Project Sydney: Gladys Berejiklian outlines Government’s projects and investment drive
WORK is up and running on projects that will pay huge dividends for Sydney and NSW, but the important thing is that we not take our foot off the accelerator, says the state’s Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
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IMAGINE, if you dare, the Liberals and Nationals hadn’t been elected in 2011. Instead of a state in the lead, we would have been further down on every imaginable measure — in health, in education, in infrastructure.
I’m confident John Bradfield would be smiling down on us now and egging us on as we rebuild Sydney and NSW at pace.
Bradfield was a visionary who saw the potential for Sydney. Nearly 100 years on, our government is delivering on that vision and more.
Right now, Sydney is experiencing the biggest infrastructure and jobs boom in history. And the good news is we are only just warming up.
The Liberals and Nationals are investing a massive $73 billion in major infrastructure projects across NSW over the next four years.
There are a whopping 498 projects worth more than $10 million underway across the state right now, along with hundreds of smaller local projects.
This investment will transform the state. It will mean people are able to get back to their families faster after work.
It will mean better access to the best quality healthcare and education.
While the rest of Australia’s business investment is down 10 per cent, in NSW we are up 20 per cent.
It will see our economy go from strength to strength and people can have the peace of mind of a secure job. We will never pat ourselves on the back and say “job done”.
The evidence of what we are achieving is on display.
There are 334 cranes across the skyline and more than 50 roadheaders digging the roads and tunnels of the future. Next year, the first of five tunnel-boring machines will start work on the second Harbour rail crossing.
The massive projects currently underway are only possible because of our government’s hard work, bringing the budget back to surplus through fiscal discipline and asset recycling.
NSW has no net debt and a Triple-A credit rating.
Our strong budget position has sent business confidence levels through the roof with private sector investment booming. While the rest of Australia’s business investment is down 10 per cent, in NSW we are up 20 per cent.
As a result, we are the country’s jobs capital, with an unemployment rate at 5 per cent. It’s now been lower or equal to the national average for 45 months in a row.
Youth unemployment in also the lowest in NSW. This is in large part due to the tens of thousands of jobs created by the mega-projects and the flow-on value to the other small- and medium-sized businesses currently supporting those projects.
On Sydney Metro there will be no need for timetables.
After 16 years of Labor neglect, our infrastructure pipeline is the greatest our state and nation has ever seen.
The community was sceptical at the start after so many false promises by Labor, but now they know that when this government announces, it actually delivers.
NSW is now an international centre of engineering excellence.
It’s not until you go beneath the surface with projects such as NorthConnex, and the Sydney Rail Metro that you appreciate the scale of what we are undertaking.
Road header machines have ground through kilometres of rock, as they create congestion-busting road tunnels. The biggest project — and the one that will transform this City for decades to come — is the Sydney Metro, starting with the North West Metro.
I am proud of the fact that when I was the Minister for Transport, I ended the decades of promises and turned them into delivery.
The first train has arrived for this world-class transport project, which is currently taking shape at a cracking pace between Rouse Hill and Chatswood. First services will start in 2019.
And that is just the beginning.
Work will start next year on stage 2, which will include a new Metro Harbour crossing when it extends to Bankstown via the CBD in 2024.
When I announced this back in December 2012, no one believed it would happen. Well, now it has.
On Sydney Metro there will be no need for timetables. Commuters will be able to just turn up and go, with a train every four minutes.
New and redeveloped hospitals are being built in every corner of Sydney.
Metro will transform public transport for Sydney and our Light Rail projects will revitalise the CBD and suburbs.
Work is well advanced on Sydney Light Rail from the CBD to Kensington and Randwick. This will provide services every four minutes, or 15 services an hour in each direction through Moore Park to CBD.
Next year, construction will begin on Parramatta Light Rail, providing an important local transport link for Sydney’s second CBD, including connecting the campuses of Western Sydney University. And there are no plans to slow down: quite the opposite.
We are building sports and cultural facilities to make our events — already the best in the world — even better.
New and redeveloped hospitals are being built in every corner of Sydney — from Campbelltown, Nepean, Westmead and Blacktown/Mt Druitt in the west to Sutherland and St George in the south to Hornsby and the northern beaches in the north, as well as Prince of Wales in the east.
They are also being staffed by an additional 6700 nurses and midwives and 2700 extra doctors.
We also understand that our children are our future, so they are benefiting from 3800 additional teachers and 57 new, relocated or significantly upgraded schools in suburbs such as Oran Park, Penrith, Strathfield, Mulgoa, The Ponds, Wilton and Hurstville.
And in the greater southwest — a true game changer.
The long-awaited airport at Badgerys Creek is going to create another 11,000 construction jobs, and inject another $2 billion into the NSW economy during construction.
When the airport is complete it is expected to generate another 120,000 jobs across greater Western Sydney.
If you think what we are doing now is huge — you “ain’t seen nothing yet”. The next generation of projects is already in the pipeline and the foot isn’t coming off of the accelerator. I think Bradfield would be proud.
Gladys Berejiklian is Premier of NSW