. It’s typical of this Liberal Government to put greedy developers before the educational needs of residents in south west Sydney.
“Hurlstone Agricultural High School is another example, where we are set to lose one of our best schools and one of the only functioning urban farms in south west Sydney – all because of this Liberal Government’s love-affair with developers.
“This is the same Liberal Government that puts stadium rebuilds before schools, and has its priorities all wrong.”
Adding to parents’ frustration is the fact that often the closest local public schools are deemed ‘out of area’ and parents have been told to enroll their children elsewhere – in some cases seven kilometres away.
“Parents are furious that local public schools did not form part of the early planning stages for Edmondson Park –
as the suburb takes shape. It’s reprehensible that many families are left scrambling to find a school when clearly this is a failure of the Liberal Government to plan for growth suburbs such as Edmondson Park.
“I call on the Government to act urgently to fix the schools crisis and put schools before stadiums.”
