Get Involved - Parliament

Budget Estimates and Related Papers 2021-2022

Published on: May 2022

Record: HANSARD-1323879322-124583

Budget Estimates and Related Papers 2021-2022

Debate resumed from 24 March 2022.

Ms FELICITY WILSON (North Shore) (09:48:27):

The last time I contributed to the Budget Estimates and Related Papers 2021-2022 debate, I spoke extensively about this Government's economic management and its approach to ensuring it has the capacity to fund the infrastructure and services needed for a brighter future for families across New South Wales. In my electorate of North Shore, there has been significant investment in local education and schools. When investing for a brighter future for our children and families, there is no greater investment than in education.

I am excited about the investment we are making in public education. I look forward to working with my community to deliver the range of projects that I have referred to, including major upgrades underway at Mosman High School and North Sydney Demonstration School. In coming years, work will commence on the major upgrade of Neutral Bay Public School. St Leonards will have its first ever school. We are looking to build a brand‑new primary school in the Herbert Street precinct as part of an innovative, integrated, high‑rise, mixed‑use development. It will ensure that the kids in that dense CBD and surrounds have access to the educational facilities that every growing community needs. The budget also includes funding for an environmental education centre at Middle Head, which will offer a unique confluence of the natural environment, Indigenous history and unique military heritage. In particular I acknowledge the unique work of Julie Goodsir and Jill L'Estrange in advocating for that initiative over a long period.

Our metro renewal program is also ensuring that community‑funded school‑improvement projects are occurring across the North Shore. North Sydney Boys High School is upgrading its food tech space and North Sydney Girls High School is receiving an upgrade to its science lab space. Beauty Point Public School and Cammeraygal High School have funding for new covered outdoor learning areas. Mosman Public School is upgrading one of its heritage buildings to include flexible learning spaces; Middle Harbour Public School, its toilet facilities for students; and North Sydney Demonstration School, its staffroom and toilet facilities on top of the major upgrade of classroom and outdoor areas. Success in education is about much more than how money is spent. Further to providing additional resourcing, the New South Wales Government will drive quality outcomes for all students by supercharging an overhaul of the New South Wales curriculum. Delivery of the new curriculum on a new, interactive digital portal will support teachers in implementing the classroom curriculum, which is a first for New South Wales.

I acknowledge the budget's spectacular investment in the environment and wildlife. Over the next four years we will invest more than $1 billion to conserve, protect and promote our precious natural environment. The biodiversity budget bonanza includes over $193 million over five years to double the number of koalas in New South Wales by 2050—a key and crucial goal of this Government; $75 million over five years to continue the Saving our Species program to maximise the number of ecological communities and threatened species that we can keep secure in the wild in New South Wales; and more than $26 million over two years to implement key actions under the Land Management and Biodiversity Conservation Framework, including implementing the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme, and biodiversity mapping, assessment and evaluation.

In the 2021 budget we announced a nation‑leading Electric Vehicle Strategy. It is the pinnacle of everything occurring in Australia across every jurisdiction and will see almost half a billion dollars invested in tax cuts and incentives for this future‑focused industry. This year there will be a waiver on stamp duty fees for cars under $78,000 and a rebate of $3,000 for the first 25,000 purchasers of battery and hydrogen fuel electric vehicles. Road user charges will be deferred for six years or until the electric vehicle market reaches 30 per cent. That deferment, coupled with the stamp duty waiver and rebate, will push down costs and attract more buyers to the market. Our aim is for more than 50 per cent of new car sales by 2030 to be electric vehicles. The increase in electric cars will help New South Wales continue action on climate change by reducing carbon emissions and improving air quality. It will also ensure that we get the hip‑pocket benefits for consumers and alleviate some of the incredible cost‑of‑living impacts, such as rising fuel costs due predominantly to the energy supply crunch resulting from the war in Ukraine and Russian geopolitical instability. We are seeing the impacts of that across the globe.

We are also investing more than $80 million over three years to manage the recovery from historic bushfires and floods. We are investing in our national parks and experiences, and ensuring that we implement our policies and programs to reduce waste, eliminate harmful single‑use plastics and create new economic and employment opportunities to protect our environment. Locally in my community we are working on investments in transport infrastructure, to not only increase services but also improve accessibility, engagement and interaction with our public transport infrastructure. We have $8.2 million to continue work on the Wollstonecraft train station upgrade. I was there the other day, and it is very close to complete and looking fantastic. The station is well over 100 years old.

