WESTERN SYDNEY “STATE OF THE REGION” 25 May, 2022

“Big projects, better communities, brilliant opportunities: turning aspiration into opportunity in Western Sydney”
The state of the region in Western Sydney is important – because the fact is, this region is the barometer for opportunity in Australia.
And when Western Sydney goes well, Australia goes well.
It’s great to be joining you for my first major speech after the federal election.
This was a hard fought election – with a mixed bag of outcomes across the electorate – and real challenges for both major sides of politics.
I want to pay tribute to the former PM and his government for their service to our nation at a time of crisis.
When you compare Australia to other nations, we have come out the other side much stronger and that is an extraordinary achievement.
And I look forward to working very constructively with the new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his government to keep getting good outcomes for our state.
I have always said it doesn’t matter what colour the government is in Canberra, my job always is to fight for the best interests of the people of NSW – and that is what we will continue to do.
I believe that our party’s natural constituency is represented right here in the West.
It’s here that you will find families who are making sacrifices and daring to dream – to earn success for themselves and their communities.
This aspirational ethic is driving Western Sydney’s boom.
And it’s the same value at the heart of the Liberal party that Robert Menzies founded in the aftermath of another crisis – World War 2.

Aspirational families have a vision – they are not complacent, they are working towards a goal.
They want a government with a plan that ensures their hard work translates into real opportunity.
That is now the challenge for the newly elected federal government.
And the challenge for state governments is no different.
Make no mistake: coming out of the pandemic, we are at a pivotal moment for our state and our nation.
There are still choppy waters to navigate – from extreme events like the recent floods, to cyclical challenges like rising inflation and skills shortages.
Governments will be judged on their ability to solve the complex problems of this moment in history, and secure a brighter future for families and communities.
That takes a mix of imagination and pragmatism – and that is the essence of our government.
Here in Western Sydney the strain of the pandemic has highlighted a range of challenges.
But because of the foundations we have built over the past decade – I believe Western Sydney is on track to become Australia’s great success story of the 21st century.
So today, as we focus on the state of the region in Western Sydney and its future, I want to talk about three things.
First, the foundations we have laid here – particularly in terms of major infrastructure.
Second, the next step in our plan – focusing intensively on investing in communities.
And finally, the kinds of opportunities that we are creating – and will create – for people who live and work in the West.

So first, the foundations.
What happens next for Western Sydney will rest on what has happened so far, because the best indicator of future success is past performance.
Over the past 10 years, the transformation has been meteoric.
The population has grown by 21 per cent – twice as fast as the rest of NSW.
The region is home to more people than Perth or Adelaide.
The number of employed people has grown by 26 per cent – that’s 300,000 jobs.
To put that in perspective, that’s approximately the number of jobs lost in NSW, and subsequently recovered, at the height of the pandemic.
There are 160,000 more homes.
37,000 more students in school – and 70 new and upgraded schools for our kids to learn in.
And the region is a hive of industry and innovation.
The number of small and medium businesses has increased from 153,000 in 2016 to more than 191,000 in 2021.
That’s a 25 per cent increase in just 5 years – despite the pandemic.
This is a region going places – fast.
Now, we know that rapid growth can be a challenge.
But our Government has faced it head on – and we have planned for it.
The first priority was building the missing links.
Backbone infrastructure that you need for future growth.
Complex projects that take a long time to plan and determination to deliver.

Sometimes I think back to 2011 when I would go out to geological drilling sites for the Metro NorthWest as a new member of parliament.
It’s hard to believe in that short space of time, we have gone from just an idea – often promised, never delivered – to a fully functioning, world-class metro line – and it has electrified the Hills.
NorthWest Metro is just one of the many mega-projects we have delivered in the West. To name a few:
● The South West Rail Link
● The Parramatta Light Rail
● The M5 West widening
● The WestConnex M4 Widening
● The New M4 Tunnels
● The M8 Tunnels
● And the M4 Smart Motorway
That’s just a snapshot of major roads and rail.
There are also 6 hospital redevelopments, Western Sydney stadium, pinch-point projects – the list goes on.
We have become accustomed to this scale of construction now, because of how much we have built.
But the reality is, this is historic transformation. And it doesn’t just happen automatically.
Delivering complex projects means overcoming constant obstacles, and fighting opposition at every step.
Opposition on the routes.
Opposition on construction.
Opposition on funding.
Even opposition from the opposition.

