REMARKS AT BUSINESS WESTERN SYDNEY – GO WEST! METRO CONFERENCE
PARRAMATTA SQUARE BUSINESS AND EVENTS CENTRE, PARRAMATTA
TUESDAY, 5 MARCH 2024
Friends, it’s great to see so many leaders of Western Sydney, all in one place, all discussing the future of this region.
If there’s one thing I admire about business people in Sydney, it’s the fact that you’re not intimidated by change.
In fact, if you live in Sydney, you welcome it, you’re energised by it.
The next big project, the next collaboration, the next big pitch.
It’s what drives so much commercial activity in New South Wales.
Many people in New South Wales don’t see change as a threat, they see it as an opportunity.
And I think that’s something people in government can learn a lot from, particularly as they engage with people in the business world.
That sense of excitement, the sense of the big deal, the sense of the next big idea – it’s the kind of the optimism you need to run successful cities.
Not just here, but around the world.
And I think it’s something that we’ve missed in Sydney for a period of time.
Now, I don’t think anywhere in Australia has experienced more change than the city of Parramatta.
If you think of the history of this place, it’s demonstrative, just going back.
First as the home of the Darug people, for thousands of years.
These were people who managed the land with great care and skill.
They would fire stick farming to open up these huge green fields, with thick grass and rich soil, which included the modern day Parramatta Park.
In fact, it’s precisely the reason that Arthur Phillip began Sydney’s growth here.
When the group he had assembled at Sydney Harbour moved here in 1788 to establish farms.
So that’s what Parramatta became:
The agricultural heart of Sydney.
Where James Ruse grew Australia’s first successful grain crop.
A place for officers to live like gentlemen, away from the riffraff of Sydney Town.
That was the colonial vision for Parramatta:
A little English village, on the other side of the world.
But that too changed – particularly with the coming of the railway lines in the 1860s.
Which encouraged the first suburbs out here, starting with Granville and Harris Park.
This also coincided with the rise of heavy industry in the area.
Brickworks, meat works, tanneries, train yards.
Factories that helped build and feed the growing city.
More people also meant more commercial opportunities.
Which lead to the arrival of Grace Brothers on Church Street.
Of course, that later turned into Westfields.
And all this time – people were changing too.
From a picture of white Australia – to the heart of multicultural Sydney.
With Greek and Italian and Maltese migrants after the war; with Lebanese and Vietnamese refugees after that; and with the great expansion of our Chinese and Indian communities in later years.
And look at Parramatta now, a picture of constant evolution and change.
The explosion of building and commercial activity in the last two decades is testament to that evolution.
And the growing hub of professional services indicates the jobs and opportunities out here.
Pulling in some of the world’s biggest companies, working in some of Sydney’s most impressive office spaces.
And I just want to acknowledge Lang Walker and the Walker Group, that built much of modern Parramatta, and of course his sad passing in recent weeks.
I know his family and friends are obviously devastated.
When I last spoke here in Western Sydney with David, for the Housing Now Coalition, I made the point that cities are not museums.
And this is something Parramatta gets intuitively.
It’s managed to be sensitive to history, without being too sentimental about the past.
Striking the right balance – between preserving genuine heritage, while preparing for the future of this great place.
Friends, Metro West can be the next chapter in that history.
An incredibly exciting chapter – if we get it right.
It’s a massive investment.
$25 billion of public money.
Part of the biggest infrastructure project in this state, indeed in the state’s entire history.
We need to wring every possible benefit out of that massive injection of public money.
That’s for better transport, but also better social outcomes.
If we do that successfully, if plan this out properly, we can transform how people live, both now and in the future of Western Sydney.
Part of that is doubling the rail capacity between the two CBDs.
Creating 10,000 direct jobs and 70,000 indirect jobs, while bringing people closer to work and education.
We can also – and I want to emphasise this point today – build tens of thousands of new, well located homes.
Which is the main idea I want to convey this morning:
Yes, Metro West is a transport project.
But it’s also a housing project.
The previous government designed Metro West primarily to increase rail capacity between Parramatta and the Sydney CBD.
That prioritised journey time over everything else.
And it meant, eventually, fewer stations.
And as a result of fewer stations, fewer new homes.
Now, we thought that plan was short sighted, given the huge struggles and major obstacles facing a city like Sydney.
But we were also faced with the reality that the tunnel boring machines were already on their way.
Cities don’t get second chances when it comes to major infrastructure projects.
Railway lines are built to last centuries.
And if we’re spending $25 billion, we’ve got every right to expect the maximum return on investment.
Which is why we amended the plan in December, to more clearly link the construction of the new railway line to the construction of new houses.
This has been a major focus of our government:
Marrying infrastructure with housing.
In the past, we’ve either had infrastructure, but no uplift.
Or we’ve had brand new housing tracts, but nowhere near enough infrastructure to cope with the increase in population.
With Metro West, the Government will aim to deliver both as one project.
When we talk about housing in this country, we often reach the same frustrating impasse.
Almost everyone accepts that we’ve got here.
They agree that locking young people out of the city’s future means you don’t have a future at all.
And that there is an impending disaster, particularly when you look at the statistics.
Even if you’re not in that position yourself, you look at your kids, potentially your grandkids, and it’s natural to worry about their capacity to be part of the city’s future.
But then you get to the difficult question – of where are we going to put these houses?
