Ms JODIE HARRISON (Charlestown) (23:14): When it comes to Newcastle and Lake Macquarie it is a sad Tale of Two Cities. In the eyes of the State of NSW, Lake Macquarie is deemed a regional city, while Newcastle holds a somewhat unique position of being sometimes a regional city and at other times metropolitan.

For the constituents of the Charlestown electorate, some who reside in the Newcastle Local Government Area and others who reside in the Lake Macquarie Local Government Area, this Tale of Two Cities is more of a riddle.

Particularly when it comes to eligibility for the Regional Seniors Travel Card. My constituents who live in the Newcastle Local Government area are not eligible for the card. However, my constituents who live in the Lake Macquarie Local Government Area are currently signing up for the second round of the travel card scheme.

A line on a map determines which of my constituents are deserving of the card, and those who are not. That line runs across the suburbs and streets of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, and leads to one neighbour being eligible for the travel card while the neighbour who lives just across the street is not. A very sad ending indeed.

Now a new chapter in the Tale of Two cities has opened. This chapter is titled: Retirement Villages Amendment Regulation 2021, and it tells a very familiar story indeed.

Exit entitlements are paid by the retirement village operator to the former resident if their property does not sell within 12 months.

However, Schedule 5A of the regulation lists the local government areas where the prescribed exit period is six months for the purpose of s.182AB this allows a former occupant to apply for an exit entitlement of a vacated retirement village residential-premises, if the premises remain unsold for the prescribed period.

This is where the plot gets very interesting, Mr Speaker. If you own a retirement village-premises located in the Newcastle you are subject to the amendment. That is, you only need to wait six months to apply for an exit entitlement should your premises not be sold.

However, if you live in the Lake Macquarie, you will need to wait 12 months. Thats right Mr Speaker, if you live in Lake Macquarie you will have to wait 12 months before you can apply for an exit entitlement.

Now its time to explore some of the themes in this Tale of Two Cities. When it suits the Government, usually because it will save them some money, Newcastle is a metropolitan city. And when it does not suit the Government, usually because it will save them some money, Newcastle is a regional city.

Lake Macquarie is always a regional city. Its just that sometimes the NSW Government likes to include or exclude Lake Macquarie, depending on whether it will save the Government money, or not.

Another theme worth exploring in this Tale of Two Cities is one of this Governments favourites: putting big business before people. It is a theme this Government returns to again, and again, in many of the Bills it brings before the Parliament, and in many Regulations too.

It is certainly a theme well covered in the Retirement Villages Amendment Regulation 2021. Here we see the NSW Government putting the interests of big business ahead of the people. Here we see the Government shifting the financial burden away from business and directly onto the people. In this case, these are retired people who are on fixed incomes and who should not have to bear this burden.

Last week, I met with about 80 residents living at Eleebana Shores, a retirement village located with the Charlestown Electorate. The residents at Eleebana Shores expressed their dismay and anger at their exclusion from this amendment to the regulation.

"We feel like second class citizens," one resident said.

Another noted that the Government was running retirement villages in a similar fashion to the way big business operates large retail shopping centres.

"We should not be treated like tenants at a Lendlease shopping centre," he said.

I could not agree with them more. I call on the minister to include the constituents of Lake Macquarie in the amendment to the Retirement Villages Amendment Regulation 2021 and start putting people before profits.