Playing Jumanji as they cosied up around the lounge room coffee table. The family sat back in a moment reminiscent of life in lockdown.
"Can I read it? It says, 'Trouble! Hurry and escape, or you'll be covered in rubble!'" Melissa Alfaris, 7, exclaimed.
Melissa and her brother, Ramoy, 10, dominated the board game as their parents quietly played along.
Nawfel Alfaris and Riam Jamel worked hard to give their children a peaceful life in Western Sydney's Macarthur electorate.
The pair escaped Iraq during the war, entrusting Australia as their new home. And they trusted in government too, until last year.
"At the beginning, when people [were] talking about it, like, 'You are from the south-west area', we were like, 'OK, but we're still equal'," Ms Jamel said.
"But what happened with lockdown kind of gave us the proof that we are a second-[class] citizens in Australia."
During protracted lockdowns, helicopters circled above suburbs as extra police officers and the Australian Defence Force put boots on the ground in Western Sydney.
Being part of roughly three million Western Sydney residents hit by worse pandemic restrictions than those in the east was traumatic.
"I think it brought back memories from where we fled. The way that the government handled it at the beginning and the level of harsh response was too much," Mr Alfaris said.
It's a sentiment shared by others in the community, according to Ms Jamel. She desperately wants to move forward, but still feels disillusioned days out from Saturday's polls.
"As a mother for two kids, I'm going to choose someone who's going to be, like, looking [out] for the kids. They have to plan something for the family, but I don't see this," Ms Jamel said.
'The West and the rest': How can trust be repaired?
Constant rule changes and confusing health messaging for the region's large migrant population created mistrust in authorities, according to Mr Alfaris.
However, he holds out hope politicians can turn things around by listening to the communities they serve.
"Trust is starting with communication, open communication. You want your voice to be heard. You want to feel that you have an input with the decision-making," he said.
University student Zahra Soltani agrees "a lack of communication" has led to some feelings of mistrust.
"People started losing their jobs … some [were] living in the street and this kind of poverty, and if they can't provide jobs for themselves they can't have a house or food," Ms Soltani said.
Her family sought refuge in Australia and live in Western Sydney's Chifley electorate, after fleeing Afghanistan more than 10 years ago.
The 19-year-old was in year 12 when lockdown began. She believes a focus on mental health support could help build a bridge.
"They should, especially in high school, provide proper lessons for how to [handle] mental illness and who to talk to."
For the past 18 months, Lan Ta has owned a business in Fairfield — which is located in the Fowler electorate — a suburb once singled out as the epicentre of the Delta outbreak by authorities.
More than six months out of lockdown, the community is still struggling, according to Ms Ta.
It's been "challenging" operating the business but, she said, more support from all levels of government would help.
"Starting small so that we can actually visually see that there's improvements in the local community, or engagement, and then I guess with that trust will build," Ms Ta said.
Focus groups conducted by the Western Sydney Migrant Resource Centre (WSMRC) — across the suburbs of Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury Bankstown — have found that mental health and wellbeing, affordable housing, employment and COVID-19 recovery are also among the top issues for some residents.
"It's very much been 'the West and the rest' and we've seen that divide through policies. However, moving forward, it is about trust rather than policies," WSMRC board director Feng Guo said.
"Something that's very important to people is seeing candidates being visible, engaging with the community, being there on the ground.
"That will really help to bridge the gap that there is definitely right now."
The pro-vice chancellor of the University of Western Sydney, Andy Marks, said the erosion of trust was the repercussion of a "failure of government messaging" during lockdown.
"You need to appeal to its [Western Sydney's] strengths and that regions strengths are its multilingual assets and you don't do that if you fail due to direct messaging to those communities," Professor Marks said.
"But I think politicians could just learn from what we saw in local communities. Those people showed up, no matter what. That's what we expect our politicians to do, at the very least."
