Like many of Sydney's public schools, Lidcombe Public School is bursting at the seams. With surging enrolments, and much of the outdoor space overtaken by demountables, parents were asking questions about the site of the closed motor registry next door, owned by Roads and Maritime Services. Opposition Leader Luke Foley, the local member, says he lobbied the government to make the land available for the school to expand. But the government sold the land to a private company late last year.

The Opposition Leader tells this story of what he calls the state government's "ultimate shortsightedness in its addiction to asset sales" to explain why he used his Budget Reply speech on Thursday to call on the government to give the Greater Sydney Commission the power to take land from other government agencies for schools.

Even at the current boosted rate of spending on building schools announced in Tuesday's budget, Mr Foley says, the government is spending only about one-third of the $10.8 billion a leaked Department of Education report says is needed to meet surging enrolment demand in the public school system.

"The Premier boasts of the billions the government is making from asset sales," he said in his speech. "If we can't secure the future of our state's schools now, when can we?"