State Member for Wallsend, Ms Sonia Hornery MP, will today move a Notice of Motion in the NSW Parliament, calling on the Minister for Regional Transport to make the Regional Seniors Travel Card fair for all local residents.
The Motion calls on the Minister to ensure that all seniors that live in the Newcastle Local Government Area are included in the Regional Seniors Travel Card program.
Since the program first launched in January 2020, Ms Hornery’s office has received hundreds of calls, emails and letters from upset residents who have been denied access to the program. Many of these residents live in areas where there is little or no public transport and transports costs are high.
Despite numerous attempts to change the Government’s position on this, including a petition of more than 12,000 local impacted residents, the Government has refused to approve the card for Newcastle residents.
“This Notice of Motion will give me another opportunity for a debate on the floor of Parliament on this issue” Ms Hornery said.
“This program has been a shambles since it was first rolled out in 2020.
“The Minister will have an opportunity to debate the issue and explain his reasoning behind excluding large sections of the Wallsend electorate.
“There are more than 12,000 local residents in the Wallsend electorate who have been excluded.
“There is no sense to the argument of Newcastle not being regional, when neighbours living side by side in the same street are either eligible or not eligible.
“We are sick to death of being left out of programs by this Government.
“Whether it is funding for CCTV cameras, sports, arts, tourism or transport, we are not receiving our fair share.
“The Government like to pick and choose when they refer to Newcastle as regional and when they refer to us as metropolitan.
“The simple fix is to make all those that live in the Newcastle Local Government Area eligible,” said Ms Hornery.