Transcript
Interview
Channel 7 Sunrise
4 March 2013
DAVID KOCH: As Sam was saying – excuse me – there are ten Labor seats here in Greater Western Sydney including Chifley and Blaxland. They’re currently held by government MPs, Jason Clare and Ed Husic. They join me now. Ed, good morning to you.
ED HUSIC: Morning, how are you?
DAVID KOCH: Now, tell us the message that you want to get to Julia Gillard from your constituents here in Greater Western Sydney.
ED HUSIC: Well, first, it’s good to have her here, because as someone who has been working hard, grew up in the local area, and want to be able to do the right thing by the people I’ve grown up with, being able to have the Prime Minister here and ministers here listening to the issues that people want to get across or the type of things we want to fix up in the area are really important.
We have done a big lot of work in terms of education. The biggest thing – the single most important example out here, across the 67 schools, where we have been able to put $140 million in improving schools. Big deal, parents, teachers, students love it. That’s the type of attention we need.
DAVID KOCH: Okay, so education is a big issue here. Of course, the economy. Crime, Jason, is a big issue here. You helped launch the gang crime taskforce yesterday. Tell us about that. What’s that intended?
JASON CLARE: Yeah, well, we have seen, what, over 100 drive-by shootings in Western Sydney over the course of the last year, and people are worried, and genuinely so.
When you have shootings going on in your street or your neighbourhood, you worry that a stray bullet could hit somebody who’s an innocent bystander. I think it’s the job of the Federal Government to stand up and work with the state government on this.
People don’t really care what level of government is responsible for what here, they just want us to fix the problem and stop the shooting.
So we announced a national anti-gang taskforce and that’s about state police, Federal Police as well as the Tax Office and Centrelink, all working together to target the gang members but very importantly, Kochie, it’s seizing their assets.
DAVID KOCH: Yeah, okay, what else is the Prime Minister doing out here this week? Because her schedule has been pretty tightly held, very secret.
JASON CLARE: Well, if you saw the front page of the Daily Tele, you will see a very important announcement the PM’s making today and that is committing Federal Government money, over $1 billion, to complete the M4. And if you live at Penrith or you live at Rooty Hill, or you live at Parramatta, you know it’s not good enough to have the M4 go all the way to Concord and then you have to get on Parramatta Road to get to the city. We need the motorway to go all the way to the city.
Traffic is a big problem whether it’s at Blacktown or Bankstown, and committing Federal Government money to make it easier to get to the city is a really good idea. Absolutely.
DAVID KOCH: Okay. Alright gents, thank you for joining us this morning, appreciate it. Let you get back to it. You’re part of the Julia Gillard cheer squad, as she makes her way around greater Western Sydney.
ENDS
