Mr STEPHEN BALI (Blacktown) (17:30): I move:
That this House:
(1)Notes that the best way to address housing affordability is to increase housing supply.
(2)Notes the New South Wales Government's First Home Buyers reform means that five out of six first home buyers pay no stamp duty or a concessional rate.
(3)Notes the New South Wales Government's Transport Oriented Development Program will deliver 47,800 new homes around eight accelerated precincts and an additional 138,000 new homes around a further 31 stations over 15 years.
(4)Notes the supportive comments from mayor of Hornsby Shire Council, Phillip Ruddock, on 1 February 2024 welcoming the New South Wales Government's Transport Oriented Development Program.
Mr NATHAN HAGARTY (Leppington) (18:09): By leave: I thank the member for Blacktown for bringing this important topic to the House today. We have heard about the impact of the previous Government's housing policy from a number of Western Sydney MPs on the Government's side of the House. Essentially, the western suburbs of Sydney took more than their fair share of people. That load was not spread evenly throughout Sydney. Unfortunately, we did not get a fair share of infrastructure with that.
I have spoken in this House many times about the suburbs of Austral, Leppington and Denham Court in my electorate of Leppington, which are effectively ground zero for the south-western growth corridor. In all those suburbs, which have seen exponential growth over the past four or five years, not one public high school was built by the former Government. The result is that my electorate is the one that has the most students in private school in all of the State. That is an interesting statistic. When people speak about private education, they speak about giving parents choice. In Leppington they have no choice; they must work those extra hours or that extra job to afford to send their kids to private schools. I have some fantastic private schools in my electorate, and they are doing the heavy lifting. But, under this Government, the public sector will also do its fair share, because we will build a new high school in Leppington.
There has been much talk about transit-oriented development. In my neck of the woods, the Camden and Liverpool councils have been collaborating in a way that I wish we would see in this House—more collaboration among different jurisdictions. They have recently released a new plan for the town centre there. I guess it will be a form of transit-oriented development around the train station. I am pleased to see that in that plan is plenty of open space, green corridors and public facilities. A lot about nimbyism this and that was coming from Opposition members. It is a difficult concept for them to get their heads around, but there is a difference between good development and bad development. My record shows that, in my time on council, I opposed certain developments because they were bad developments. I have also supported good developments. An example of that is in my colleague Minister Chanthivong's neck of the woods, in Edmondson Park. The Ed Square town centre is a fantastic example of a public place with good amenity, space and some medium- and high-density housing.
Mr Tim James: No high-rise hell like Chris Minns said?
Mr NATHAN HAGARTY: No, there is high-rise there. The member need not worry about that. There is high-rise there, and there will be high-rise at Leppington. One of my issues is that we should be building really good transit-oriented development not just 40 and 50 kilometres from the city, but also five, 10 and 15 kilometres from the city. Everyone should be taking a fair share, and along with that should come a fair share of infrastructure. On the topic of Edmondson Park, in early January last year I was joined there by the Premier and the then member for Macquarie Fields, who is still the member for Macquarie Fields and also Minister for about half a dozen different things.
Mr Anoulack Chanthivong: Last time I checked!
Mr NATHAN HAGARTY: He still is the member. I can confirm that for the House. But he has also taken on a number of additional portfolios. Edmondson Park is where we announced the reform to stamp duty for first home buyers. I am pleased to see that that is going very well. I know that it is making a massive difference for young families and home buyers in south-western Sydney. It is making all the difference to whether they can get their foot in the door of what is becoming more and more an out-of-reach housing market.
But, of course, there is more to do. We have spoken about transit-oriented development, and the statistics speak for themselves. It will deliver somewhere in the range of 40,000 to 50,000 new homes across those eight accelerated precincts and will deliver an additional 138,000 homes around a further 31 stations over 15 years. While we are on the topic of building around good transport nodes, I note that we had an address from the governor of Tokyo. If you want to do it right, go to Tokyo and see how they do it there, because they do it well.
