Charles Casuscelli MP - Member for Strathfield
Charles has labelled the hypocrisy of a Labor MP as ridiculous following their education fear campaign.
The Federal Member for Reid, John Murphy MP has been mailing propaganda around the electorate with the title "Save Our Schools – Stop the Cuts" which has drawn the ire of Mr Casuscelli thanks to the horrendous education record of the Federal Labor Government.
"The opening line 'John Murphy MP – Fighting for our local schools' is so ironic it is almost funny," Charles said. "Well it would be funny if they weren't doing so much damage to our students and our country.
"If Mr Murphy is fighting for local schools then why wasn't he up in arms complaining when the Federal Labor Government ripped $600 million from the Computers in Schools programme?
"Where were his complaints when the BER scheme was identified as a haven for rorts and wasted tax payer dollars?
"Why did he not take to the streets in anger when after promising 2,650 Trade Training Centres in 2007 by February 2012 the Labor Government had only delivered 208 of the centres promised and have now dumped the scheme entirely!
"Of course Mr Murphy did not complain about any of these things, he sat in the back benches with the rest of the Labor Liars and sheepishly continued to vote in support of Labor's failed Government.
"If John Murphy truly cared about our local area he would condemn the Federal Labor government and condemn the 16 years of dishonest, wasteful NSW Labor State Government. It is their carelessness which has left our Government with no choice but to make the tough decisions to get our economy back on track.
"If Mr Murphy looked carefully he would see that it is actually the State Government that is serious about protecting frontline education workers which is evident from the $383 million extra we invested to frontline services in this year's education budget.
"Instead of lying to local residents Mr Murphy would be better off being thankful that through Premier O'Farrell and his team we now have a Government that is serious about supporting NSW," Charles concluded.
'Can-Do Casuscelli' has another big win.
Hospital upgrade gives local health services a 'shot in the arm'
In this letter to all residents in the Strathfield Electorate, Charles addresses the issues confronting the NSW Government in its framing of the 2013-14 Education Budget.
Commuters at Strathfield Train Station can look forward to a safer and more hygienic experience in the future as our local member delivers much needed improvements to the busy station.
Residents in our local community have welcomed the news that an extra 31 front line police officers will be protecting residents in the local area.
Charles calls Fazio out on failures she would rather forget
Published in News
Charles has come out on the attack condemning Labor's Amanda Fazio MLC after she attempted to shift the blame away from Labor's legacy of 16 years of waste and failure in the NSW Education Department.
Charles and Andrew Constance, Minister for Disability Services, attended the opening of a new $250,000 state of the art centre for people with disabilities at Ashfield.
This month sees the Chinese, Korean and the Russian communities host their annual film festivals which showcase a range of different movies from their respective countries and help to raise awareness of different cultures in our society.
Charles tells council mayors to 'Get real' on planning
Published in News
Charles tells Burwood and Strathfield Councils, especially its Mayors, to get real and get honest!
"Burwood and Strathfield Council's response to an invitation from the NSW Government to participate in the comprehensive review of the State's planning laws has been one of hysteria and raising unnecessary fear amongst our community," Mr Casuscelli said.
"The Mayor of Burwood needs to be less outraged and more constructive than making silly claims about the lack of consultation. Mr Mayor there is a two month consultation on the Green Paper and the review has been underway for 12 months during which time communities and Councils have been able to participate.
"The Mayor of Strathfield's comment that "councillors will just sit on the sidelines without any power" is nonsense. The Green Paper proposes that community consultation will be significantly strengthened when planning the ground-rules for our neighbourhoods, cities and regions.
"If the Council's were a little more honest they would tell us that the review is proposing to limit the influence of politicians, including local Council politicians from the approval process. There will be an enhanced role for local councils in strategic planning. Local councils will sit on Regional Planning Boards which will provide independent advice to the NSW Government on growth strategies.
"The Mayors should base their comments on fact, only about 4% of applications go to councillors or the independent hearing and assessment panel appointed by council, 96% of development applications are processed by staff under delegated authority and this is not likely to change. Consistent with our approach to de-politicise the planning system, we're also encouraging councils to appoint independent experts to consider development applications."
Currently, consultation mainly occurs when individual development applications are lodged. By this time, many of the key decisions guiding how development will happen have already been made.
"The existing system that the Mayors are defending has contributed to NSW having the lowest housing starts in 50 years and is causing excessive delays for applications lodged by families and businesses," Mr Casuscelli said.
"I am disappointed that instead of promoting community participation and showing some leadership on this issue the Councils are promoting division and petitions. The list of "suspect developments" where politicians have been inappropriately involved and the community interest was ignored is not a short one. Our Government will not be contributing to that list.
"I thoroughly endorse the comments attributed to the GM of Strathfield Council who stated that "the changes would greatly assist planners as well as residents who have often been confused and excluded due to the complexity of the system" well said Mr Backhouse!