Future Western Sydney: Local leaders blast Albanese’s migration numbers
Education Minister Prue Car has been forced to commit to building a new school in Box Hill in response to desperate pleas from residents who say they have been left in a “wasteland of forgotten hopes”.
NSW
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Western Sydney leaders have blasted the Albanese government’s approach to migration as “irresponsible” amid the region’s crippling infrastructure shortage.
Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone said his council area had taken in 20,000 migrants in a single year.
“We have currently got 750,000 people coming in this year. I’m not against migrants, my parents were migrants … we understand the positive aspects of migration … but we also understand the challenges that does create for the local communities,” he said.
But Mr Carbone said the influx of migrants was placing more strain on Australian housing with locals missing out on having a backyard.
Urban Taskforce head Tom Forrest said it was “irresponsible” to bring in more than 700,000 new migrants without a plan to deliver on housing.
“The real problem here is it’s the Commonwealth’s responsibility,” he said.
“We want to see the infrastructure to support it (migration). The bottom line (to) the federal government is, you brought in 700,000, how about you put some dollars on the table (for infrastructure)?”
REAL WORK NEEDED ON ‘AEROFLOPOLIS’
The shovels need to hit the ground so the discussion around the flailing aerotropolis can turn positive and to the future jobs and opportunities the area will provide, the Future Western Sydney summit has heard.
Western Sydney Airport CEO Simon Hickey, on a panel hosted by Telegraph journalist John Rolfe, said the precinct surrounding the facility had to be filled with “jobs that are fit for the next 100 years, not the past 100 years and actually develop those new jobs and create those opportunities for kids who are growing up today”.
He said the next 12 months would be crucial and that MOUs signed with businesses had to begin to yield benefits.
Planning Minister Paul Scully said the NSW Government has put in place a team sequencing and delivering road infrastructure.
“I wish we had a different scenario when we took office a year ago … but there was a lot of focus on delivering a Metro for when the airport opened up,” he said, adding not enough focus had previously been put on roads.
He highlighted the change in Prime Ministers from Malcolm Turnbull to Scott Morrison had resulted in “lost focus not only on the airport, but the surrounding area”.
Professor Andy Marks, the executive director for the Centre of Western Sydney, said the precinct should be talked about not just as a development exercise – but also an economic and jobs boost for the region.
“You’ve got youth unemployment in double digits in Granville (and other places) around the airport,” he said.
DAI LE INTERVENES ON HOUSING
A federal MP has been forced to intervene and help push forward housing projects in infrastructure-starved south western Sydney as the state’s housing crisis reaches fever pitch.
Fowler Independent MP Dai Le has been facilitating projects herself, saying it was crucial politicians aren’t just talking about solutions.
“I believe very much that as a leader we have to focus on solutions,” she said at the Daily Telegraph’s Future West event.
“My decision back then, last year, was that I bring together federal, state and local government departments … as well as private landholders to say, ‘What can we all do together to actually make sure that we can actually aim to build?’.”
Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone said he agreed with Ms Le that there needs to be more collaboration between the different levels of government.
He called for stronger protections against foreign buyers being able to invest in Sydney where prices are already high.
“We’ve reached a stage now where we have overseas foreign buyers that are buying thousands of homes, not because they want it to be their home but because they want to make money on it,” he said.
“Quite simply, I think we should be prioritising Australians who actually want to make it their home.”
CAR PROMISES BOX HILL A SCHOOL
The NSW government has committed to building a new school in Box Hill, after The Daily Telegraph revealed the booming suburb had been left behind by years of inaction.
Responding to resident Aravind Vijay during the Telegraph’s Future Western Sydney event, NSW Deputy Premier Prue Car was asked if she will commit to build a new school at Box Hill — not just in neighbouring Gables.
“We will need to, absolutely need to,” she said.
“There will be schools where people live.”
Ms Car would not put a time frame on the new school.
Ms Car promised to speak with Mr Vijay directly about progress — after he wrote about his plight in Wednesday’s Telegraph.
PLEA FOR MORE FEDERAL FUNDS
Ms Car also used The Daily Telegraph’s Future Western Sydney to make an impassioned plea to the Commonwealth government to kick in more funding for NSW’s public schools.
Talking with Telegraph journalist Angira Bharadwaj on stage at the event, Ms Car said it was crucial that the federal government chip in a greater share of funding – up to 25 per cent – for public schools in the state.
Box Hill resident Aravind Vijay also asked a question from the crowd, of when booming western Sydney suburb Box Hill would get its own school – not just Gables.
