Speed bumps won't stop race to build for the West

There is a fundamental shift happening in Sydney and Greater Western Sydney is at the heart of it.

The long history of Sydney's urban planning saw the east of the city as the centre for jobs and economic growth with the west centred on housing a commuting workforce.

With the opening by the Prime Minister last month of the Interstate Terminal at the Moorebank Intermodal Precinct, a project he kicked off back in 2012, Sydney is looking more and more to its west.

This new Freight Hub, built with $570 million of Australian Government investment, has opened up almost 7,000 local jobs in Western Sydney with more to come.

It is roughly the size of the Parramatta CBD and will provide well-paying logistics, management, and transport jobs for generations of Western Sydney young people.

Western Sydney International Airport is driving a similar change, the $5.3 billion fully Commonwealth-funded development has already engaged 250 Western Sydney-based businesses and employed 7,255 workers, more than half of them living in Western Sydney.

The Airport's Business Precinct, which I turned the sod on recently, and the Airport itself will be home to thousands of workers from retail, hospitality, freight and logistics, airport operations to aviation firefighters. It will be open in 2026 and within five years, will support almost 28,000 direct and indirect jobs.

With the NSW Government we are building two multibillion-dollar transport projects to the airport, both already underway.

First, the Sydney Metro West, a 23-kilometre tunnel which has stations under construction at the Airport itself, the business park, and with planning work to take the line onwards to MacArthur commencing soon.

Second is the M12, the main gateway to Western Sydney International Airport.

These projects will connect the new airport with Sydney's broader transport network from opening day, and are complemented by NSW Government investments in the Aerotropolis and the M12 and M7 interchange.

There are local road improvements too. Dunheved Road in Penrith, duplicating Richmond Road near Marsden Park, a new Campbelltown commuter car park and additional lanes through stage 1 of the Mulgoa Road upgrade.

In total, there is over $14 billion of Commonwealth investment going into transport infrastructure in Western Sydney today.

But if there is one thing my colleagues representing Western Sydney communities tell me, there is always more to do.

The North West, one of the fastest growing areas, has been overlooked by successive Liberal Governments. That's why I put together the Western Sydney Transport Infrastructure Panel to provide advice on what more was needed to realise the potential of Greater Western Sydney as a whole.

Because frankly, what I and the NSW Minns Government inherited from the Morrison and Perrottet Governments was an incoherent mess. It added to the Morrison Government legacy around the country.

Press release after press release of underfunded, under planned, undeliverable projects.

Independent experts warned me that if we didn't take hard decisions, no new projects could be delivered in any jurisdiction for a decade.

That's why last year, we made room in the Commonwealth's 10-year infrastructure pipeline to support new projects in Western Sydney and the rest of the country.

Where we took the hard decision to withdraw investment from a NSW project last year, that funding remained with NSW for future projects, including where projects need further planning, or help meeting cost rises on existing projects.

The NSW Government and I have been in detailed discussions about what planning and construction investment needs to be made in the upcoming Budget so we can unlock the full potential of Western Sydney.

Because what I, and my Western Sydney colleagues, want is for people in Western Sydney to have every opportunity to work locally, to catch well-connected public transport and to live and play in spaces that give every young person in Western Sydney an opportunity to thrive.
 

First published in The Daily Telegraph, 30 April 2024.