$518m given to Western Parklands City Authority but aerotropolis yet to take off

Bureaucrats in charge of building a gleaming new aerotropolis in Western Sydney have been allocated more than half a billion dollars in two years … and have virtually nothing to show for it.

The bungling bureaucrats in charge of building a gleaming new aerotropolis in Western Sydney have been allocated more than half a billion dollars in taxpayer funds in the past two years — and done virtually nothing with it.

Critics desperate to see the new city brought to life say the $518m in funding — revealed in the annual report of the Western Parklands City Authority — should have delivered a development-ready precinct, with flights due to start there in just over two years.

The major achievements of the authority are to finally start work on a visitor centre, run a competition to design a park, and create a giant multicultural installation in a field for Sydney WorldPride.

Meanwhile, almost 40 companies that have signed memorandums of understanding to build hi-tech labs and workshops in an innovation precinct around the new Western Sydney airport have been left in the dark, with no idea when land will be made available for them to start.

The Minns government has already cut red tape by putting the WPCA under the direct control of Planning Minister Paul Scully, but business leaders are now saying the authority itself needs to be axed after the entire precinct was redubbed the “aeroflopolis”.

The only building that has been started with the $500m in funding is the visitors centre, which has been branded as little more than a ‘shed with a fancy pergola’.

The World Pride installation in the parklands where the Western Sydney aerotropolis is meant to be taking shape. Picture: Supplied

Federal MP Melissa Mc­Intosh, whose Lindsay electorate in Western Sydney borders the planned aerotropolis, said the amount of funding the authority had received was “concerning” given the lack of results.

“When local industry is raising alarm bells on inaction and lack of delivery … we have to question the WPCA’s overarching co-ordination with the state and federal Labor governments,” she said.

Western Parklands City Authority chair Jennifer Westacott. Picture: Supplied

More than six years after global defence and aerospace company Northrop Grumman signed the first MOU with the NSW government, nothing has been built.

Powerhouse companies including Siemens, BAE Systems, Hitachi and Mitsubishi have privately complained about the lack of information and direction from the WPCA.

But the lack of development is not for lack of funds.

The authority received more than half a billion dollars in grants in the past two years, with no requirement on how the money should be spent.

The authority spent the $518m on buying the land for the precinct and in commissioning a master plan to go on exhibition early next year and on the first stages of civic works.

On its website, the authority trum­pets the start of work on the visitor centre, branded by critics as “a shed with a fancy pergola”.

Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest said the money should have already been spent on putting in place the key infrastructure needed for businesses to get development approval.

And David Borger, Business Western Sydney executive director, said those businesses needed to be building now in order to be in place when the new international airport opens in 2026.

“Ideally we would have a number of companies locked in and ready to build premises and expand their companies with a local footprint that will create jobs,” he said.

The chair of the authority, business leader Jennifer Westacott, was not available for comment.

Originally published as $518m given to Western Parklands City Authority but aerotropolis yet to take off