And every inevitable hiccup has been used as a reason to oppose and obstruct.
Delivering major projects also means making the kinds of decisions that make some people happy, and others unhappy.
In politics, you can try to please everyone, but the only way to do that is by building nothing – and leaving a backlog for future generations.
The point is, our children and our grandchildren are worse off when we put off making the tough decisions today.
Our Government has always been on the side of pragmatic progress, because we know Sydney’s west can’t afford another lost decade.
Instead, we have had a decade of delivery.
Parramatta feels like a new city, teeming with commerce, culture, community – and confidence.
Building the light rail was hard for some.
But now when I talk to the retailers and cafe owners along the route, they are ecstatic that it went ahead.
In Bradfield, where there were paddocks, we now have the foundations of a new airport – and growing communities all around.
After decades of NSW dragging its feet, it’s only happening now because we had two governments – one federal, one state – with a imagination and vision, and willing to take some pain for the long term gain.
Bradfield is not the only major project still underway.
There are more metros – Metro West, Metro Western Sydney Airport, and Metro City and South West.
A few weeks ago we announced the contracts for the M12.

There’s the Growth Roads program, a new Hawkesbury crossing in Richmond, and of course the final stage of WestConnex.
Hospitals that will rival the best in the nation – at Liverpool, Campbelltown, Blacktown, Westmead and Nepean.
These ongoing mega-projects span vast areas.
Without them, the future of Western Sydney would be one of stagnation and frustration.
Because of them, we have the basis to build a brighter future for the west.
They are happening because we planned for it years ago.
So today, we are still looking ahead – this time with a vision for local infrastructure.
We will build on the West’s foundational strength by investing in communities and growing local economies.
At the height of the Delta outbreak last year, I spent a lot of time working with Western Sydney communities to understand the unique challenges they faced.
And the message I got was clear: we need local investment.
Smaller scale projects that make communities great places to live.
Parks, pools, revitalised main streets.
Facilities for sport and play, arts and culture.
Spending weeks in lockdown highlighted how important this kind of soft infrastructure is for quality of life.
Our response was WestInvest – a $5 billion fund for community infrastructure right here in Western Sydney.
$2 billion is set aside for community-led proposals.

Registration of interest closed in April – and more than 1,000 eligible projects were submitted.
I’m excited by the local interest in this program.
Now WestInvest is not our only means for community investment.
But it is strongly symbolic of our mindset – moving from the mega to the local, building social infrastructure to strengthen community and culture.
Because we know that aspiration for a better life shouldn’t just be measured in economic terms.
Quality of life matters.
We are working to make every neighbourhood in NSW a place with the social and community infrastructure so everyone can love where they live.
WestInvest also represents the virtuous cycle that occurs when you find the means to invest and build.
Ten years ago, after decades of governments saying too hard, too expensive and no we can’t, we said to the people of Western Sydney: yes we can.
We can build WestConnex – the road the West has needed for so long.
We used our asset recycling approach to make sure it was fully funded.
And because of that, the biggest road project in the nation is now entering its final stretch.
With WestInvest, the virtuous cycle continues – using the value of the asset we built to deliver another wave of investment in Western Sydney communities.
Those investments will yield local economic and social dividends, creating more local opportunities for work, business and play – and so it continues.
There is an irony here.