Dr Geoff Lee:

Well done!

Ms FELICITY WILSON:

Thank you, Minister. The station will now be entirely accessible for those with disability or limited mobility, for parents and carers with prams, and customers with luggage. It has been done incredibly sympathetically to the local natural environment and the heritage of the station. We are also investing $5 million to kick off construction on the North Sydney wharf upgrade, $1.8 million for planning of the Taronga Zoo wharf upgrade and $6.4 million to work on the South Mosman wharf upgrade. We are transitioning the Sydney bus fleet to electric buses by 2030 and allocating $3.1 billion to continue construction of the Sydney Metro City and Southwest line, which will link Chatswood and Bankstown right through the heart of my community. New stations will be located at Crows Nest and Victoria Cross in North Sydney. Recently we announced the massive milestone of having laid 95 per cent of all tracks for that metro line. Those are the types of innovations that this Government has made in New South Wales—investments that are only possible from a strong economic position under strong economic management.

With those early enabling works already underway, last year's budget allocated $6.3 million over four years for the delivery of the Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link, which is a hotly anticipated project. The Warringah Freeway upgrade works, which are already underway, will enable the delivery of that project. It will significantly alleviate congestion on the bridge and in our local streets, and will reduce rat‑running. It is a commitment that I took to two elections. Our community is eager to see the project completed and opened in coming years.

We are forging ahead without support for families. In particular I acknowledge the budget announcement that public sector employees will receive paid special miscarriage and pre‑term birth leave. I can only imagine that the impact of losing a child in pregnancy would be profound. I acknowledge the Government's work in delivering that. We are also investing in domestic and sexual violence support, including additional magistrates and almost half a billion dollars for new refuges across the State. I recognise Minister Natalie Ward and the Attorney General—the former Minister—for their work on that. This budget recognises families, the cost of living and its impact on communities across the State. It invests in what we need for the infrastructure and services to make a difference to our communities. It will embed in our State what we need to ensure a brighter future.

When it comes to investing in families, there is obviously no greater commitment than the birth of a child. I acknowledge two things that happened in the past week. One is the recognition of the recent delivery of the 300,000th baby bundle to a family with a new baby. I have had two babies in the period that the policy has been in place. I know it has a significant impact, given all the stress, challenge and newness of the arrival of a new baby. Minister Geoff Lee is smiling and nodding at me because his little baby Mia also arrived during that time.

Dr Geoff Lee:

I declare an interest.

Ms FELICITY WILSON:

She is not such a little baby anymore. They grow up quickly. I also recognise yesterday's opening of the mother and baby mental health unit at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital [RPA]. In the past in New South Wales, for mothers who experienced acute psychiatric health impacts after the birth of a child—extreme levels of psychosis or illness beyond prenatal depression and anxiety—private services were the only services that enabled them to have their babies with them and build attachment from the first moments of life. Unless the mother was treated at the St John of God private facility, her baby would have to be in a different location while she received psychiatric care. Now we have RPA beds available for mothers and babies—up to two babies after a multiple birth—and for a partner as well. The new unit will transform the care and health services provided to those mothers and families and will assist in those crucial early stages of attachment formation between a mother and her baby or babies. We know how important that is, for not only parents and the continuing wellbeing of the mother and the family but also the wellbeing of the baby into the future.

On the Minister's patch, the Westmead mother and baby unit will open. This unit represents a crucial change in the way we deliver health services for families. It recognises that poor mental health requires provision of specialised, focused healthcare services to ensure that stigma is reduced and that people seek help rather than get lost in the miasma of trauma and harmful health impacts, particularly when a mother is in a fog from lack of sleep and dealing with the hormonal impacts of having a child. Particularly in the past couple of years, with the heightened sensitivity and concerns around wellbeing in relation to COVID, interactions with the healthcare system and of things like waitlists for service provision have had a huge impact on people.

The last thing I refer to on that note is the reopening just last week of the Gidget Foundation's North Sydney centre, expanded with new rooms and new services for parents and families. It is just another piece in the puzzle for perinatal depression and anxiety, ensuring that we are delivering services to people at that time, which can be within the first year of a child's life. Having those early intervention services and getting people the help that they need not only changes lives but also saves lives, for mothers, families and the children themselves. I am very proud of those health investments in the budget.

Business interrupted.