“So what we will do is, as I said in my speech, fast track the development of the Gables (school) and then we need to seriously look at what we can do to fast track what’s happening at Box Hill,” Ms Car responded.
“You have been completely let down by previous governments.”
‘AMBITIOUS’ 100 PRESCHOOLS PLAN
Labor’s promise to “plan, design, and build” 100 preschools from scratch in just years is “ambitious,” Education Minister Prue Car says.
However, Ms Car said planning reforms to fast track the schools will help “shave months” off the planning process to meet the pre-election commitment,
“Families across Western Sydney have been let down by a system that strangled infrastructure delivery with red tape.”
“We are doing everything to deliver (new schools) as soon as we can,” she said.
Ms Car said the preschools will be a valuable investment in childrens’ future.
“Studies have shown it delivers one of highest rates of return on investment for governments. According to some studies – it could be as high a $2 for every $1 spent,” she said.
“Nowhere in the country os the issue of ensuring public schools are fully funded more important than in Western Sydney,” Ms Car said.
Ms Car emphasised that an historic pay deal for the state’s teachers will help improve standards across the board.
“At the end of the day, demography should not determine destiny,” she said.
“That is what a fair go is all about.
“A Fair Go for the West should mean a Fair Go for everyone in the West,” she said.
SCHOOL PLANNING UNDERWAY: CARR
Planning approvals for a new school next to the booming suburb of Box Hill is underway, Deputy Premier Prue Car has told the Future Western Sydney summit.
Responding to revelations in The Daily Telegraph that families in the growing community are being forced to travel 90 minutes to drop their kids to school, Ms Car said a new school at Gables — a few minutes drive away — is finally in the works.
“That planning approval process for the school is now underway, finally. We will deliver a new public school, with 44 classrooms, that will cater for 1000 students from the Box Hill community.”
“This is not where we should be in 2024. This community has waited far too long,” she said.
“The number of dwellings in Box Hill has grown by more than 400 per cent.”
“This community will not be forgotten, and I look forward to updating them further – on how we intend to fix the mistakes of the past.”
The former government set aside land that could have accommodated four schools in Box Hill. Not one has yet been built.
However delays in the planning system mean plans for the school are not set to go on public exhibition until later this year.
COALITION TO BLAME FOR SCHOOL FAIL: CAR
Families in Western Sydney have been let down by the previous government failing to build the schools it promised, Education Minister Prue Car says.
Ms Car told The Daily Telegraph’s Future Western Sydney event that families in Jordan Springs, Marsden Park, Gledswood Hills, Gregory Hills, Schofields, Tallawong, Box Hill and Gables were all promised new schools that were never delivered.
“Developments were approved of houses but schools didn’t follow,” she said.
“There is no choice to send their children to a local high school … public schools did not exist,” Ms Car said.
Ms Car blamed the former Coalition government for the crisis, by failing to plan for population growth.
She said an enrolment audit found growth in Western Sydney left population forecasts “for dead”.
She said the 10 places where school enrolment growth had been highest were all in Western Sydney, booming some 240 per cent.
$600 KFC THANKYOU
Families from Liverpool West Public School bought $600 worth of KFC to feed workers tasked with removing asbestos from contaminated mulch that had forced students to learn elsewhere.
Deputy Premier Prue Car opened her address to The Daily Telegraph’s Future Western Sydney event by highlighting how migrant families facing crippling cost of living pressures were so grateful to labourers helping reopen their school that they raised hundreds of dollars to buy the workers fried chicken.
“After a week of watching the labourers on site working literally 24/7, well into the night … these parents went out door to door, collecting money off their neighbours to buy these workers dinner — $600 worth of KFC.
“Suburban families facing the same if not harder cost-of-living pressures as many others across the state, yet they still forked out hundreds of dollars to feed those working to re-open their school,” Ms Car said.
The Education Minister said the generosity was a demonstration of the values many people of diverse backgrounds hold in Western Sydney, including the importance of education.
“To me this encapsulates the story of Western Sydney: a story not just of aspiration, but one of educational aspiration.”
BOOMING, BUT CONCERNS REMAIN: ENGLISH
The Daily Telegraph’s Future Western Summit has kicked off at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse, with Daily Telegraph editor Ben English welcoming a crowd of luminaries and leaders to the 10th anniversary of the summit.
“Western Sydney has vaulted ahead in the decade since The Daily Telegraph launched our Fair Go for the West campaign,” he said.
“Funding, from both the government and the private sector, has notably increased – and not before time.
