Priorities

Footpaths, parks, streetlights and public amenities are the council services residents notice every day. When they are working you do not think about them. When they are not, daily life gets harder, for parents pushing prams, for older residents walking to the shops, for kids using the park after school. These are not exciting issues, and they rarely make the news. They are also the basic services every household has the right to expect from the council it pays rates to.

My focus has been on the suburbs and the streets that have historically waited longest, and on getting real answers when residents report something broken. That means timelines on footpath repairs residents can actually hold us to, parks properly maintained in our ward as well as in the higher-profile parts of the LGA, streetlights that work, public amenities residents can actually use, and safer pedestrian crossings around schools and bus stops. None of this gets a ribbon cut. It is the floor under everything else council does, and it is where most residents quietly judge whether their council is doing its job.

Cumberland has one of the lowest tree canopies in metropolitan Sydney, and one of the highest summer heat readings. In some streets in our ward you can stand outside on a 40-degree afternoon and feel several degrees more heat than someone three suburbs over. That gap is not natural. It is the result of planning decisions made over thirty years, and it is finally catching up with us. Green space cools our suburbs, supports biodiversity, gives children somewhere to play and seniors somewhere to walk. Once it is lost in a high-density area, no policy will bring it back.

My work in this area has been about both defending what we have and growing what is missing. With Lynda Voltz MP and the community, I have been leading the campaign to stop Carnarvon Golf Course in Lidcombe being converted into a cemetery. Inside council I have moved motions for public reporting on the tree canopy and tree removals, for better tree management, for more investment in street and verge plantings, for an Environment Advisory Committee to bring outside expertise into the room, and for a Shop Local Bonus pilot that rewards residents in low-canopy streets who plant a tree on their verge. The bigger fight is still ahead: real canopy targets, planning controls that actually deliver shade, sustained maintenance funding, and a cultural shift inside council where green space is treated as essential infrastructure rather than optional decoration.

Roads, footpaths, crossings and stations are not glamorous, but they are the council services residents notice every day. They are also where children walk to school, where older residents lose confidence going outside, and where small fixes change everyday life. Safe streets and reliable transport are not extras. They are the basic infrastructure of a liveable suburb.

I have pushed for the specifics residents had been asking about for years: a pedestrian crossing on Tilba Street in Berala, safer cyclist and pedestrian access at the M4 Shared Path crossing at Silverwater Road, expanded secure bike storage at Lidcombe Station, smart parking for Lidcombe Town Centre including the kiss-and-ride zones outside the station, and the campaign for the restoration of direct Inner West Line services through Regents Park. Each of these came from residents in the ward. None are theoretical. What is still to come matters just as much: more pedestrian priority in town centres, safer routes around schools, and proper coordination between council, Transport for NSW and the State so residents stop getting passed between agencies whenever they ask about a footpath.

Council decisions on rates, services, planning and Crown land affect your suburb directly. Residents have the right to understand what is being decided, why, and what data sits behind the call. Plain English, on the table, in time to do something about it. A council that explains itself is a council residents can hold to account. A council that hides behind technical reports and closed sessions is a council inviting distrust.

I have argued for transparency reforms that change how council reports to the community and how it engages with other levels of government, including public reporting on tree canopy and tree removals, formal demands for data from agencies like Metropolitan Memorial Parks, and the new Environment Advisory Committee that opens deliberations to outside expertise. Where I disagree with a council decision, I will explain my position publicly. The wider goal is a council culture where genuine consultation is the default, plain-English explanations of resolutions are standard, and residents can find out what is happening in their suburb without having to file a formal request.

Decisions made now will shape Cumberland for decades. The Berala Transport Oriented Development is happening. Population density across our area is rising. The technology that shapes how people charge a car, find a park, or get from home to a station is changing fast. A council that ignores these forces hands the future to someone else to plan, usually badly. Anticipating change is cheaper, fairer and easier than fixing it later.

My forward-looking motions have asked council to think a decade ahead: Electric Vehicle Charging Readiness in new multi-unit developments so future residents are not locked out of clean transport choices by today's building decisions, preparation for the safe and orderly arrival of self-driving and connected vehicles, and the Lidcombe Smart Parking feasibility study integrating with the kerbside technology Transport for NSW is already running elsewhere. These are starting points, not finishing lines. The harder work is still to come: planning controls that anticipate density rather than react to it, real partnerships with State Government on infrastructure that arrives alongside new residents, and the longer conversations about what kind of suburbs Cumberland wants to be in 2040.

Cumberland is one of the most culturally diverse local government areas in NSW. Regents Park Ward alone is home to large Turkish, Arabic, Mandarin, Nepali, Korean and Hindi-speaking communities, alongside many long-established Australian families. A council that meets the actual diversity of its residents, in its programs, its communication and its public life, is a stronger and more legitimate council. Diversity is not something council puts on a brochure once a year. It is the daily test of whether services actually reach the people they are supposed to serve.

I want resident communication that is genuinely language-accessible where it needs to be, council events that reflect the calendar of the suburbs we actually represent, and consultation processes that do not quietly exclude residents who do not speak English at home. Community grants need to be easy to find, easy to apply for, and fairly assessed. The community groups doing the real work in our area, the sporting clubs, cultural associations, religious organisations and youth groups, deserve a council that knows them by name and shows up at their events rather than waiting for them to come to the chamber. There is a long way to go on this, and it is one of the areas where I expect to spend the most time in the years ahead.