Mr REPACHOLI (Hunter) (13:42):  Speaker, the most iconic Aussie movie of all time, The Castle, or as some people call it, the Casel, it depends on where you are from, made one statement that not a single home or landowner could disagree with.  “It’s not a house, it’s a home, and a man’s home, is his castle.”

But Speaker, the storyline of The Castle is playing out for people in parts of my electorate right now. The NSW government is compulsorily acquiring land in order to build the Singleton Bypass, and it’s caused a battle for those who own the land.

Now, we all know how much that bypass is needed, and even the farmers who have to sacrifice their land agree with the merits of the project, but these farmers should at least be justly and properly compensated, instead of being ripped off and stuffed around.

This is what one farmer had to say. A vegetable grower in my electorate who is one of 44 landowners to have their properties taken from them says “we’ve got nowhere to go, in 4 months, we’re finished. They’ll put us out of business”.

Farmers have called this process 2 years of hell when all these people want is a fair deal so that they can move on. Well Speaker, in the words of Darryl Kerrigan, I am going to stand with these farmers and “tell ‘em.. to get stuffed”. Something needs to be done and something needs to be done now!  Farming families are being ripped off at the hands of a senseless, merciless state government in NSW who are not only out of touch with these farmers, but careless to their needs.

“For the regions” it says on all of the National Party puffer vests. But they’ve forgot to include the fine print, they’ve left out the disclaimer. Their signs should say “for the regions just not farming families in singleton”. “for the regions *but we don’t wanna pay when we take farmer’s livelihoods away from them*”.

In some cases, the NSW Government aren’t even paying farmers half of what their land is worth. One farmer in my electorate had the NSW Government offer around $500,000 for a property valued at close to $1.5 million. Tell em they’re dreamin’.  And to make matters worse, to add insult to the pain already suffered by these farmers who did nothing to bring this upon themselves, Transport for NSW is now demanding rent on occupied farms, and the NSW Government is standing by and letting it happen.

The State government have told these residents to “suffer in your jocks”. What a pathetic joke of a government. Maybe if the state member who represents that area wasn’t a member of the government, they’d have someone who actually cares and will go out there and represent them instead of just politely asking that his government be a bit nicer. But that’s why I’m here Speaker – to stand up for these people when no one else will and I will not rest until these farmers are being treated decently by this NSW government.

One farmer’s property had been owned by their grandfather and has been in their family for well over a hundred years. This isn’t just land for these farmers Speaker, this is a livelihood, this is their family heritage, this is their home. The least the NSW Government could do is to pay what it’s worth and allow these farmers to properly rebuild their lives.  But instead, The NSW Government are taking people’s money, people’s income, people’s job, people’s way of life and they are not even giving them proper compensation for it.

And do you know what an official from Transport for NSW said to these residents? In their exact words, they said “We don’t care about your business”.  Speaker, the NSW Government are tearing apart the lives of these farmers and they’re leaving generations of family farming ruined. And they just don’t care because clearly, they aren’t worth as much as a big new road.

I’m not arguing against the singleton bypass, I’m arguing for common sense and basic human decency, and maybe, if the NSW Government is capable, just a little bit of compassion for those whose whole life has been uprooted.  The road into Singleton is one of the busiest roads on New South Wales every morning. We just need the Bypass to start and the Farmers to be compensated correctly

Shame on you NSW Government, Shame!!