Earlier this month Camden and Liverpool councils released draft plans for the Leppington town centre to public exhibition. The plan will see Leppington transformed over the next few decades from rural acreage to a thriving, cosmopolitan and vibrant urban centre with the Leppington railway station as its anchor. The 30-year plan will revolutionise the south-west growth corridor, boasting open park space, community centres, commercial space, sites for schools and medium- and high-density living. That has been a long time coming. The Leppington Major Centre was originally gazetted in 2013 to provide for 3,000 dwellings and between 7,000 and 12,500 jobs by 2036. Following the 2014 announcement of the Western Sydney airport and the 2015 completion of a Leppington railway station, a review into the Leppington town centre was announced by the Department of Planning and Environment [DPE] in 2017.

In November 2019 the DPE then handed control of this review back to Camden and Liverpool councils to complete, with Camden Council taking the lead and delivering the majority of this site in collaboration with Liverpool. In 2020 and 2021, Camden Council conducted analysis, visioning workshops and community consultation to inform its proposal before handing the draft proposal to the local planning panel in August 2022. It was subsequently endorsed by both Camden and Liverpool councils. The proposed Leppington town centre reflects the blueprint of this Government's housing policy. We need to build medium- and high-density housing around established transport links. We have, as the planning Minister has put it, a date with density. I note that, while communities like mine are happy to take our fair share of housing, a lot of the members opposite are not.

I note the member for Pittwater is calling on the Government to exclude B-Line bus stops from our definition of "transport hubs". God forbid a six-storey building would be built in his backyard. The member for Vaucluse is famously more invested in preserving a defunct petrol station than tackling the housing shortage in this State. No doubt those objections are fuelled by the fear of the dreaded nimby. While I believe community consultation is critical to the planning process, politicians being beholden to a handful of nimbys is not. Now that the town centre is on public exhibition, I encourage all stakeholders and residents to have their say. This process will define our community for decades to come. It is important that we get this right, and community feedback is integral to that process. Residents can have their say by making a submission using either the Your Voice Camden or Liverpool Listen webpages. The deadline for submissions is 6 February.