Project Sydney: ‘Dear Premier... don’t leave Sydney half built’
SYDNEYSIDERS are fed up. Fed up with a constant clamour of construction and fed up with not enough being achieved. Against that backdrop high-profile corporate and community leaders have penned an open letter urging the Premier to keep a long-term view, warning “the job is only half-done”.
Project Sydney
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Dear Premier,
Dear Premier,
Long before our State embarked on its biggest infrastructure program in almost a century, Sydney was one of the world’s most enviable cities.
Tourists, students and workers flocked to our beautiful city each year for our golden beaches, world-class universities and prosperous economy.
And as our population expanded, the infrastructure that supports our metropolis also had to grow.
Understanding our urgent need, your government dramatically changed the course of our history for the better.
The sale of the State’s electricity assets, backed by popular support, created the opportunity — and we seized it.
We have made huge strides since then, with ambitious projects that show the world our city means business.
Since April 2015, there have been almost 200,000 new jobs created across NSW. (That’s nearly half of Canberra’s population).
Our unemployment rate has plummeted to the among nation’s lowest. It feels like a long road, but the job is only half done.
Over the next four years, the State is due to spend nearly $73 billion on important infrastructure. If fully realised, this plan will certainly help grow the economy by billions over the coming decades.
It will help catapult our already wonderful city to a global powerhouse — with jobs today and tomorrow in construction, education, medicine, tourism, technology, business and services.
It feels like a rough road at times, too. Opposition from NIMBYs and naysayers has flared. Protests have threatened train lines, trams, motorways, hospitals, schools, cruise terminals, museums, sporting stadia and second airport that are critical to our prosperity.
Projects that will give us the jobs we need and opportunities we relish. We write to applaud the scope of your government’s ambition, and to urge you to complete the vision.
We write to ask you to continue on the path to transform Sydney, in the face of the many challenges. Changes that we will be celebrating in 100 years.
Disruption is painful but necessary. Do we want a near enough is good enough version of
Sydney, or do we want the best of every city we love, in the best city in the world?
The State has the money, the talent and the plans.
We believe the best is yet to come — if we stay the course.
This is our moment.
SIGNATORIES:
Tony Shepherd: Chairman SCG Trust, GWS Giants, Bradfield Oration
Scott Charlton: CEO Transurban
John Alexander: Executive Chairman, Crown Resorts
Dr Michael Spence: Vice: Chancellor University of Sydney
Ann Sherry: Executive Chairman Carnival Australia
Patricia Forsythe: Executive Director Sydney Business Chamber
Scott Barlow: Chairman, Sydney FC
Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE: Director, MCA
John Warn: Chairman, Cricket NSW
Bill Pulver: CEO Australian Rugby Union
Katie Page: CEO Harvey Norman
Alison Watkins: CEO Coca-Cola Amatil
Joe Barr: CEO John Holland Group
Andrew Pridham: Managing Director, Moelis / Sydney Swans
Lang Walker: Executive Chairman, Lang Walker
Brendan Lyon: CEO Infrastructure Partnerships Australia
David Borger: Western Sydney Director, Sydney Business Chamber
Christopher Brown: Principal, Taylor Street Advisory & Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue
David Stuart-Watt: President, Roads Australia
Nick Greiner: Former NSW Premier
Kerrie Mather: CEO Sydney Airport
Simon McGrath: COO AccorHotels Pacific
Bob Johnston: CEO The GPT Group
Joseph Carozzi: Managing Partner PwC
Danny Rezek: Managing Partner, Deloitte Western Sydney
John O’Neill AO: Chairman, The Star Entertainment Group