Dr MARJORIE O'NEILL (Coogee) (09:45:04): It is a pleasure to speak to the budget today on behalf of my community. I note that we are debating a budget that was delivered more than a year ago. Although we are in unprecedented times, the fact that there has been no substantial debate on this budget in this House goes to the heart of how this Government operates and what is deeply wrong. We should be debating the 2020‑21 budget; however, we are not. Unemployment is set to reach double digits, the highest rate of unemployment since the Great Depression, and is disproportionately impacting women and young people. This is a problem across all of New South Wales but it is particularly acute in the Coogee electorate.
My electorate is 53 per cent women, which is 2 per cent higher than the State average, and almost 35 per cent are under the age of 35 and are just at the beginning of their careers. The Coogee electorate is also home to thousands of students, many of whom attend the University of New South Wales. They have not only lost their casual jobs but are uncertain if their tutors and lecturers will still be employed when classes resume as normal. That is why addressing what was and what was not included in the last budget is even more imperative. As we look forward—and I cross my fingers that the next budget is better and brighter—we must secure the jobs we still have and create new jobs for the future—and not just jobs for "da boys". Had the Government delivered in its budget the promises it made in my electorate, it would have created a variety of jobs—jobs that are needed now more than ever.
Since my election I have raised in this place the issue of capacity and infrastructure problems in high schools across the Eastern Suburbs. This is a problem that the Government has admitted exists and that the former member for Coogee committed to resolving by promising major upgrades to both Randwick Boys and Randwick Girls high schools in 2018. Although I have previously made this point, I pay particular attention to the word "major". As described in the budget, major works are those that cost in excess of $250,000. In the 2019‑20 budget the upgrades to Randwick Boys and Randwick Girls high schools were grouped together and classified as "minor" works. I am sure it is no surprise to members in this Chamber that this decision was met with disappointment and concern by the staff, students, community members, parents and local residents. The decision to downgrade the upgrades is cause for significant concern among the community.
Even more concerning than the downgrades is the Government's attempt to use a first‑year accounting trick to sneak further underfunding under the radar. Randwick Boys and Randwick Girls are two separate high schools; they serve completely different needs and even have different catchments, yet they have been included as the same line item in the 2019‑20 budget. This means that not only have the promised upgrades been downgraded from major to minor but also the funds for those upgrades now have to be divided between two schools. As such, the absolute maximum each school would have access to is $125,000 for upgrades in the next financial year—hardly enough to buy paint for either school, let alone pay for the people to paint it. To put this in terms that the Treasurer might understand, with this money each school could now afford to hire a top iCare executive for less than 10 weeks.
Do the Premier and education Minister have such little concern for the people of Coogee that they believe that less than $250,000 divided between two schools is enough to solve significant infrastructure problems or was the $250,000 just earmarked in order to engage consultants to inform the Government as to what the planned works should be? Regardless, classifying the works in the budget as minor is a slap in the face to the Eastern Suburbs community, students and staff who desperately need those upgrades, which were promised now more than two years ago. But what is the back-flip about? Underhanded accounting shows us that the Government does not care about schools in New South Wales, especially in the suburb of Coogee. In order to try to get to the bottom of this budgetary mistake, I have asked quite a few questions on notice to try to resolve the issue and get things going so that the Government fulfills its promise.
One such question was what planning was being completed in regard to those upgrades that were promised more than two years ago. I was simply informed that planning is currently underway, with no time line at all provided. I also asked the Minister whether there was any possibility that this project, promised years and years ago, was able to be fast-tracked as part of the COVID-19 economic recovery. The Minister advised me that the project did not meet the criteria as the development application had not been approved. Perhaps if the Government had actually thought about delivering to the eastern suburbs beyond vague platitudes and the planning process had been underway—again, we are now into its third year, so two years, with no end in sight—then this project might have been already fast-tracked to deliver on the much-needed upgrades for this community.
Fast-tracking those works and fulfilling the Government's promises for major upgrades would also create much-needed jobs: jobs in the education sector as well as in construction. Again, at a time when we are going to see double-digit unemployment rates, it is more important than ever that the Government fulfil the promises that it made. Once again I am here—and I have been here so many times since I was elected—to represent the Randwick boys and Randwick girls school communities, who are frustrated with the ongoing delays to their upgrades and believe that this Government is not listening to concerns. Once again I am using my voice to represent my community and, as so many times before, I fear it is falling on deaf ears.
