With the people: Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott at Mulgoa Preschool. He was joined by his daughters Bridget and Frances. Picture: Brendan Esposito
LAST Saturday I was at Leumeah train station near Campbelltown to talk about the Coalition's plan for safer streets and increased security video presence in crime hot spots.
On Sunday, my daughter Bridget and I helped out with a Clean Up Australia Day event at Duck Creek in Auburn — a great community event led by our candidate for Reid, Craig Laundy, and with many local participants helping out to clean up this degraded waterway.
I visited Rooty Hill on Monday morning and got stuck in the usual bumper to bumper traffic on the M4 — which only highlighted for me the importance of the Coalition's commitment to get WestConnex built.
On Thursday, I visited Mulgoa Preschool with Fiona Scott, our candidate for Lindsay, and two of my daughters, Frances and Bridget, to talk about the Coalition's plans for more affordable and flexible childcare for the families of western Sydney.
I have visited western Sydney some 51 times since the last election. I know that the people of western Sydney want constructive engagement with their national government.
They want reassurance that there are people in our public life who have a plan for them and their future.
The Coalition's plan for western Sydney is quite straightforward: we'll improve the transport problem through building WestConnex; we'll help reduce the cost of living pressures by abolishing the carbon tax; we'll get security video cameras into crime hot spots to send a message to criminals that crime doesn't pay, and we'll reintroduce proven policies on border protection and the boats.
No one has said that western Sydney is second-rate but the Labor Party has treated western Sydney as second-rate by neglecting it and taking it for granted for so long.
There are many people in western Sydney who are doing it tough right now and they need hope and confidence that there can be a better government in Canberra.
This is the change for the better that the Coalition can deliver.