Private Members' Statement

Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields) (20:29): — It is almost Christmas, and I like traditions. Traditions often reflect our values and provide an opportunity to focus on what is important to us.

Take my Christmas wish list for example. Since being elected in 2015, I have developed an annual Christmas wish list for my electorate. You might ask why. It is because there is more chance of Santa delivering for my community than this Liberal Government.

I just want the Macquarie Fields community to receive its fair share — our fair share. That is not much to ask.

It has been six years since my first Christmas wish list and one wish that has sat consistently at the top of the list each year is a lift at Macquarie Fields Station.

Not surprisingly, at the top of this year's list—you guessed it — is a lift at Macquarie Fields Station, and all because the New South Wales Liberal Government has consistently failed to fund much-needed transport infrastructure for my local community.

But what is worse is that the Liberal Government has engaged in blatant pork-barrelling and made a mockery of the Transport Access Program.

Take Hawkesbury River Station in a Liberal-held electorate, for example — station upgrade complete and lifts done. Recent statistics show weekly Opal trips at the Hawkesbury River Station to be around 1,000 — barely a fraction of Macquarie Fields, at around 10,000 weekly trips, with its 70‑plus steps that make it difficult for those with mobility challenges.

An accessibility upgrade is now underway at East Hills Station — a Liberal-held electorate. East Hills is ranked 37, below Macquarie Fields' rank of 34.

At Como station another upgrade is in progress in another Liberal-held electorate. While both East Hills and Como deserve their upgrade, despite having fewer weekly trips than Macquarie Fields, my community also deserve their fair share and for their hard‑earned taxes to be treated with respect.

It would appear that the Liberal Government has its own traditions, one of which is pork-barrelling station upgrades.

Last year a report by the New South Wales Auditor-General slammed the Liberal Government for politicising station upgrades.

This Liberal Government has failed to abide by its own guidelines and assessment. To ignore its own transport data and engage in blatant pork-barrelling is simply wrong.

Treating communities and allocating money differently based on where people live rather than the facts is financially and ethically wrong.

It is time this old and weary Liberal Government forged some new traditions—new traditions that put fairness, integrity and accountability first and foremost.

Will the newly minted Premier Perrottet be so bold as to banish pork-barrelling to the scrap heap forever? Or is the new Premier all talk and no action? Or is it just another obfuscation tactic to call for yet another inquiry with no follow-up or action?

Recently the Premier said, "Whatever community you are in, you should have access to the best health care, the best education, the best public transport."

Really? Let us check the facts to see whether that is true. Recently it was revealed that a whopping 92 per cent of schools awarded grants as part of a renewable energy pilot program were in Government-held electorates.

Some traditions are worth keeping; others are not. So entrenched is the Liberal Government's obsession with pork-barrelling that throwing money at Government-held electorates is totally passé.

The former Premier, the Member for Willoughby, boasted that she got $170 million in five minutes for the former Member for Wagga Wagga. On that basis, it should take barely less than a minute to fund our lifts at Macquarie Fields.

The former Deputy Premier even earned the nickname "Pork Barilaro" and said he was proud of what it represents, referring to pork-barrelling as an "investment".

So the Liberal Government has some new faces at the top, but it is still the same at the core: more of the same spin and tricky accounting, putting its own political needs ahead of the best interests of the people of New South Wales. Nothing has changed.

The Premier recently said, "It's important there is public confidence in relation to the expenditure of taxpayer funds". Absolutely. If only his actions matched his words.

Now, instead of false promises, instead of tricky politics, instead of using taxpayers' money like its own personal piggy bank, the Liberal Government has a real opportunity to put those words into action.

It will require transparency, probity and accountability—no doubt an uncomfortable trifecta of principles.

So my message to the new Premier is this: Stop the spin, quit pork‑barrelling and finally put your money where your mouth is and fund the lifts at Macquarie Fields Station, because we are in dire need of this Christmas gift for our local area.