Another surprise when I first read the 2019-20 budget was to find that the line item for the total cost of the light rail was missing. That seemed a significant oversight. Was the Government actually acknowledging its lack of fiscal responsibility and inability to plan major infrastructure? Was the Government admitting it had no idea what the project actually was going to cost the people of New South Wales? Thanks to the Auditor-General's report released in June this year, we now know that the CBD and South East Light Rail so far has cost the people of New South Wales $3.147 billion. That is more than $1.5 billion over budget or, if the Government would like it presented more simply, roughly double.
In the report released in June this year, the NSW Auditor-General found that the CBD and South East Light Rail cost had actually risen since the Government revealed the final cost in December. The Auditor-General revealed that in those six months the final cost had risen by $150 million. The figure of $150 million might seem like an astonishingly large amount of money, but in light of the mind-boggling level of budgetary incompetence shown by this Government it seems like it could be a bit of a rounding error. In 2012 a Transport for NSW report calledSydney's light rail future: expanding public transport, revitalising our city the Government revealed it would build a new light rail line from Circular Quay along George Street to Central Station, across Moore Park, Anzac Parade, with branches to Kingsford and Randwick. The original price: $1.6 billion. By 2014 the figure had become $2.1 billion. The Auditor-General found that it was a result of mispricing and omissions in the business case.
What else did mispricing and omissions lead to? A lawsuit led by Acciona, the Government's chosen construction company. Acciona sued the Government for misleading and deceptive conduct in April 2018. The lawsuit was related to the cost of digging up and replacing Ausgrid powerlines, according to the Auditor-General's report. Connecting the dots here, the Government was not honest with the costs upfront—not to the people of New South Wales and not to the chosen construction company—and that cost the taxpayers of New South Wales millions and millions of dollars. To borrow words from the member for Maroubra, governments have one overarching mission: to make communities better, to improve people's lives and to increase services for the people who pay their wages. The CBD and South East Light Rail has done the absolute opposite for the people of New South Wales and it has destroyed communities in the Eastern Suburbs and in my electorate.
Its construction was a blight on the city and sent hundreds of businesses broke. The project has also seen 800 fig trees removed, which were planted to acknowledge our diggers who went to war for us. Noise levels during construction often reached 90 decibels at night, which is in breach of regulations. Now it is complete the light rail still makes more noise than it is worth. My office continues to hear from residents of Wansey Road and High Street, both in Randwick, who report that windows and doors shake when the light rail passes and the tram screeches when coming into the stops throughout the day and night, keeping shift workers from the hospital awake during the day and everyone else awake at night.
The journey times from Randwick to the CBD are still five to 10 minutes longer than promised. For the convenience of taking five to 10 minutes longer and double the time of an express bus to the city, how are the people of the eastern suburbs now being rewarded? They will have 16 bus routes taken away from them plus another 11 rerouted to force people to use the light rail, which nobody wants to use. What is remarkable is that one of the Liberal Party promises during the 2019 State election campaign was "Fixing our transport system—investing $19 billion in new infrastructure to fix our transport so you can spend less time travelling". The light rail is making journey times to the CBD significantly longer. By getting rid of 16 bus routes, the journey times will be even longer. The Government is not fulfilling the promise that it made.
In 2017 The Australian newspaper reported that the transport Minister tried to drop the project, which shows how terrible it was. The article explained that the Minister described it as a "dog of a project". The article also reveals that the project was continued because the contract had been signed in such a rush that every alteration would cost the Government five times as much as it should. The Minister went on to say that since being elected the Government had received thousands of complaints about the light rail during construction, during testing and now during operation. My prediction is this: The true cost of the light rail will continue to go up as the Government tries to resolve problems that were never resolved during construction.
The project should never have been built. If the Government had consulted with the community properly, the alterations to the route, the track, the location of stops and the connecting of transport modes would not have been necessary. The end-up facility trips, the number of vehicles, the speed of vehicles and the frequency of services are just some of the issues that continue to be raised. The project was already $1.3 billion over budget so the Government knew that it could not afford to make the changes so it avoided any consultation on issues raised during the project. Ignorance might be bliss for the Government but it means misery for the people of New South Wales, and even more misery for the people whom the Government claims to represent and for the people in my electorate.
It seems that the New South Wales Liberals, much like their Federal counterparts, are unable to count. During the 2019 State election campaign the Liberal-Nationals Government promised many things that it has failed to deliver, but one promise in particular was to increase funding from $147 million to a total of $330 million for separated cycleways over the next five years under the Active Transport (Walking and Cycling) Program, including funding for eastern suburbs cycleways. Despite that promise, the 2019-20 budget allocated only an additional $16.8 million for the program—an amount that is far short of the average of $36.6 million needed each year to meet the amount promised by the Government. That must be why Randwick City Council has had not one but two grant applications for cycleways rejected by the State Government in the past year.
