Local MPs Anoulack Chanthivong (Member for Macquarie Fields) and Greg Warren (Campbelltown) have called on the Berejiklian Liberal Government to fund a local Service NSW Centre in the Campbelltown Local Government Area in this year’s State Budget.
The move comes after it was revealed that the State Liberal Government will fund a new Service NSW Centre at Toronto on the Central Coast, in the seat of Independent MP Greg Piper. Doors to the new Service NSW Centre are expected to open by the end of the year. This is despite the fact that possible sites for the new office are still being investigated and there is already a service centre within a 17-minute drive of Toronto.
The decision has angered Mr Chanthivong and Mr Warren, who have campaigned long and hard alongside their communities for the reopening of the Ingleburn and Campbelltown Motor Registries Offices, which were closed controversially three years ago by the Liberal Government. A petition circulated at the time by the Labor MPs gathered almost 6000 responses.
The decision to close the Ingleburn Motor Registry, along with the one at Campbelltown, means that the entire Campbelltown Local Government Area of 155,000-plus people is without this basic service.
A round trip to the nearest Service NSW centre at Gregory Hills can take more than an hour from Campbelltown, or up to 50 minutes from Macquarie Fields. It’s not much quicker to travel to the other nearest Service NSW centre on Orange Grove Road at Liverpool. Both service centres have inadequate public transport connections, and a direct bus service between Campbelltown and Gregory Hills has recently been cancelled.
Quotes from Anoulack Chanthivong MP, Member for Macquarie Fields:
“The decision to close the Ingleburn Motor Registry office was an insult to our community and made absolutely no sense. Here was a Motor Registry office conveniently located opposite a train station in the Ingleburn CBD, with excellent public transport connections, and averaging around 150,000 transactions a year.
“It’s clear to me and my community that the motor registry closure was nothing more than a greedy money grab by a greedy Liberal Government. Now, the Liberal Government is just pork-barrelling to buy itself more votes. We’re fed up with the double standards, fed up with being short-changed and fed up with having our needs ignored. Where’s our fair share?”
Quotes from Greg Warren MP, Member for Campbelltown:
“It simply does not make sense for the NSW Liberal Government to remove this vital service from Campbelltown when our region’s population is set to reach 500,000 people within the next 20 years.
“If it’s good enough for the Government to put a Service NSW centre back for one community in Lake Macquarie, then it’s only fair for them to do the same here in Campbelltown. A growing regional City such as Campbelltown deserves its own Service NSW centre and I won’t give up until we see much-needed services delivered for our area.”