“Political priorities have shifted, at least to a degree, from Sydney’s former demographic core to its current Western location.”
Mr English highlighted the booming growth of western Sydney – but said it hasn’t come without issues.
“Yet obvious concerns remain, as we reported this week. The rapidly expanding Western Sydney suburb of Box Hill is a case in point,” he said.
“According to NSW government plans published in 2018, four public schools were initially planned for Box Hill. Families and young couples planning their families moved to the area
on the promise of those schools and related infrastructure.
“But here we are, six years later, and not a single Box Hill school has been built. More alarmingly, no site for a school has even been purchased.”
He also warned that a prevailing “anti-west” sentiment did linger despite the massive strides the region has taken in recent years.
“So far as missed marketing opportunities go, this is on the epic end of the scale. And it also speaks to another continuing Western Sydney concern – the political and social establishment’s dismissive anti-west attitude,” he said.
NSW Deputy Premier Prue Car heads a swath of political and corporate leaders gathered at The Daily Telegraph’s Future Western Sydney event, discussing solutions to a range of issues facing the rapidly growing region, including the Western Sydney airport, transport and housing.
Ms Car will deliver the keynote address at the annual event, hosted by Daily Telegraph editor Ben English.
The event began at midday, and is the culmination of the Future Western Sydney campaign which, champions this productive and dynamic region and advocates for the best outcomes for its diverse and youthful population.
DON’T BLAME US FOR AEROFLOPOLIS
Ahead of today’s event, the Western Parkland City Authority’s (WPCA) chair Jennifer Westacott declared problems facing the beleaguered AeroFLOPolis are not the Western Parkland City Authority’s fault, the authority’s boss has declared, with WPCA chair Jennifer Westacott instead blaming “successive governments” for failing to deliver infrastructure to support jobs and investment.
Breaking her silence for the first time since The Daily Telegraph first revealed concerns about the stalling Aerotropolis, Ms Westacott sensationally hit back at critics including Premier Chris Minns, declaring “someone needs to take charge” of delivering the 11,200 hectare precinct.
The Telegraph can for the first time reveal that almost $9 billion worth of prospective development at the Aerotropolis is waiting for planning approval.
In a stinging rebuke of criticism levelled against her agency, Ms Westacott said the problems facing the Aerotropolis should not be blamed on the WPCA, because those problems are “out of our control”.
“We’re responsible for delivering Bradfield (City Centre),” she said.
“We’re not responsible for Mamre Road. We’re not responsible for some of the areas that are the subject of the conversation about infrastructure and things like that, we don’t have that infrastructure role,” she said.
“A lot of the stuff that people are frustrated about stuff is that’s not in our domain of control.”
Ms Westacott said she “absolutely” thought the WPCA was being unfairly maligned for problems facing the Aerotropolis as a whole.
One of the biggest criticisms of the Bradfield City Centre and the Aerotropolis has been the apparent lack of action in getting signed deals with international companies to move into the would-be hi-tech hub.
Ms Westacott said the government has now signed “memorandums of understanding” with 40 companies.
“We are working now to get about half a dozen of those to ‘deal’ phase by the end of the year,” she said.
Ms Westacott would not reveal which companies are being pursued for new agreements, citing commercial confidentiality.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph can reveal that $8.7 billion worth of projects across the Aerotropolis are sitting in the planning pipeline.
“That’s 80,000 jobs,” Ms Westacott said.
“None of these companies have pulled out. All of these companies are still active and we are working with them to turn these into commercial deals,” she said.
The comments come days after the Telegraph revealed Mr Minns was considering embarking on a rescue mission to save the stalled precinct with a new agency to get things back on track.
One of the biggest hurdles to investment is a lack of infrastructure around the Western Sydney Airport that businesses need before they move in.
“That was not our role to co-ordinate the infrastructure around Mamre Road in particular, and that’s got to happen,” Ms Westacott said.
“Our job is economic development and to deliver Bradfield. But someone’s got to take responsibility for delivering the infrastructure and co-ordinating infrastructure around the airport,” she said.
She backed calls for a new agency or “co-ordinator general” to ensure infrastructure like roads, water and electricity is built
“The other thing that needs to happen is the Commonwealth needs to get back in the game. It’s their airport, and they’re spending a lot of money on it,” she said.
Ms Westacott called for the Albanese government to chip in for roads around the airport, and announce a rail extension to Leppington and Glenfield.
The comments echo calls from the state government for the Commonwealth to reverse infrastructure cuts that put a road linking the M7 and M12 at risk.
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