25th March, 2026.
In late 2025 New South Wales Government Ministers and officials highlighted the Western Sydney international airport as a transformative city shaper, with a focus on creating thousands of local jobs and enhancing regional connectivity. Countless speeches in this House emphasised that major infrastructure projects are set to drive economic growth in Western Sydney and the surrounding aerotropolis. Firstly, I urge the New South Wales Government to genuinely review State service district plans with the view to providing essential infrastructure and services to the towns that are home to about 10,000 residents within a 30-minute drive of Bradfield city in the Wollondilly electorate. Secondly, I urge the Government to dispel the wrongful assumption that Bradfield will be the solution to all my constituents' needs. That notion is blatantly ignorant of the vast distance and geographic features separating 50,000 of the 60,000 constituents who live 45 to 90 minutes drive from Sydney's second airport in non-peak times, and longer in peak periods.
Warragamba and Silverdale have fallen to the paper edges of State government health, education, transport and police districts. Issues faced by Warragamba and Silverdale have also slid off the State Government discussion agenda table. If the Government was sincerely genuine in its pitches that the Western Sydney airport and surrounding aerotropolis are a city shaper and will enhance regional community, I contend that Warragamba and Silverdale have not been given a fair go. Therefore, it is logical for me to advocate for a comprehensive plan for State infrastructure and services that genuinely builds connectivity in transport, the economy, education and health services between those areas, Sydney's second airport and Bradfield.
I ask members of this House to vehemently reject the widespread notion that Warragamba and Silverdale residents enjoy Sydney metro amenities or are bound to reap the benefits of Bradfield city and the airport, a mere 17 to 20 minutes drive from their home. Those residents travel via a flood-prone road crossing over the Nepean River to Bradfield. A second flood-free access bridge is necessary. Those suburbs are unfortunately assumed to be on the outer frontier and have been forgotten about. Warragamba and Silverdale were crucial for constructing Warragamba Dam, serving as primary residential, logistical and industrial hubs for thousands of workers. Despite the imposts of late of Warragamba Dam and the airport and infrastructure projects on the local community, the State Government neglected the community living near the Warragamba Dam. Ministerial portfolios including health, education, policing and district planning have designated the area as a separate district to the service planning area for Bradfield.
I give three examples. Warragamba and Silverdale are in the South Western Sydney Local Health District. Access to Campbelltown Hospital is 20 minutes further than to Nepean Hospital in Penrith. Warragamba and Silverdale are situated in the most elongated south-western tip of the Nepean Police Area Command, resembling Florida's peninsula in the United States of America. Our local students are enrolled in Glenmore Park High School, which is not in Wollondilly but in adjacent Penrith and St Marys, with no planned bus or rail services between the areas. It is an isolated community of 10,000 residents and should be considered a legitimate part of the Bradfield catchment for State services and transport connections. Furthermore, the Government should prioritise investment to enhance the connections.
There is room for the Government to do better in city-shaping Bradfield and its connections for the existing community. The gist of the first part of my speech reads like a bumper sticker: Give a damn about the community living near the Warragamba Dam. The second part of my speech highlights the vast distance between the northern and southern extremes of the Wollondilly electorate. Here is a geographic fact: As the crow flies, the distance between the Wollondilly electorate's northern border near Bradfield and the southern border in Bowral is 77 kilometres—greater than the 50-kilometre distance between Sydney's first and second airports. In reality, the distance by road travel is greater than the entire width of the Sydney metro.
Existing and forecast population densities are planned by over one-third within 20 years. Any assertion that Bradfield will provide convenient local regional services to Wollondilly constituents is inaccurate, utopian rhetoric. A growing number of constituents—currently 83 per cent—face transport, health and economic disadvantage. They travel 50 to 100 minutes, or longer in peak periods—equivalent to the breadth of the Sydney metropolitan area—via convoluted or non-existent public transport routes. Those issues do not epitomise city‑shaping best practice.