Westfield West Lakes

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:55): It gives me great pleasure to rise on a couple of matters which are of great concern to the constituents I represent in the electorate of Lee. The first is something that has been frustrating residents as far back as 2013: the parking arrangements at the Westfield West Lakes centre. The boom gates were originally installed in 2013 and, to give credit where it is due, City of Charles Sturt appealed the approval provided for the boom gates to be installed.

The council challenged Westfield's ability to install these boom gates and went right through to the Environment, Resources and Development Court, under jurisdiction of the District Court, but unfortunately lost that case. Westfield went ahead and installed the boom gates and since then has making it extremely difficult for many constituents to access what was previously freely accessed: a large, fully air-conditioned, comfortable shopping centre. I raise the issue of air conditioning for an important reason: a lot of elderly people would spend an amount of time on a day like today, when the temperature is well above 30°, to escape the heat and try to look after themselves.

In recent times, it has become an important issue for another reason: the safety and security of staff members working at Westfield. Ever since the installation of those boom gates, a temporary parking solution has been provided on the other side of Turner Drive, adjacent to the old Football Park stadium. This is inconvenient at best for workers, who have to walk several hundred metres from their parked cars, and it is outside of a secure, well-lit and monitored parking facility like the remainder of the car park around West Lakes.

Some months ago, there was a series of break-ins, where people were breaking into cars and stealing what they could from these poor staff members, some of whom were stuck working in the centre for longer than eight to 10 hours at a time. Particularly concerning, this happened to a young woman who took her complaint to Facebook and publicised the manifest insecurity of these arrangements on behalf of staff members. I met with a number of workers at Westfield, and I met with the Westfield centre management. I was given, to put it kindly, short shrift from Westfield management about the concerns of staff.

I urged them to place themselves in the shoes of these staff members, many of whom are young women who work in retail outlets, and think about how they would feel when they have to walk back to their cars either in the middle of winter, at the end of a shift on a Thursday night, or even on a Saturday afternoon, feeling unsafe and insecure—particularly if they walk back to a car which has been broken into or violated in some other way.

I asked Westfield what they would do in the future, given that the land around Football Park is to be developed over the coming years and this temporary parking facility for staff is going to be removed. While they admitted that they would look at what they called a 'parking nest' somewhere on their footprint, on the bitumenised car park within the boom gates, they were not in any hurry to announce those plans, let alone get on with them and get ahead of this problem, or let staff know so that they can be offered some hope that they can park securely and safely around Westfield.

Unfortunately, this is the approach taken by this company at West Lakes time and time again. We know that 97 per cent of people who park within the boom gates at Westfield are out within the three-hour free period, so why on earth do they keep these boom gates? They are certainly not suffering overflow car parking from major events at Football Park anymore. It is not like football or concerts are still being played there. It seems that they are maintaining these boom gates out of nothing more than stubbornness, and the refusal to remove these boom gates is doing those staff at Westfield a major disservice.

Once again, like other members of council, like former members of parliament and like current members of council, I beseech Westfield West Lakes to do the right thing by the community, to do the right thing by people who want to go and shop at their facilities and to do the right thing by young people who increasingly work in retail jobs and get rid of these boom gates. Let people park safely and let people have peace of mind that they or their cars are not going to be accosted in the future.