REGIONAL SENIORS TRAVEL CARD PETITION DEBATE

Ms JODIE HARRISON(Charlestown) (16:21:13):I speak in favour of this petition and to urge the Government to correct its transparently unfair treatment of residents of the Newcastle local government area [LGA]. At the outset I recognise the 11,000 petitioners across the electorates of Charlestown, Wallsend and Newcastle and indeed right across the State who have signed this petition, many of whom signed the petition not because they were ineligible for the regional seniors travel card, but because in fact they were and they saw the inequities of their neighbours and their friends in nearby suburbs not being eligible for it. The regional seniors travel card is a welcome relief for many elderly people in the regional areas of our State, helping to offset travel costs for a significant demographic that is often less mobile and more likely to become isolated.

I do not quibble with the people of Goulburn, Tweed, Port Macquarie or Myall Lakes being able to apply for this regional travel card. I do quibble with the fact that people living in part of one suburb in my electorate are eligible whereas their friends who live down the street are not. Unfortunately the policy's design has resulted in a blatantly unjust outcome for many of my constituents. From the outset it was clear that the policy had been poorly designed. Some elderly people who desperately needed this kind of relief could not access the travel card because they happened to be on the carer pension, a widow pension or any other payment besides the Age Pension. I thank the people who raised these issues and had them fixed. It is good to see the Government came to its senses and revised it but there is still a serious problem at the heart of this policy and this Government's attitude towards people who live in the City of Newcastle.

The bulk of the Charlestown electorate is located in the City of Lake Macquarie, which is considered regional. Its residents can register for and make use of the regional seniors travel card. But a significant portion of my constituents live in the Newcastle LGA and they have been left out. This Government's decision to stop classifying the Newcastle LGA as "regional" while at the same time refusing to classify it as a metropolitan LGA has left the city and its residents in a governmental limbo, unable to access or make use of grants and programs such as the regional seniors travel card.

How is it fair that residents living in one part of Highfields can apply, but residents living in the rest of the suburb cannot? How is it fair that residents in Kotara cannot access the travel card but residents in Kotara South can? Why is Adamstown excluded but residents in large swathes of Adamstown Heights are not? It is absurd that residents at one end of a street, which happens to be in Lake Macquarie, are eligible for the travel card, while residents at the other end of the street, which happens to be in Newcastle, are not. Take Princeton Avenue, or Ellerslie Roada street that I used to live inor a huge number of streets in the suburb of Adamstown Heights. The northern ends of those streets are in Newcastle and the southern ends are in Lake Macquariea street less than 500 metres long. Some people are eligible, some people are not.

Other than a quirk of local government boundaries, what real difference is there between the two ends of those streets? How is it fair that residents of a suburb of Charlestown, a thriving commercial and transport hub with relatively strong public transport linkseven given the bus cutscan make use of the travel card? Sure, public transport is better in Charlestown than it is in Goulburn, and I acknowledge that, but how is it that they can make use of the travel card while residents in places farther away, such as Minmi and Beresfield that are in the Newcastle local government area, cannot?

I thank all of the constituents who took the time to sign this petition. Many of them live in the Lake Macquarie local government area. They could already apply for and access the travel card but they saw the injustice inherent in the design of this policy and they took the time to stand up for their neighbours in Newcastle. This is exactly the kind of community spirit that makes the Charlestown and Wallsend electorates and the electorates of many members on this side of the Chamber such extraordinary places to live in and to represent in this place. I urge the Government to fix this inherently unjust aspect of the policy and reconsider its approach to the people of Newcastle.