22nd September, 2026.
I speak tonight about something fundamental: the right of people in Wollondilly and the Southern Highlands to be safe, housed, supported and connected to their community, regardless of their postcode, age, disability, family circumstances or income. Wollondilly is a large and diverse regional community. Geography matters because access to a service on paper is not the same thing as reliable access to a service in real life. The Wollondilly experience demonstrates why service delivery must be designed around actual geography and actual lives.
For someone living with disability, poor mental health, family violence, trauma or social isolation, a service that requires a long journey, multiple appointments, a private vehicle or an expensive trip into Campbelltown, Liverpool, Wollongong or Sydney may not be a genuinely accessible service. The transport barrier is real. Wollondilly's transport services are not dependable, frequent or accessible enough for every appointment or community service a person may need. Constituents are burdened by the frequent need to transfer between Nepean, Campbelltown and Liverpool hospitals. For an older person waiting for aged-care assistance or a person waiting for an NDIS decision or a funding package, time is not an administrative concept. Time is their life.
Wollondilly needs a stronger local safety net for people who are experiencing crisis or waiting for long‑term Commonwealth support. That means short-term and transition accommodation for single people, families, children, parents and children escaping domestic and family violence, people affected by sexual assault, people experiencing mental health crises and people waiting for appropriate housing. Locals are frustrated by the lack of accommodation and practical support for older Australians waiting for service approvals, and for people with disability waiting for NDIS decisions, plans, reviews or appropriate support packages. Those services are the bridge between crisis and stability. We need mental health support, domestic violence [DV] accommodation, disability services and aged-care services.
Police presence is part of this conversation, too. Wollondilly currently sits within the Camden Police Area Command, whose office is located at Narellan, a long way from Wollondilly. For a large and geographically dispersed community, the question is not simply whether a police station exists; the question is whether policing and emergency responses are sufficiently resourced and locally present to meet the needs of my community across a large area. This is particularly important when we are talking about domestic violence, sexual assault, vulnerable children, mental health crises and people at risk of homelessness. Safety and access must be measured by whether people can reach a service when they need it. Unfortunately, Wollondilly does not have a baseline mental health or DV facility to statistically monitor trends over time.
The Wollondilly community falls between the cracks. Nobody should have to choose between safety and homelessness. In our society, I am concerned that individuals face isolation and mental health issues, including anxiety while navigating a fragmented system, ambulance ramping at hospitals, and wait times for outreach support and accommodation. This is about more than accommodation; it is about dignity. Living in Wollondilly should not mean accepting less access to essential services simply because we live in a peri-urban and regional area. Communities should not have to continually prove that their needs are urgent. There is no justification for them travelling further, waiting longer or paying more.
It is a resilient community. But resilience should not become an excuse for governments to underinvest. We should not expect families, volunteers, carers, community organisations and local services to permanently compensate for gaps in systems. We need government investment that builds resilience rather than consuming it. The New South Wales and Australian governments should invest in accommodation and services that create a buffer when people are waiting for those services. I urge the New South Wales Government to invest in essential population health infrastructure, services and housing that puts dignity, safety, accessibility and local connection squarely at the centre of service planning.
I will advocate that Wollondilly's people should not be disadvantaged by living further away from opportunity, safety or health care. An administrative boundary should never determine whether a person can access safety, support and a place to call home. Safety is an important thing. The services that apply for funding from areas outside Wollondilly, in Campbelltown and Camden, which say they visit Wollondilly, get their money and then do not deliver. So it is important that we actually have those services in the Wollondilly electorate.