Mike Baird outlines plan to attract one million jobs to NSW in twenty years

ENTREPRENEURS and fast-growing small businesses are Premier Mike Baird’s secret weapons to add one million jobs to the state in 20 years.

• ‘TERROR THREAT’ SEES SYDNEY OUT OF TOP 10 LIVEABLE CITIES
• NEW SYDNEY TRAINS WILL HAVE WIDER SEATS, CHARGING STATIONS

ENTREPRENEURS and fast-growing small businesses are Premier Mike Baird’s secret weapons to add one million jobs to the state in 20 years.

Mr Baird will detail his jobs plan at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) speech today, outlining how he will split a $190 million fund to attract international companies to NSW and drive the growth of start-ups.

Mr Baird will release the Jobs of the Future report, which shows small and medium businesses have created more than one million new jobs between 2008 and 2014, despite only making up 6 per cent of businesses in the state.

Growing the state... NSW Premier Mike Baird wants to attract international companies to NSW

The report also shows how much the NSW economy relies on service industries — with 44 per cent new jobs in NSW over 20 years coming from health care, social assistance and professional, science and technical services.

The government will announce fast-growing small to medium businesses will get access to a $50 million loan guarantee program and $3.5 million in direct loans to grow jobs, start-up incubator networks will get $10 million to expand, and start-ups will get $3 million in direct grants.

Premier Mike Baird’s hit-list

Western Sydney Airport has been identified as one location the government could create an industry cluster to boost jobs in Sydney’s fastest growing region.

The report says that in boosting the number of jobs by one million, the government needs to make NSW the best place to work for people aged 65 and over and for women with children, make NSW the most liveable state by reducing commuting time and making housing more affordable, and grow jobs in regional NSW.

Large and international businesses will be attracted to base themselves in NSW with a $30 million fund, and another $30 million will go towards growing regional companies.

Fast-growing small businesses are Premier Mike Baird’s secret weapons to add one million jobs to NSW

The report shows NSW is falling behind other jurisdictions in helping start-ups grow into bigger businesses, and major challenges including an ageing population and the automation of jobs have to be planned for. Mr Baird said he wants the private sector to drive the necessary job growth in NSW.

“NSW leads the nation when it comes to job creation, but we know the world is changing and we must keep adapting,” Mr Baird said.

“Our small, fastest-growing companies create the most net jobs in NSW. Supporting these ambitious young firms grow into even bigger companies is essential if we’re to grow resilient jobs for the future.”

Mr Baird said the “private-sector driven approach” gave the state a road map for job creation.

“We want start-ups to turn into the major employers of the future — high-growth companies which are recording significant year-on-year revenue and jobs growth,” the Premier said.

Jobs for NSW chairman David Thodey said fast-growing small to medium businesses, known as “gazelles”, were the future of the state.

“In particular we now understand the vital role of gazelle companies when it comes to creating jobs, but also their existing funding challenges,” Mr Thodey said.

“A large proportion of our funds will be targeted towards these companies.

“Now we’ve released this plan we must now focus on execution of the plan — our measure of success will be job creation.”

The report shows that in 20 years the number of working people to children or dependants will be cut from two to 1.5 — meaning there would be 370,000 fewer people in paid work.

New generation double deck trains will begin rolling onto our railways from 2019

$2.3b next-generation train built in Korea

Ian Paterson

THE next generation of Intercity trains are expected to be pulling into stations in three years, ushering in a new era of long-distance travel for commuters amid critics’ claims the state government project is sending jobs overseas.

The $2.3 billion contract to build 500 new double-deck carriages went to RailConnect, a joint venture between the Hyundai Rotem Company, Mitsubishi Electric Australia and UGL Rail, with the trains to be built in Korea.

NSW Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union condemned the failure to include any local content requirements in the tender and said the Baird government had made a deliberate decision to send jobs overseas.

However, Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the winning tender was 25 per cent cheaper than any other bid and included the construction of a new maintenance facility at Kangy Angy on the Central Coast to service and maintain the new fleet: “This is great news because we will see Australian jobs as part of the consortium and at the same time have the expertise brought here to Australia with this type of train, which will deliver incredible services.”