Austral, a suburb in my electorate, is a proud community with deep roots, from its long Indigenous history that goes back millennia to its agricultural roots and its recent rapid growth in housing. It is also home to Austral Public School. Among its former students are the late John Edmondson, VC, our first Australian-born Victoria Cross recipient of World War II, and the late Nick Lalich, a much-respected friend of many in this Chamber and the former member for Cabramatta. The suburb has history, pride and potential, but today Austral is on the map for all the wrong reasons, not because of its hardworking families or its growth but because of a roundabout—or should I say a "diamondabout".

In June, Liverpool City Council installed a roundabout at the intersection of Fifteenth Avenue and Twenty Eighth Avenue, but this was no ordinary roundabout. It was diamond shaped. It did not follow the original designs and, more importantly, it was extremely unsafe. On the Saturday morning after it was installed, I texted the CEO of Liverpool council, raising my concerns about potential safety issues. A couple of hours later, I received an email assuring me that "all aspects to make safe were in place". But I assure members that everything was not safe. Later that week, the chaos was evident. Footage of near misses and erratic traffic behaviour started going viral. It was not long before the bizarre piece of infrastructure became a global sensation. Channel 7 and Channel 9 ran stories about it. There were live-crosses on morning television. International media picked it up. Karl Stefanovic labelled it "Australia's worst roundabout". The roundabout was so infamous that for a short period it was listed as a notable historic landmark on Google Maps, no doubt by a local rogue.

In response, council ripped it up hastily and, once again, poorly. But in a twist of irony that only Liverpool City Council could deliver, even the removal became a hazard. A few rainy days later the works began to wash away and the road surface deteriorated, and what was once a poorly designed roundabout quickly became a gaping pothole. The pothole became so large that drivers were forced to slow down and navigate around it, meaning it actually functioned better than the roundabout it replaced. But all jokes aside, let us not lose sight of the seriousness behind this absolute debacle. Despite a LinkedIn post from the CEO of Liverpool council claiming, "We move on", I am not moving on, and this episode raises serious fundamental questions about Liverpool council's capacity to deliver even the most basic of services.

Who was awarded the contract to deliver roundabouts? Who is checking that work is being done to spec? Who signed off on this design? Most importantly, how much is this costing the ratepayers of Liverpool? Let us remember that this roundabout was just one of several delivered following an amendment to the budget moved on the floor of council by the mayor for a reported cost of $620,000. So I ask again: How many other roundabouts have been built under this program? Are they safe? Do we need to wait for another media frenzy—or, worse, a tragedy—before we get some serious answers? Those and many other questions were put to council at the July meeting. Like the ratepayers of Austral, I eagerly await some answers. The roundabout is not a one-off. It is part of a pattern. This is a council currently under the scrutiny of a public inquiry, a council where we have heard of $5 million in staff payouts in three years, the complete exhaustion of all cash reserves, and countless failures of oversight and delivery. This is a council that cannot afford do-overs.

Austral is a growing community. It is on the front line of Sydney's population growth. Thousands of new homes are going up and many young families are moving in. The State and Federal governments are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to delivering infrastructure. We are investing billions in road, rail and parks. Earlier this week, I joined the Minister for Roads and local Federal member Anne Stanley to announce the next stage in our $1 billion upgrade of Fifteenth Avenue, which is the site of this infamous "diamondabout" and which will also connect Austral to the new Western Sydney international airport. But while State and Federal Governments are delivering on the big infrastructure projects, Liverpool City Council cannot even get a roundabout right, it cannot deliver footpaths, it cannot build parks and it certainly cannot seem to deliver road infrastructure that is safe, functional or built to last. Temporary fixes might be good enough for council, but they are not good enough for Austral, and Austral deserves better.