Transcript - ABC Sydney Drive

Melissa McIntosh MP
Shadow Minister for Communications
Shadow Minister for Western Sydney
Federal Minister for Lindsay

Transcript – ABC Sydney Drive with Dom Knight

4 April 2025

E&OE

Dom Knight:

Melissa McIntosh, welcome.

Melissa McIntosh:

Thank you very much for having me on.

Dom Knight:

A lot of people have talked about the needs of Western Sydney and what they might like. You're from Western Sydney, what's your perspective on what Western Sydney needs?

Melissa McIntosh:

Yeah, I think it's really interesting what Tom said, just briefly, where he said that a lot of the sort of old Labor members park themselves in Western Sydney seats and have done so for quite some time. And the Prime Minister made note of having cabinet ministers. Peter Dutton had put me in as a Shadow Minister for Western Sydney in our Shadow Cabinet. And that's something that the Labor government doesn't have at all. So, we're really focused on Western Sydney and not taking it for granted, which what those Labor members have done because they have been in safe seats. Cost of living is absolutely the number one issue. I'm in Penrith, if you came out, we don't have the Chaser stunt so much anymore in Penrith.

Dom Knight:

Sad to say, Melissa.

Melissa McIntosh:

But if you came out it is actually really, truly sad, you come out to Penrith now and you've got double income families lining up at our food banks and really struggling to feed their families, but they're still working, you know, on those double incomes. It's a really aspirational place. People want to live in Western Sydney, certainly in my part of the world. And then also infrastructure is a huge one and you would have seen that in Peter's announcements today around fixing local roads. And we have an international airport opening next year, which creates wonderful opportunities for our kids to have the jobs that are coming with an international airport. But the roads around the airport have potholes, which is extraordinary. The Airport’s opening in a year's time and there'll be major freight on these roads. So, we've invested in upgrading these roads as well. So, Labor and I'll be a little bit political here, seeing as we're talking politics.

Dom Knight:

Hey, the election campaign's on. Why not?

Melissa McIntosh:

Labor ripped $2 billion of funding out of Western Sydney roads. And one of our commitments in my own area is to actually just put the funding back because the people need the road finished. So, I think the story there is that Labor has been taking the people of Western Sydney for granted. They've been trying to hoodwink us with ripping funding away and then re-announcing things like now in the election, wanting everyone to be appreciative. Yet people are struggling right now like never before. And in Western Sydney, you drive everywhere, so you need those roads upgraded. And you also, I think, need to be able to afford petrol, which is where our commitment to halve the fuel excise comes in, which will help all those tradies, you know, get to work more affordably and families who are travelling around.

Dom Knight:

Melissa, Peter Dutton described today home ownership as Western Sydney's dream. It's also been called the Australian dream more broadly. Is your party doing enough to put people into homes in Western Sydney? Because we know just how far incredibly expensive housing is in Sydney, and I'm certainly not saying the status quo is working. Everyone I know under 40 really doesn't think they'll be able to access housing that they own. Is your party putting enough on the table to fix this?

Melissa McIntosh:

Yeah. It's certainly right that home ownership does feel out of reach for so many young Australians. And, you know, the great Australian dream of having your own home seems to be slipping further and further away. And that's why we made an announcement to unlock those new developments and put funding into those gridlocks on developments, whether it's water or sewerage connections that are holding up a lot of the developments. Labor promised to be building new homes, and they haven't built one new home at all. So, I think that is a key policy and an impact of that in Western Sydney, of course, is around migration. We have huge population growth in Western Sydney and we need the infrastructure to keep up. We need the housing supply to be there and for things like interest rates to be managed and to be coming down so people can afford their dream home.

Dom Knight:

One of the things that your party would do if elected is allow young people and people in general, to access $50,000 of their super to buy housing. Wouldn't that just drive prices up further, though? Do you need to be more ambitious in actually building some of this housing?

Melissa McIntosh:

Well, we certainly do want to be building more housing and that's why we're investing in ensuring that we can unlock those new homes. You just drive around Western Sydney now and between Penrith and the airport, we have, going through areas like Luddenham into Oran Park and around Campbelltown, it's new housing developments. But there is a break on these new housing developments when connections can't happen like water connections. So that's why we're investing that, to unlock these new homes. And that's where a lot of families want to be living, and they will make those investments if they have the supply there and it's affordable. Another issue, as I'll go back to again, is people do want to move out to Western Sydney, but they can't get around without driving in traffic and I heard the traffic report just earlier and saying, the M4 - there's an accident on the M4. There's an accident on the M4 at 2 o'clock and you don't get home to 6 o'clock in the evening. We need to be doing much more for the people of Western Sydney and that's why we're investing a record $1.7 billion infrastructure. That's our commitment to the people of Western Sydney with a new airport coming on, an international airport, providing so many opportunities and with so many people that want to call Western Sydney home.

Dom Knight:

Final question, Melissa, and this is from the text line. Your guest talks about road upgrades, but won't removing the petrol, well, I guess reducing the petrol excise leave less money for roads generally. That tax does go to fund roads, yeah.

Melissa McIntosh:

We're looking at it for 12 months and then it will be reviewed again. But I think it's an immediate cost of living relief for Australians and it will happen straight away. We'll get in and it'll be straight away the Albanese Labor government's promising 70 cents a day in 15 months time. So, I think that's the real question is how can we provide relief to Australians? The Australians, as I said in the opening, that are now lining up at food banks and that's why we invested in food banks in our budget in reply to support them because they're working as volunteers harder than ever before. Yeah, first is taking the pressure off everyday Australians.

Dom Knight:

Thanks for your time, Melissa.

Melissa McIntosh:

Thank you very much.

ENDS