Hornsby State By-Election 19th October 2024

As a Hornsby Shire Councillor, I heard your frustration at being treated like a political football kicked between the two major parties – taken for granted by Liberals, punished by Labor. 

Residents are angry with the Liberal incompetence that led to the recent rate increases. Handing over Epping to Parramatta Council resulting in a loss of $10 million in rates each year; the $90 million in pork-barrelled money forcing us into trophy projects we can’t afford to complete or maintain – with an unachievable deadline that could have been extended, but wasn’t. While essential services are ignored.

With over a decade of neglect by Liberals and now Labor, parents are desperate for more public schools, especially a comprehensive co-ed high school in Hornsby. They are bursting at the seams and children are in desperate need of specialist teachers to help with learning difficulties, but public schools are underfunded by $2 billion a year.  While over-funded private schools build indoor pools, performance theatres and cafes. Properly funding our public schools will allow smaller class sizes and the resources our children need for high-quality education.

Our public health system is a mess. Nurses, midwives and paramedics deserve a decent pay rise and better working conditions. Hornsby Hospital needs more funding and resources. More funding is needed for public dental and mental health care.

Despite only being delivered in 2019, a mere 400 car parking spaces were allocated for Cherrybrook and rural residents. This was woefully inadequate from day one, but nothing was done about it. We urgently need more parking at Cherrybrook Metro, along with more bus services to the metro and train stations, and well-connected cycle paths. 

Immediate and substantial investment in government-owned affordable housing is crucial for essential workers who deserve to live close to work. Having sold off $3 billion in public housing while the Liberals were in government, there are almost 60,000 households waiting, desperate for public housing.  We know the current measures offered by Labor and Liberals will only drive up the cost of housing, and the thresholds make it impossible.

State roads are a neglected mess. I want solutions for New Line Rd that improve pedestrian safety and traffic flow. The community needs to know what is in the $20 million traffic study so we can do more than just widen 1km of road. If there are other cheaper and easier alternatives to help ease the travel time and make crossing it safer, we need to know what they are, now.

With new planning regulations coming to our neighbourhoods, the Low to Mid-Rise Housing changes are set to destroy the tree canopy and character of our neighbourhoods. These state government changes must be stopped. 

As I proved on Council, I will be the strong voice needed to stand up to these changes that override our local planning powers and ignore our community voices. I will push to end private certification and the 10/50 rule that is so often abused. I will fight for action on climate change and to protect our environment.

We urgently need to stop native forest logging – in just two years the logging of native forests cost NSW tax payers approximately $28 million to prop up an industry that chips and ships our majestic eucalypts overseas for paper, pellets and burning for energy.

Up and down the coast, native forests badly ravaged by the 2019/20 bushfires or put aside for the Great Koala National Park, are still being clear felled, despite the forest’s desperate attempts to regenerate and recover.  

In contrast, the plantation timber industry earns $90 million profit. The Greens will invest in the plantation timber and transition workers to this sustainable industry.

We know rampant, unchecked land clearing is fuelling our extinction crisis with Australia having the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world. 

NSW loses 75 hectares of native vegetation a day – that’s 4.9 million native animals killed every year from loss of habitat and injury due to logging and rampant land clearing. We’ve lost 61% of our native vegetation since 1788!

We must strengthen our environmental laws so they are fit for purpose and do their job, if we are to stop the extinction crisis we have created.

There is so much to do, so much damage to repair.

With my background in manufacturing management and having run my own business, I know how to achieve results. I have the tenacity and experience to make our community voices heard. Hornsby, I will represent you, not property developer’s or corporation’s interests.

Please contact me on 0435 434 233 or tania@taniasalitra.com