Sunny Li is a 33-year-old corporate worker who lives in one of the most congested areas in Australia, Sydney's bustling and diverse suburb of Burwood in Sydney's inner west.
He says he spends about 2 hours each day getting to and from work in the Sydney CBD.
“We have a young family, for me, I just want to spend time with my kid as much as possible," he tells SBS News.
"So if I can reduce my travel time from an hour to 30 mins just to spend an extra hour with my child, that's all I really want.”
Sunny Li with his wife Christina and son Brooklyn. Source: SBS News: Lin Evlin
Sunny identifies as a swing voter, having voted for both major parties in the past and says budget policies will be key in helping him decide who to vote for at the upcoming federal election.
“Infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure will be one of the key policies I would be looking at in terms of which way I am going to vote.
“If one of the parties announces that they would improve our train stations, improve our roads, I would definitely be looking at the policies in more detail.”
For Sunny, his daily commute is not only time-consuming but also uncomfortable.
“The trains during peak hour on a weekday is jam-packed, I am usually fighting to even get standing room,” he says.
“We are literally packed like sardines and standing nose to nose with other people in the carriage.”
Sunny Li spends two hours a day travelling to and from work. Source: SBS News: Lin Evlin
Near the banks of the Parramatta River, Bronwyn Evans lives in a townhouse and travels by car each day to work.
“I work in Macquarie Park which should be a 22-minute drive but it can take me an hour or more," she says.
“We've gone from 6,500 planned apartments to nearly 15,000 that are going to be built and there's been no commensurate investment in infrastructure to provide means for people to get in and out of the suburb either by car or public transport.”
Bronwyn Evans is not convinced by the Morrison government's population policy. Source: SBS News: Lin Evlin
Bronwyn is particularly concerned about a lack of long term policy to tackle the problem.
“I make my decision in the lead up to the election, however I am a pretty sceptical voter,” she says.
“I hate taglines, I want to see policies that have credibility, that are researched and that are not dealing with knee jerk decisions.”
The federal government finally detailed its long-touted plan to ease congestion in Australia's biggest cities last week.
It involves a smaller annual permanent migration cap and several incentives designed to attract to and keep skilled migrants and international students in regional areas.
But Brownyn is not convinced.
“I think it's window dressing, it's a populist policy," she says. "It's not actually going to do anything to fix the problem.”
Bronwyn Evans says traffic congestion is often a "nightmare" in the Wentworth Point area in Sydney's inner west. Source: SBS News: Gerard Phelan
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has already announced this week $253 million dollars will be included in next week's budget to help ease congestion in NSW to fix known bottlenecks on Sydney's roads and car parks at train stations.
The seat of Reid has historically been an ALP stronghold but a redistribution of federal boundaries has made it far more competitive between the two major parties.
It was won for the very first time by the Liberal party in 2013, and again in 2016 by a slim margin of 3.3 per cent by publican Craig Laundy.
But he has already announced his retirement from politics and will not be re-contesting the seat at the federal elections.
The Liberal Party is yet to announce a new candidate for this seat but the race to win over this key electorate is likely to be fierce.
