27th May, 2026.
I talk in this Chamber tonight about the thousands of New South Wales residents, nearly all of them from Wollondilly and the Southern Highlands, who signed various electoral petitions, including the petitions for the Bowral Hospital cancer treatment centre, for increased police presence in Wollondilly and for urgent upgrades to public transport options on the Main Southern railway line. The Bowral Hospital cancer treatment petition received the most signatures, with the e-petition receiving 4,500 signatures and the paper petition having over 6,500 signatures so far.
I formally acknowledge the tireless teams of Public Health First and Bowral-Mittagong Rotary volunteers, who raised extensive awareness of the Bowral Hospital Cancer Treatment Centre petition and obtained the signatures. I also recognise and specifically congratulate Edna Carmichael, Peter Edwards and Meggan Harrison for their unwavering efforts in obtaining over 10,000 signatures on the petition. They dedicated countless hours travelling around the electorate. While the petitions were open, I met the Minister for Health and guided the Premier on a tour of Bowral.
It became apparent that a combined petition would be required to represent the voices of my constituents. The Southern Highlands is a regional community that has a high number of seniors aged over 60. Constituents faced barriers to placing their signature on the paper and the e-petition. Firstly, the electorate of Wollondilly is part metro and part regional, with limited public transport services. Circulating paper petitions around the electorate consumed exhaustive time and cost a lot in petrol. Secondly, not all residents owned smart phones that could scan the QR codes that linked to the e-petition on the Parliament's website. Thirdly, many residents did not have a unique individual email address. They shared email addresses with their spouse or partner.
Fourthly, e-petitions and paper petitions are difficult to access for residents in residential and care services accommodation. New South Wales residents living in care services deserve genuine representation by having their signatures counted. In this day and age, government elections and corporations' annual general meetings of shareholders record votes cast by post, by email or in person equally. The standing orders of this House doubled the signature threshold for e‑petitions to 20,000 and does not allow hybrid petitions. That may have been an unintended consequence. Amalgamating petitions is common sense. It gives more people the ability to sign. The standing orders should be amended.
Now for the good news. Despite the fact that the Urgently Upgrade Public Transport Options On The Southern Line petition received almost 2,000 signatures, my short video promoting the petition received over 20,000 views. The petition raised awareness of Wollondilly's public transport issues and called for change. The community warmly welcomed media coverage. Also, the Minister for Regional Transport arranged a rail round table, at which I succinctly represented my constituents' views and the issues and possible solutions to the people who are accountable for the Southern Highlands rail line passenger and freight services.
I have no doubt the advocacy for and level of engagement on the petition resulted in improved communications from the Australian Rail Track Corporation [ARTC]. I personally visited the five-day ARTC "super possession" of the Southern Highlands rail line. Earlier this month the Federal and State governments announced a commitment of many millions of dollars toward making it a better line. We are making some progress to offset the cumulative backlog of asset maintenance on the line and there is plenty of work ahead to improve passenger rail services. In conclusion, I believe the petitions encouraged substantial progress and generated opportunities to have meaningful conversations in the community and the New South Wales Government. I thank my community for its efforts.