One would think that during a pandemic when people are looking for work and hundreds of thousands of people who would normally be driving to work are now staying at home—with the exception of the newly remade Minister Harwin, who decided to mosey up the coast—it would have been the perfect time to begin infrastructure programs that involve disruptions to traffic on our roads. Alas, apparently the Government does not have the same thought because it has repeatedly rejected every proposal that Randwick City Council has put forward for funding new bike lanes. Every promise that the Government has made, whether for the electorate of Coogee or New South Wales, is all smoke and mirrors; it says one thing and does another.
Another glaring omission from the budget was the return of the 378 bus route. Buses are vital in the eastern suburbs. I have made that point many times in this place and I will continue to make it until Government members get their hands off our buses. Through groups such as Save our Buses, the eastern suburbs community has for years strongly advocated the importance of local bus networks. Grassroots groups such as that have seen the damage done by the Government to public services; they do not want the same damage done to their community. Local people know that the erosion of public services and public amenity can damage the fabric of their community. They know firsthand that the entire community—the elderly, parents with prams, schoolchildren and workers—will suffer due to the removal of bus services.
Local routes used by everyday people are often the first to go. People take buses, such as those on route 378, to go to doctors, supermarkets, libraries and hospitals. Bus route 378 provided the people of Bronte and Waverley a direct connection between their suburb and the CBD. The removal of the bus route has also meant that locals who are now struggling to get to healthcare services at St Vincent's Hospital can no longer access services and facilities in Paddington, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst and the CBD. We know that it is a big issue because the 378 bus was originally removed as part of the region 6 privatisation and because region 9 is slated for privatisation. Twenty thousand people signed a petition to stop further bus privatisation, which was heard in this Chamber. We know that the 378 bus is a big issue because it was an election issue.
The former member for Coogee even promised to bring it back. On his website the unsuccessful member stated that he would reinstate it; I have a copy of that document. He committed to it in public speeches, media opportunities and in direct mail to voters that was printed on Liberal Party letterhead. Yet, when the 2019-20 budget was released just a couple of months later, no funding had been allocated to the State Transit Authority for returning the bus route. There was no mention of the sale of region 9 buses. In this budget, the Premier and the Liberal Government are quantifiably breaking key election promises to the people of the Coogee electorate and New South Wales. They said that there would be no further privatisation and that the Government would increase existing bus services in the eastern suburbs and return the 378 bus route.
On 30 May 2019 I asked a question on notice to the transport Minister: When will the Government re‑establish the 378 bus route following the commitment made in the 2019 State election? On 4 July 2019 I received an answer in which the Minister committed to returning the 378 bus from Bronte to the CBD. The Minister also mentioned that Transport for NSW would finalise services to be delivered in the next 12 months. It is now July 2020 and I inform the House that the bus has still not been brought back—another lie.
The Government had no intention to deliver any new services within 12 months of the election. We know that because less than seven months after the election, the Government announced the privatisation of three bus networks, including region 9, in the eastern suburbs. We now know the depths to which the Government will stoop. It lied about the return of the 378 bus route and its plans to privatise region 9 buses and it also lied to the people of the Coogee electorate about its plans to cut more buses from the network.
The eastern suburbs once had the best bus services in New South Wales but they have been decimated slowly by the ideologues sitting opposite. They are obsessed with privatisation, addicted to secrecy and perpetually lie to the people of New South Wales. The removal of 28 bus routes from the eastern suburbs will impact every person in my electorate—commuters and bus drivers. There will be fewer services, fewer jobs, fewer routes and fewer bus drivers. I reaffirm what I said when I became the candidate for Coogee: I will always commit to fight to ensure that my community and all communities have access to public services that they need, which includes bus route 378.
I started my speech by pointing out the obvious: We are in unprecedented times and the Government's fundamental role in creating jobs is now more important than ever—not just jobs for "da boys", but also jobs for women, jobs for men, jobs for the young and jobs for the older. It is my hope that the Treasurer and the Government can grow a conscience and fulfill the promises that they have made to the Coogee electorate. I hope that they will fulfill the promises of major upgrades for Randwick Boys' and Randwick Girls' high schools—two separate high schools. Fast-tracking the development would go some way towards not only creating jobs but also investing in our future.
Committing to retaining 27 or 28 bus services and re-establishing the 378 route would also create jobs. Job creation must be our mantra. I hope that the 2021 budget delivers more than the 2019-20 farce did.
