Parramatta’s booming population of educated professionals spend big in the West’s heartland
A booming aspirational class of educated professionals are pouring money into Parramatta where a once Labor stronghold has been returned to the Liberals for a historic third term; Premier full steam ahead on stadium demolition as business and industry back the election outcome; and, One Nation’s first elected NSW member. ELECTION WRAP
NSW
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A booming aspirational class of educated professionals are pouring money into Parramatta where a once Labor stronghold has been returned to the Liberals for a historic third term.
Strong household income growth and private sector investment in the area have dramatically changed the local economy and voting habits of the multicultural electorate. Liberal MP Geoff Lee retained Parramatta at Saturday’s election, having wrested control of it from Labor in 2011 — breaking the party’s almost continual 52-year hold on the seat.
Mr Lee said Parramatta was “rapidly changing” with more young families and professionals moving towards the city to be close to work and for the lifestyle.
The median household income in Parramatta jumped from $1314 a week in 2011 to $1739 in 2016, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics census data.
In the five years to 2016, the number of residents with a university degree increased from 27.4 per cent to 47.1 per cent. While the electorate is still considered a very safe Liberal seat, there was a 1.4 per cent swing against the party on Saturday.
Mr Lee said he believed the drop in party support was due to “construction weariness” as voters get restless about seeing the final results of major infrastructure projects such as the Parramatta light rail, the Westmead Hospital expansion and WestConnex tunnel, which will all do wonders for the area and its residents.
“People see all these buildings going up and streets closed off but the benefits haven’t flowed through,” Mr Lee said.
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A senior NSW Labor source said the demographic changes and voting results indicated Parramatta could become a bellwether seat.
“People were dissatisfied with, but not angry enough, to boot the government,” the source said.
“(Parramatta) is full of young people and families from all over the world who have found somewhere they can afford to live and are very aspirational.
“They work their way up and then suddenly realise they’ve got to send their kids to school and it’s full … or they’re spending a fortune on toll roads to get to work.”
Alex Aslan, 33, runs Parramatta cocktail bar ALEX&Co and said professionals with cash in the area were increasingly willing to spend locally.
“I think (Parramatta) is changing, there’s always been money here, but that money hasn’t usually been (spent here),” he said.
“The difference has been they’re more happy to stay.”
Talking with customers everyday, the Groundskeeper Cafe manager Zoe Magadze, 28, said the areas of Parramatta once frequented by drug dealers are now filled with professionals having lunch.
“(Customers) say Parramatta has grown so fast in the past 10 years, they just can’t believe the change, there’s a lot of change,” she said.
Premier full steam ahead on stadium demolition
The demolition of Allianz Stadium is full steam ahead with Premier Gladys Berejiklian saying on Sunday that her triumphant election result was a resounding endorsement of her sporting infrastructure spending.
“A lot has been said about that issue but I knew, especially in western Sydney, (stadiums) wasn’t the number one issue people were worried about. It wasn’t even the number one, two or three issue people were worried about. When I went to the bush people talked to me about roads and water security,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Legendary broadcaster Alan Jones told The Daily Telegraph that the coalition’s win was a resounding endorsement of the stadium’s policy.
The government will forge ahead with the knockdown and rebuild of Allianz Stadium as well as the refurbishment of ANZ Stadium.
“Daley and his sycophants believed baseball bats were waiting for Gladys over the stadium,” Mr Jones said.
“Well to use a sporting expression, look at the scoreboard!”
“If you have to tell lies to win you finish up as distant second. Ask Michael Daley.”
Labor leader Michael Daley pegged his ultimately unsuccessful campaign on stadiums spending with the slogan “schools and hospitals before stadiums”.
— Anna Caldwell
Latham becomes One Nation’s first elected NSW member
Controversial former Labor leader Mark Latham has returned from 14 years in the political wilderness to emerge as One Nation’s first elected member in NSW.
Delighted One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Mr Latham’s victory in securing the party’s first seat in the NSW upper house would also be reflected in polling in the forthcoming federal election.
Mr Latham, 58, tweeted that “it’s an honour to be elected to serve in state Parliament”. But the political brawler, sacked from Sky News for calling high school students “dickheads”, was already throwing political punches on social media on Sunday morning.
He responded to federal Labor MP Michelle Rowland’s branding of One Nation as “racist” by saying: “I won’t be lectured to by these people. Michelle Rowland represents a party where its state leader attacked Asians simply for being Asian, spreading disgusting falsehoods.
“NSW One Nation ran a great Islamic candidate in Hornsby, a top role model for integration/success in life.”
With half the vote counted, Mr Latham seems assured of securing one upper house seat with fellow One Nation candidate Rod Roberts hotly tipped to take a second.
“I’m absolutely delighted with the result. I’m very pleased to see Mark Latham elected and there’s a strong chance that we’ll get Rod Roberts up,” Ms Hanson said.
She said her party’s success in the NSW election “is clear indication that the policies that I have been espousing for many years are resonating with people who want change”.
“I’m talking about immigration, education, all this rubbish about gender identity,” Ms Hanson said.
Early voting results show Shooters, Fishers and Farmers (SFF) candidate Mark Banasiak will join SFF party leader Robert Borsak in the upper house, giving the party two seats in the 42-seat chamber.
At this stage the Coalition has won seven seats, meaning Liberals Catherine Cusack, Damien Tudehope, Taylor Martin, Natalie Ward and Natasha Maclaren-Jones have been elected, along with Nationals Sarah Mitchell and the departing Niall Blair, who quit on Sunday.
Labor currently has six seats, meaning Tara Moriarty, Penny Sharpe, Greg Donnelly, Anthony D’Adam, Daniel Mookhey and Peter Primrose are in. The Greens leader David Shoebridge is back along with new Greens candidate Abigail Boyd.
With just 54.5 per cent of the votes counted, four seats remain in doubt.
Ms Hanson said the success of One Nation and other minority parties in regional areas highlighted the failures of the Nationals in the bush.
“(They) have not been doing their job, they have not represented rural and regional areas for a long time,” she said.
Labor leader Bill Shorten gave short shrift to Mr Latham’s return to politics, saying talking about him “takes us nowhere”.
— Matthew Benns, Clare Armstrong & Edward Boyd
Business and industry back Berejiklian’s return
Business and industry groups have backed Gladys Berejiklian’s election win and say the next four years should result in more economic certainty and job creation.
NSW Business Chamber chief Stephen Cartwright said lifting the payroll tax threshold to $1 million will help ensure the state is the nation’s top-performing economy.
“For small businesses in particular, they were most concerned that proposed changes by the opposition to the payroll tax system would limit their opportunities to grow and employ extra staff,” Mr Cartwright said.
“It is in all of our interests to ensure NSW remains the state to do business in the nation.”
Australian Industry Group NSW head Mark Goodsell called on the Premier to fix the state’s gas supply issues to help struggling manufacturers but added he hoped “good policy can be put ahead of politics in the Legislative Council, given the potential for strong crossbench representation”.
— Edward Boyd
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