Butcher Noel Yeo is part of the economic engine driving western Sydney. Picture: Cameron Richardson. Source: The Daily Telegraph
SYDNEY'S west is bracing for more than $2 billion in redevelopment in a move aimed at lowering the gap between the city's haves and have-nots.
Within the next 10 years, there could be another 65,000 jobs in Sydney's west and an expansion in research and development, as the region prepares to absorb more than half of the metropolitan area's population.
A Daily Telegraph investigation can reveal that councils are rezoning land to create new business districts with mid-rise office towers, while a new taskforce investigates master planning an 11,000ha western Sydney employment area, from the M4/M7 interchange to Badgerys Creek, to be home to 40,000 workers. The proposed airport at Badgerys Creek, backed by an alliance of business and Unions NSW, would also be a jobs powerhouse for the west.
The push comes as the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) warns that without more business opportunities in the west, cost of living rises would push higher education and opportunities out of reach for families on the brink. A western Sydney economy forum will this week shed the spotlight on the lack of new jobs being created in the west, with ABS statistics revealing incomes and jobs growth are rising faster in suburbs east of Parramatta, while the most disadvantaged people in NSW live in Sydney's west.
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"As much as 50 per cent of western Sydney's potential workforce is not engaged in effective work," a WSROC strategy for change paper said.
Western Sydney Business Chamber head David Borger said the future of the western Sydney economy conference this week would challenge business to meet the demands. "There are challenges and this conference is going to recognise those. What is driving western Sydney is population growth, an extra two million people are going to live here by 2051, that will generate demand for all sorts of businesses to set up," he said.
"The population is growing faster than NSW and the country. This tsunami of population growth is an opportunity for businesses to grow and prosper. We are going to need to see some major industry establish themselves here."
The Urban Taskforce found the west had a severe jobs deficit, with a workforce of 977,000 but only jobs for 777,000. Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson said western Sydney needed a different spread of jobs than just manufacturing. "This is the dilemma, how to get service industry jobs to provide the right range of projects that need to occur," he said.
The state government wants 50 per cent of new jobs to be created in the west by 2031, with minimum targets of 20,000 new jobs in Parramatta, Penrith and Liverpool by 2021, 4000 jobs in Blacktown and Bankstown, 2000 in Castle Hill and 5000 jobs in Campbelltown/Macarthur.
"Western Sydney is at the heart of our economic strategy to drive growth and prosperity for the city," Planning Minister Brad Hazzard said.
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