A colossal cultural change is taking place on infrastructure, and pushing it along is one of our local political representatives – along with the Prime Minister.
Hume MP Angus Taylor, who was the guest speaker at a business luncheon in Campbelltown yesterday, says it’s imperative infrastructure leads growth, not follow it, as has been the way in our country.
“A lot of the reason locals in the south west region and here in Macarthur are stuck in gridlock is because the road infrastructure should have been done years ago,’’ the rising star of federal parliament tells the South West Voice after the luncheon.
“Look at Narellan Road, I travel on it a lot and every time I sit on it I think why wasn’t this done 10 years ago, 15 years ago.
“Now we’re playing catch up and we have got to get that catch up done at Camden Valley Way, Northern Road, Eagle Vale Road, Gregory Hills Drive, Spring Farm, Badgally Road and so on.
“We should never again put ourselves in the position where we are playing catch up.
“And that is why as part of our Smart Cities Plan both the Prime Minister and myself want to see infrastructure lead growth, not follow it.’’
Mr Taylor, who is the Assistant Minister on Cities and reports to the Prime Minister, told the luncheon that with one more million moving into west and south west Sydney in the next 20 years, the next two years will be pivotal and will “shape the fate of our region’’.
He said that what’s happening in cities is the 21st century equivalent of nation building and here the big key, other than putting in the infrastructure first, was the international airport at Badgerys Creek.
It’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs, Mr Taylor said.
He wants to help redress the imbalance which sees 800,000 jobs in inner city Sydney for a population of 900,000 but just 300,000 local jobs for one million people in west and south west Sydney.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“We want more good jobs, jobs that are within reach of this area, which means within half an hour of around here,’’ Mr Taylor said.[/social_quote]
“I think there’s great potential for manufacturing jobs, even though it’s true that manufacturing is changing all over the world.
“Narellan Pools in my electorate, for example, these guys are exporting pools to the world – we are probably the best manufacturers of pools in the world.
“And these little niches now we’re picking them up at pace.
“We’ve got to create the environment for them to succeed. And we’ve got to make sure there’s a skilled workforce in this area,’’ Mr Taylor said.
“With the dollar at US 75 cents, where I think it should be, we can be competitive with the rest of the world.’’
But with one million coming in a hurry, will the jobs also grow to keep pace with such massive population growth?
“The airport at Badgerys Creek is the key,’’ he says.
“Everywhere around the world airports create a huge number of jobs, but remember that when people know there’s an airport coming they start to invest, so we want to see investment well ahead of the first flight out of Badgerys.
“It is a big opportunity for our region, so what we are doing is creating certainty to encourage people to invest here.’’
Nea Makowski
Let’s hope…
All political parties would be much better off if their members were of the same calibre