Mr ALISTER HENSKENS (Wahroonga) (17:25): The most recent example of Labor breaking a promise it made at the last election—that it would not privatise public assets—is the proposed sale by public auction of Crown land at 100-102 Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga. At the last State election, the Labor Party put privatisation of public assets front and centre with a pledge that there would be no privatisations under Chris Minns as Premier. This election promise, which is being broken constantly, was accompanied by a false scare campaign that the Coalition would privatise Sydney Water. In my eight years as part of the former Coalition Government—including as the third most senior Liberal Minister in this House at the time of the last election—I never heard any Coalition MP ever contemplate, let alone talk about, the privatisation of Sydney Water. It was just one big Labor lie.

The current Labor Fox Valley Road sale has greatly concerned local residents. The site to be privatised comprises two Torrens title lots with a total of 6,861 square metres of land, which was most recently used for a public purpose to support construction during the recent Coalition Government's Pacific Highway upgrades at Turramurra and Wahroonga. The site being privatised has a C4 environmental zoning under the Ku-ring-gai Local Environmental Plan 2015 and comprises a number of environmental features, including a bushfire vegetation buffer and a Vegetation Category 2 designation under the LEP, terrestrial biodiversity area mapping, biodiversity value overlay and riparian lands designation.

The site sits an imposing 18 metres above the rear boundaries of residential properties on Campbell Drive. The land is currently owned by the State Government and controlled by Transport for NSW. My recent representation to the Minister for Roads on behalf of a constituent objecting to the sale has gone unanswered, notwithstanding my request for an urgent response. This is a rare piece of public land that is located within an established low‑density residential area in Wahroonga. In that particular area of Wahroonga, there is very little green space or recreational area for the community to enjoy, despite a huge increase in apartment housing approved by Labor.

The Labor Government intends to sell off this public land, despite its election promise not to privatise government assets. The auction of this site is scheduled to occur soon, on 31 March 2026, despite there being no consultation with local elected representatives or members of my community prior to offering it for sale. This is completely unacceptable, and my community deserves greater transparency from a government that ran on a no‑privatisation platform at the last election. This is just one example of many sales of public land in my electorate. There is also a proposal to sell the heritage-designated Hillview Community Health Centre, which is an historic property in Turramurra.

I have spoken about that matter before in this place, but I raise it again given my concerns about public land in my electorate. Labor's audit of so-called surplus land in 2024 identified Hillview at 1334 Pacific Highway, Turramurra, as suitable for housing. That land is vital for the future widening of the Pacific Highway and the expansion of the North Shore train line. Hillview is located adjacent to the North Shore train line at Turramurra, on a part of the Pacific Highway where the highway narrows and tidal lanes are used to manage traffic at peak times. That causes confusion for drivers and becomes a major bottleneck at peak times. If additional high-rise housing along the lines of the Labor Government's planning policies is located along that stretch without any commitment to upgrade the highway, the problem will only be exacerbated.

To sell the site without proper planning for highway widening would likely complicate any future attempts to remedy that significant pinch point. Anyone who regularly drives that major arterial exit north of Sydney knows how precarious it can be. After writing to the Minister for Lands and Property about the issue, I received a response that advised that part of the property will be used for future road widening of the Pacific Highway while the other part will be offered to the open market. The letter was silent on the issue of leaving land for the expansion of the North Shore train line. Extraordinarily, the letter stated that Landcom and Homes NSW were not interested in using the land for housing. The Government is wiping its hands of its responsibility for housing and offering the land for private housing, in breach of its election promise of no privatisation.