And I’m yet to come across a better answer to that question than around transport and train stations.
As result of the infrastructure already being there, it means people can travel more easily to work and to other opportunities, to navigate around this big city.
And generally speaking, these places already have an established culture of density.
They’re built for high quality, medium density living.
Which is why our housing plan narrows in on them.
If you haven’t seen the detail, our Transport Oriented Development has two tiers.
The first is around eight major stations that we believe can handle higher density housing – places like Macquarie Park, Crows Nest and Bankstown.
All of these precincts will include rules that will ensure affordable housing makes up 15% of new developments enabled by the rezoning.
The second is around 31 stations that can handle more medium density development – of six storeys or less.
We’ve focussed on these places because they can handle a bigger population.
But there’s a broader reason too, which goes to the heart of what we’re trying to do.
Some people like to imply that the planning reforms announced by the Government are a free for all.
But that’s not what’s happening here at all.
We’re actually being quite surgical about Sydney’s growth:
We’re zeroing in on the parts of Sydney that sit along our existing and new railway infrastructure.
This is one way we can ensure that hundreds of thousands of new homes that we need over the next five years are close to jobs and hospitals and schools and opportunities.
It will mean that more of our essential workers – like teachers and nurses and police officers – can start families in new homes, with shorter commutes times.
So that every part of Sydney takes its fair share of new entrants and of course young people.
New homes will be built around transport hubs in the Inner West, in the eastern suburbs, in St George, the North Shore and the northern suburbs.
Development will not be something that only occurs in Western Sydney.
As I’ve said before, I’m very happy to work with any local council, any mayor, any general manager, anywhere in the state, to make sure this plan works in the context of their community.
But as long as, at the end of the day, both sides are sitting around that table, working on ways to build new housing in these communities, not to block them.
If that’s the context of any discussion, we’ll have those talks, at the drop of a hat.
Sydney is already the most expensive place to live in Australia.
The median rental price of $670 a week is $120 more than the next most expensive capital city.
And there’s a reason for that.
Since 1992, we’ve built six dwellings per 1,000 residents every single year.
Victoria has produced eight per 1000 people and Queensland nine per 1000 people, every 12 months.
That’s a significantly higher number per head of population.
So to put things very simply:
Supply hasn’t kept up with demand.
Which is how we’ve reached the situation where the Productivity Commission is warning us that Sydney will be a city that doesn’t have grandkids anymore.
That’s because we’re losing twice as many young people as we’re gaining in return.
And that’s because we’re losing twice as many young people as we’re gaining in return.
Where grandparents are separated, separated from the grandkids – it’s not the solution to a growing city.
And it’s not equitable to the next generation of young people.
It’s also important to note that it’s damaging to our economy.
Young people between thirty and forty, people who are starting businesses and reaching their professional prime.
They’re paying taxes, they’re joining communities.
They’re starting families, they’re coaching soccer teams and football teams.
And they’re enormously valuable to a growing and dynamic city.
But we’re losing them, in a huge exodus of talent.
In fact, I need to report to all of you today that we’re losing twice as many of that cohort as we are gaining at the moment, according to the Productivity Commission.
The Committee for Sydney calculated that this outward migration is costing $10 billion a year in lost potential.
$10 billion a year.
Just by the removal of younger people from our economy.
Now I’m aware we’re a society, not just an economy.
But we can’t afford to live without the next generation claiming their spot in Sydney.
Now the good news – is there’s an answer here.
Other cities have faced the same challenges – and overcome them.
It’s not easy, but it’s possible.
And we know it’s possible, because we can look to Auckland and see what they’ve done over the past ten years.
Prior to that, Auckland was the most expensive city for renters in the entire country.
Until eight years ago, where they changed their zoning rules, to allow more medium density housing.
That doubled the level of construction in the city.
It increased the housing supply by almost 100,000 homes, which was a huge boost in a city of that size.
Now, with a greater housing supply, a recent study showed rents are anywhere between 14 to 35% lower than they would have been.
And as a natural experiment – Auckland is now a cheaper city to rent in than Wellington.
In fact, in Auckland rents have risen much slower than incomes.
Meaning housing is becoming a smaller relative expense for certain households, rather than a much larger one, as we’re seeing in Sydney.
So we can make a difference here.
And it doesn’t mean that housing costs will automatically fall.
In fact, in some areas, as a result of zoning changes, particular housing will go up in price.
What it means is you’ll get a new strata of housing onto the market, available for people to buy or rent for the first time.
Addressing the housing crisis is not beyond us.
Which I think has been a constant theme and message of both Business New South Wales and Business Western Sydney, as well as David personally, for many years.
In fact, the time for reform and change is right now.
All we need is the right arguments, marshalled in the right way, with good allies.
And we can solve the crisis, while creating a better Sydney.
With thousands of new homes built in great locations, next to world class, brand new public transport.
We will create high quality buildings, designed for 21st century Sydney.
In suburbs full of greenspace and natural amenity, where we don’t sacrifice liveability.
In fact, there’s a new dynamism and youth as a result of young people claiming their bit of Sydney.
The next few years are going to be critical.
And Metro West is a huge part of that jigsaw puzzle.
So I want to thank you for being here today.
Thank you for your commitment to housing in Sydney.
And together, I’ve got no doubt we’ll meet this challenge – and best it.
Thanks so much.