Our political opponents have done nothing but oppose WestConnex, and the asset recycling program that made it possible
And yet it was their leader – Neville Wran – decades ago – who sold off the road corridor where this Western motorway was supposed to go.
That’s an example of bad, short-sighted privatisation causing problems for future generations.
We’ve fixed the problem of their making – and the fact is, without asset recycling, there is no WestConnex, no WestInvest, and less investment and opportunities for families in the West.
Our commitment is to keep finding ways to say yes to the West – investing in local communities to secure a brighter future.
Building infrastructure – on the mega scale, and on the local scale – is about improving quality of life.
But it has also set up the West’s economic future.
And the Aerotropolis may be the most significant economic project in NSW since the middle of last century.
Right now, unemployment is at historic lows, so job-creation might not be top of mind.
But our government looks to the long term.
We understand that in this period of global and regional realignment – in this time of massive technological disruption – the decisions we make about our economy today will determine the quality of life future generations can enjoy.
This is where the aspirational values of our government set us apart.
Like the families of Western Sydney – we want to leave a legacy that builds on what we have been given – and expands the range of opportunities for the next generation.
We cannot squander our inheritance – we have to grow it.

That is why we are working to beat the competition and nurture new industries with a long and fruitful future.
With that in mind, today I can announce for the first time – a $260 million funding commitment to deliver the Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility – in the heart of Bradfield City Centre.
Western Sydney is already the home of advanced manufacturing in Australia.
This new facility – as part of the Aerotropolis – will turbocharge the region’s advanced manufacturing capabilities – and establish Bradfield as the largest and most advanced industrial ecosystem in the nation.
It will bring together the most advanced research and technology – from industrial leaders, and the best researchers in the nation – along with the resources of government
And it will put that expertise and the most advanced manufacturing technologies in the world at the service of local businesses – launching them into a world of new advanced manufacturing opportunities.
Most importantly, it will support the creation of new high-skilled jobs right here in our west.
Historically this has been a stumbling block to aspirational families.
Finding high-skilled, highly-paid work locally has been much harder in Western Sydney.
And the educational institutions teaching those skills have been much more difficult to access.
Bradfield – and facilities like the AMRF – can change all of that.
They will make the West home to the very best of education and skills training, research, industrial firepower and government resources.
And that means high skilled, high paying jobs in future-focused industries here in Western Sydney, for decades to come.
The AMRF model has had huge success in other cities – like Sheffield in the UK.

And it will build on the success of Western Sydney’s pioneers of advanced manufacturing:
LA Services in Revesby.
Romar engineering in Sefton.
Vitex Pharmaceuticals at Eastern Creek
Just over a year ago, Baxter Healthcare in Old Toongabbie was one of the first local businesses to sign up to our JobsPlus program.
Baxter is Australia’s only local manufacturer of intravenous medical fluids – and JobsPlus has enabled them to expand their local operation by 20 per cent.
These are industry leaders in a sector that is ready to launch.
And their success offers a firm rebuke to those who say NSW doesn’t make things anymore.
We do.
NSW is already Australia’s manufacturing capital.
And with initiatives like the AMRF, we are making the future of our country right here in Western Sydney.
So while others focus on manufacturing from last century, our focus is on the future – the next generation of manufacturing – creating jobs for generations, and taking Western Sydney into the economic stratosphere.
That is the trajectory I believe Western Sydney is on after a decade of delivery.
The conditions in this region are totally unique.
It has deep historical and industrial roots – with energy and optimism of a surging population.
A critical mass of people that can move an entire nation’s economic dial.

We have space for communities to grow – and the planning to make sure they grow well.
And we know that when the West goes well, our entire state goes well.
That is why this forum – the state of the region for Western Sydney – matters so much more – not just for the West, but for our entire state.
Your aspirations for Western Sydney – are our aspirations for NSW.
What we bring to the table is a plan to make the most of those conditions, and secure a brighter future for the West.
Strong foundations of critical major infrastructure.
Investing in local communities, to make every neighbourhood a great place to live.
And growing the industries of the future – to grow the local economy and create quality jobs for generations.
The past few years have been tough – but they are no match for the progress we will make in the years ahead if we keep going as we have begun.
And if we do, there is no doubt in my mind that in the decades ahead, Western Sydney will rival any city in Australia and the entire Asia Pacific region on every measure:
For opportunity – for quality of life – and for the aspirational families of our state