Campaign to establish The Hills to be global food bowl with Western Sydney Airport
Hills Shire Mayor Michelle Byrne has established a campaign to see The Hills become the world’s food bowl with Western Sydney Airport.
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A bid to turn The Hills into the “fruit bowl of the world” has been championed by Hills Shire Mayor Michelle Byrne during a discussion about the role of Western Sydney Aerotropolis.
During the State of the Region address last week, Premier Gladys Berejiklian was grilled by business leaders over the role the airport would have on the economy.
Ms Berejiklian forecast a “post-Brexit era” would result in the western suburbs being established as “the leader in manufacturing across the region”.
However, Cr Byrne said business could also go “back to basics”, allowing farmers in rural areas of northwest Sydney to expand from “Sydney’s food bowl to the world’s”.
“Access to the second airport … is also critical to securing Sydney’s food bowl by allowing produce to move more easily through the city to be exported via airfreight,” Cr Byrne said.
“Not many people are aware that The Hills has a rural component that extends through to the Hawkesbury producing cut flowers, mushrooms, stone fruit, blueberries and other produce.”
She also called on the Premier to fast-track funding to link the Metro at Rouse Hill to the airport.
“The sooner the proper rail connections are in place, the faster hundreds of thousands of residents living in northwest Sydney can access the southwest for jobs and vice versa, as well as accessing the new airport and the education and innovation hub that will grow around it,” she said.
Ms Berejiklian said western Sydney generated a third of all employment opportunities across the state and the aerotropolis would “give western Sydney the edge” for the knowledge-based industry boom.
But Ms Berejiklian continued to be questioned over how she would tackle the decline in opportunities for manufacturing in NSW.
She said the state needed to focus on jobs and industries which it was unsure about how they would perform in the future.
“Because if there’s a new industry emerging, let’s be the ones to find it and implement it (at the aerotropolis), let’s not wait for someone else to do it, because they automatically bring jobs with them as well,” she said.