Ex-NSW premier John Fahey wants to invoke natural disaster rules to fast track infrastructure out West

FORMER premier John Fahey has championed a radical plan to fast track critical infrastructure for Western Sydney using powers last ­invoked for the rebuild following deadly Cyclone Yasi to make local, state and federal agencies answerable to a single boss.

FORMER NSW premier John Fahey has championed a radical plan to fast track critical infrastructure for Western Sydney using powers last ­invoked for the rebuild following deadly Cyclone Yasi.

Mr Fahey, who ran the state between 1992 and 1995, told The Daily Telegraph the key to creating vital roads and rail for the fastest growing region in the state was a total shift in power and governance.

Politicians’ dubious pet projects would be axed and ­infrastructure delivered decades earlier under the idea to introduce a co-ordinator general with the authority of a premier in Western Sydney.

The plan would effectively override multiple authorities in local, state and federal agencies and make them answerable to a single boss.

Former NSW premier John Fahey in Sydney earlier this month. Picture: Damian Shaw

The new chain of command would ensure any project falling outside a 50-year strategic plan would be swept aside in favour of a critical rollout of health, social, education and infrastructure needs.

“I think the west of Sydney needs a co-ordinator general with wide-ranging powers to go around councils and various agencies and to bring them to the party, without delays,” Mr Fahey said in an exclusive ­interview for the Project Sydney Go West campaign.

“If you have your co-ordinator general, that person could ride shotgun,” said Mr Fahey, who is chairman of the Commonwealth Reconstruction Inspectorate and chancellor at Australian Catholic University.

Former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard ­invoked special co-ordinator general powers for the rebuild of Grantham in Queensland after the 2011 flood which destroyed the town, shaving years off the ­reconstruction process.

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As Prime Minister, Julia Gillard (pictured with Grantham residents) ­invoked special co-ordinator general powers for the rebuild of the Queensland town after it was destroyed by the 2011 and in so doing shaved years off the ­reconstruction process.

Mr Fahey’s radical plan for a Western Sydney co-ordinator general was designed to meet the needs of the ballooning population at a significantly faster pace through a strategic rollout of parks, education and university ­facilities, rail and road infrastructure and health centres.

The area should be considered a stand-alone city and have an ambitious 2050 master plan that does not get tangled up in the red tape of multiple agencies before it can be executed, he said.

“It’s a high jump bar and not a 400m hurdle race.”

It would be the co-ordinator general’s job to establish priority corridors for services, roads and rail, “to make the area, as much as possible, self- sufficient”.

He said too often ministerial discretion meant billions of taxpayer dollars were squandered on “pet projects” of disparate and questionable value that did not fit future strategic plans.

Mr Fahey said government departments were sometimes guilty of making changes “for reasons known only to them” — often to the detriment of the big picture.

He said the new southwestern suburb of Oran Park in his old electorate of Camden was an example where a lack of co-ordination and planning had compromised the lifestyle of residents and cost taxpayers dearly.

“Nobody has set aside a corridor for transport and now they are going underground (for a train station to the suburb) at great cost. You could only say some planner has stuffed up,” he said.

EX-PREMIER NICK GREINER SAYS STICK WITH BEREJIKLIAN

LIBERAL Party federal president Nick Greiner has called on voters of Western Sydney to stay the course with the Berejiklian government to work through an infrastructure backlog left by the neglect of subsequent Labor governments.

“You don’t have to be the federal president of the Liberal Party to see a lot has been achieved,” said Mr Greiner, who was John Fahey’s predecessor as NSW premier.

Former NSW premier Nick Greiner at his office in Sydney earlier this month. Picture: Damian Shaw

Mr Greiner said the pace of progress achieved by the Berejiklian government was unprecedented in state government history, including his own four-year government to 1992.