7th May, 2026.
I was sitting in my room and not planning to come to debate this motion, but then I heard everybody talking about south‑west Sydney. That area gets pushed to the side so often. It affects millions of people every day. They are being pushed to live out there without the infrastructure that they need. There is a chronic lack of investment, which is the shared responsibility of both major parties. Both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party have allowed that inequality to persist. Western Sydney is one of the fastest growing regions in the area. Thousands of houses are added to my electorate every day. Small businesses and young families are trying to build a future.
South‑western Sydney has become the backbone of the essential workers, migrants and industries that keep this State running. Yet for decades—not just for the past year, the past three years or the past 15 years—infrastructure and investment have not kept pace with that growth. The overcrowded public transport systems just do not work. People are forced into long, exhausting commutes. Schools are underfunded. My area is as big as the whole Sydney metropolitan area, yet it has only had two public high schools since 1958. Just think of how many thousands of people have shifted into that area in those years. Next year we will get the first new high school since 1958. Students look forward to going there, but I probably need another two high schools to make it fair. I will keep fighting for those.
The hospitals are struggling. I have one hospital in Bowral and one in Campbelltown. People in Bowral have to travel 80 kilometres for chemotherapy treatment. People are travelling to the Illawarra, to Bankstown, to Campbelltown and to Liverpool. Why are the thousands of people who live there unable to get those critical services at the local public hospital? The local community has just added 9,000 signatures to a petition to try to get some of those basic services delivered. People need those services closer to home. They should not have to travel for hours just to earn a living.
It is not a new problem—that is exactly the point. Both Liberal and Labor governments have had many opportunities to address those gaps in a meaningful, long‑term way. There have been announcements and ribbon cuttings. Big cheques were held up before the last election. I have been trying to plug some of those, but they were simply election promises. They were not actually intended to be delivered. However, it is time to get some delivery. We cannot just keep making promises on election cycles. We need genuine, long‑term planning. I look forward to working with both sides of politics to deliver for my community.
I am really sad that we are in this situation. I guess that is why we are seeing the rise of Independents, who are able to work with the Government or the Opposition—whoever is in place—to get real delivery on the ground. I thank the Government for what it has done. I hope the Opposition takes note of the lack of services in south‑west Sydney. To this day, I remember signing up for university. Somebody looked over my shoulder and said, "Granville? How did you get here?" People think that the people of Western Sydney are second class, but we are not. We are the backbone of New South Wales.