Federation Chamber
There was a story in the Daily Telegraph this week that says that the New South Wales Government is going to put more money into roads in the State Budget which will be delivered next week.
I hope that this includes funding for Stacey Street in Bankstown.
As I’ve said before in this place, Stacey Street is the slowest road in Sydney outside the CBD.
This week the Bankstown Express newspaper reported that the Department of Roads and Maritime Services is now doing drilling and coring, as well as survey work to determine what the fix needs to be to make this road work better.
At peak hour it is literally a car park.
The solution here is three lanes in each direction from the M5 Motorway through to the Hume Highway and real money needs to be allocated in this Budget to make sure that we fix Stacey Street.
We also need to real money to fix Bankstown Hospital.
Bankstown Hospital has been in the media recently for all the wrong reasons.
Almost a year ago, nitrous oxide, was incorrectly administered to newborn babies instead of oxygen.
One child tragically passed away. Another child has been left with permanent brain damage.
As someone who has just become a parent in the last couple of months, I can’t imagine the grief and the pain that the parents of those little babies must be going through.
We have got to get to the bottom of this and make sure these sorts of mistakes never happen again.
But there are other things that also have to happen at Bankstown Hospital.
Anyone who has ever visited the hospital will know that parking is a nightmare. There aren’t enough parking spaces – nowhere near enough.
What it means is that all of the local streets around the hospital are always choc-a-block with cars – people parking to get to the hospital.
People are having to walk a long way to get to the hospital, which means sometimes people are late for appointments or outpatients sometimes decide not to keep their appointments.
The Emergency Department also needs a major overhaul.
It’s bursting at the seams.
The waiting area is always full.
There are not enough beds in the emergency department and it is only getting busier.
This means that ambulances are often redirected to other hospitals.
It needs to be expanded and reconfigured.
The City of Bankstown isn’t shrinking, like most of Sydney, like most of Australia it is only getting bigger.
And the State Government has said that over the next 20 years Bankstown’s population will increase by 50 per cent.
If that’s going to happen then we do need to expand our hospital to meet growing demand and need.
The State Budget is next Tuesday and I call on the State Government of New South Wales, to fix Stacey Street and to fix Bankstown Hospital.
If you’re serious about helping the people of Bankstown then you need to make sure we’ve got the services we need and deserve, that means fixing Stacey Street and fixing Bankstown Hospital.
