Labor candidate David Saliba with Western Sydney voters where there is a sense of neglect. (NIKKI SHORT)
Camera IconLabor candidate David Saliba with Western Sydney voters where there is a sense of neglect. (NIKKI SHORT) Credit: AAP

Sense of neglect as Sydney's west leans towards Labor

Farid FaridAAP

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One third of the anticipated 4.7 million votes cast at the state election will be lodged in Western Sydney, with some of NSW's most marginal electorates to decide the contest.

In the safe Labor seat of Fairfield in southwestern Sydney, David Saliba introduces himself as a first-time Labor candidate to punters.

Born and bred in Fairfield, the mild mannered 37-year-old economist built up a CV in counter-terrorism with the Australian Federal Police, as a reservist in the Army and consulting firm KPMG.

"Government needs to do more in order to ensure that this area is looked after and I can do that by being a strong advocate," he told AAP in his first media interview.

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"People have come from war-torn backgrounds from overseas with significant traumas experienced and they're coming here to have a better life. They also want to contribute because they understand how societies can break down."

He identified a number of pressing issues in the seat, including high youth unemployment, at 16.8 per cent.

Growing up with a single mother who migrated from Lebanon, Mr Saliba navigated school in a crime-riddled suburb infested with drugs and gangs.

That motivated him to focus on his education and prompted a later move to work as a youth mentor.

The jump into state politics was a continuation of a sense of community pride, he said.

"I'm a life-long resident here and I've had opportunities because of the investment the community made in me.

"We owe it to the community to do right by them ... and I'm doing this because politics gives you a platform to change things... and to organise to make things better."

Nicola Ristic, 74, is on the main strip where old men speaking Assyrian and Arabic play backgammon and cards as they banter over cups of tea and cigarettes, when Mr Saliba approaches him.

A loyal Labor voter all his life, Mr Ristic blames the coalition for ignoring services in the southwestern Sydney suburb where has been living for nearly four decades.

"They have never even bothered to talk to this side (of Sydney)," he told AAP in the Fairfield CBD where several shops have closed or are up for lease after the pandemic.

"They're always taking care of rich people."

Mr Ristic hopes a Labor win will put Fairfield back on the map but also instil a new sense of optimism.

"It's going to get some big attention with issues affecting our area especially retirees like me,'' he said.

"If they win, it will create a more understanding, helpful and friendly society because we have a lot of immigrants here who have been neglected."

Labor has committed to expanding Fairfield Hospital with an initial $115 million delivering an extra 130 beds. The hospital was last upgraded in 1988.

Sawsan Theodore, a former chef in her 50s, was shopping for groceries and spoke to Mr Saliba, who connects with Fairfield's voters, mostly of Assyrian heritage.

Assyrians are a Christian minority spread across Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey who have been targeted by various terrorist groups including Islamic State.

"I hope things will change with Labor," Ms Theodore says.

"Why wouldn't I vote for him (Mr Saliba) since he's a son of the suburb? We're voting for honest politicians who want to help people and we've heard good things about him."

Hailing from Damascus, Ms Theodore escaped the grinding civil war in Syria in 2015 as a refugee and received her citizenship last year.

This will be the first state election where she will cast her vote.

She is mostly worried about the rising cost of living.

"Everything is wildly expensive now. Groceries have gone up considerably as well as electricity bills and social welfare checks are not enough to pay for everything," Ms Theodore says.

Her concerns about inflation track with a new report released earlier this week by Western Sydney University identifying the soaring cost of living as a major vote decider in one of the most culturally diverse regions of Australia.

"Labor or the coalition need to recognise that Western Sydney is not an amorphous kind of whole," co-author of the report Professor Andy Marks told AAP.

"It's actually a lot of distinct communities with very different interests and very different needs."

He said the election would be won on a hyper-local level where voters are more interested in issues that affect their neighbourhood than the entire state.

"There's no pathway to victory for either party unless they win Western Sydney ... but what works for a particular party in Parramatta, for example, will not work for them in for them in East Hills."

He said the harsh lockdown laws imposed by the government during the pandemic would not be easily forgotten.

"Those areas of hard lockdown in Western Sydney, people's lives really oscillated around a couple of blocks ... while other parts of Sydney had a reprieve - they remember those things," Prof Marks says.

"So issues about services in their immediate area such as schools and health services... start to become pretty focused."

In East Hills, held by Liberal MP Wendy Lindsay by a 0.1 per cent margin, there's a similar sentiment of neglect.

Premier Dominic Perrottet has campaigned hard in the seat, visiting the electorate this week to announce an expansion of a school financial literacy program and a $200 million upgrade to Henry Lawson Drive earlier this month.

But for Peter Baines, a 61-year-old pensioner living in a housing commission block in Revesby, he maintains a new government is long overdue.

He has voted for both major parties in the past.

"We're sick of their s**t. The Liberals have had 12 years in power and I've had nothing done for me," he said metres away from Ms Lindsay's electoral office, while decrying the demise of housing services.

The public housing waiting list stands at 57,000 people.

"All they've built is toll roads but that doesn't help me," Mr Baines says.