Jennifer Westacott calls for end to anti-Western Sydney snobbery

Self-interested naysayers have been told to end their arrogant anti-Western Sydney snobbery and wake up to what the rest of the world sees.

Self-interested naysayers have been told to end their arrogant anti-Western Sydney snobbery and wake up to the opportunity the rest of the world is queuing up to be a part of.

In her keynote speech to The Daily Telegraph’s Future Western Sydney summit in Parramatta on Thursday, the chair of the Western Parkland City Authority Jennifer Westacott will call for those who do not live in the west to stop trying to block progress that will create thousands of new jobs.

“When I get on video calls to Japan to talk about the Parkland City, there are 700 companies on the line,” she will say. “Some of the world’s biggest companies dial in.

“They get on those calls because they know there is nowhere else in the world that has the land, the transport connections, the skills and the technologies that allow their companies to expand and grow.”

An artist’s impression of Western Sydney’s new city, Bradfield. Picture: Supplied

An artist’s impression of Western Sydney’s new city, Bradfield. Picture: Supplied

She believes the Parkland City that will surround the new Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek and include the new Bradfield City centre and agribusiness precinct is a “once in a generation opportunity”.

But while many people on the other side of the world can see this she says “many on the other side of the city still cannot”.

Western Parkland City Authority Jennifer Westacott.

And she calls for an end to the “snobbery, arrogance and self-interest of people who do not live in Western Sydney but somehow think it’s okay to block every single project that will create better lives.”

Ms Westacott, who is responsible for co-ordinating the delivery of the massive project, singles out The Daily Telegraph for championing Western Sydney and joining in “staring down the naysayers who said these things would never happen.

She praises the “leadership of this newspaper which – year after year – has been Western Sydney’s most vocal champion and the airport’s strongest advocate.

“This is the media at its best.”

Ms Westacott will tell key leaders including Western Sydney Minister Stuart Ayres, developer Lang Walker and Labor leader Chris Minns gathered in the Walker Corporation Foyer in Parramatta Square of the thousands of jobs in everything from high tech industries to agriculture that will be created in the new city.

An artist’s impression of Western Sydney’s new city, Bradfield. Picture: Supplied

An artist’s impression of Western Sydney’s new city, Bradfield. Picture: Supplied

The new airport will allow flights 24-hours a day every day. That means Australian milk can be flown straight into Singapore and Malaysia where it sells for an extra $1.20 a litre.

“It’s the same story for fresh meat with grass-fed angus rib eye selling for $96 a kilo in Singapore and wagyu for $350 a kilo in Shanghai,” Ms Westacott says.

The decision to develop tech hubs and manufacturing centres around the airport will “reverse a 200-year trend in Sydney of putting in housing before jobs and infrastructure – which has left people with a diminished quality of life.”

It will end the disparity that sees people from Western Sydney paid on average $15,000 a year less than people in the eastern city while taking double the time to get to work.

In the new city they will work on technology for the lucrative aerospace, defence and space industries in a National Security Quarter, socialise in the Leisure Quarter with people from the Education and Innovation Quarter and live nearby in the Neighbourhood Quarter.

“Of course, there will be restaurants, theatre, cultural activities and sporting facilities because people want to live in a place that is beautiful,” Ms Westacott will say. The streets will be tree lined to keep the city cool.

“But this isn’t about buildings, it’s about people,” Ms Westacott will say. “This is about people choosing how and where they work.

“This is about people in Western Sydney having access to the world’s best jobs … closer to home.”

Originally published as Jennifer Westacott calls for end to anti-Western Sydney snobbery