26th March, 2025.
As everybody knows, the Wollondilly electorate covers the two council areas of Wollondilly and Wingecarribee. Tonight I particularly want to talk about the Wollondilly shire. The current population of Wollondilly shire is about 60,000, and that number continues to grow every year. We are set to almost double the population to over 98,000 by 2041. As more families move into the area, they are looking for a place to live and work but, most importantly, a place to educate their children. Yet when we look at the educational infrastructure in Wollondilly, it is clear that we are falling short. Let's take a step back and consider the Greater Sydney metropolitan area, which covers around 12,500 square kilometres and is made up of 33 local government areas. Within this region 207 public high schools are providing education to thousands of students across this metropolitan area.
Now focus in on one of those 33 local government areas in that Sydney metro area—Wollondilly shire in my electorate of Wollondilly. It is an area of over 2,500 square kilometres. That means that Wollondilly shire alone makes up one‑fifth of the entire area of the Greater Sydney metro. Out of those 207 public high schools, guess how many are located in Wollondilly? For those who have not heard me speak on this matter before, it may surprise them—or, indeed, astound them—to hear there is only one. Those other 206 high schools are distributed between the remaining 80 per cent of the Sydney metro land area. The Wollondilly council area gets only one, the Picton High School. The population will be heading towards 100,000 by 2041 and yet no second high school is planned. It does not seem logical, does it? How can a region the size of Wollondilly, with a growing population, have just one high school? Sadly, that is the reality we face. For decades Wollondilly has been neglected politically. It has been pushed to the bottom of the list when it comes to the delivery of essential infrastructure and services, including education. We have seen it time again, and education is no exception.
The Picton Bypass is an essential road bypass that has been promised for over 30 years, and it was only last year that the Government finally began to deliver on that promise. Education—particularly high schools—have suffered the same neglect and delay. Twenty years ago a high school was promised as part of the master planning for Wilton, a new development in Wollondilly that is set to house over 10,000 new homes. Wollondilly is undeniably delivering on the State Government's promise for housing, and is doing the heavy lifting by providing homes that help relieve the housing crisis. New suburbs like Wilton are filling up with young families, whose children will need education. Since this promise, students who were then in kindergarten are now finishing year 12, and still there is no second high school in sight. I really hope their children finally get what their parents were promised. We have primary schools in all these new areas, but when it comes to public high schools, there is silence. We have a development full of young families, but no high school in sight. Families are being forced to send their children outside the area for education, creating unnecessary travel burdens and stress.
This problem has been building for years, and it is only going to get worse as the population continues to increase. We are included in the Sydney metro area, but we are not prioritised as much as other areas due to weak representation of the past. As an independent, I am here to change that for the betterment of the residents who live in Wollondilly, or those who are choosing to move to Wollondilly and hoping to raise families there. It is time to stop letting Wollondilly be an afterthought. The State Government needs to recognise we are not just an area for housing development. We are a community that deserves the same level of educational infrastructure as any other part of Sydney. It is simply not good enough for our students to be left behind and to have to travel long distances for a high school education that should be available to them right in their own backyard. Building another high school in Wollondilly is not just a matter of convenience. It is about recognising the growing needs of the areas on the fringe of the metropolitan area that are growing, changing and crying out for infrastructure—the equal of which is delivered to our neighbouring electorates.
While the lack of a second high school is currently a major concern, if action is not taken soon the population growth will result in the issue snowballing into a public education emergency. We cannot keep up with the housing demand without investing in our schools and the future of the next generation.