Premier's Take is Right on the Money

NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally had this to say in her post election comments; ''One of the issues that would have been in the minds of voters as they went to the polls yesterday is that they had gone for three years without seeing the Rudd government invest in infrastructure in Sydney.''

She is, of course, absoloutely correct. It is the biggest single issue in Western Sydney. The massive residential developments have for decades outstripped supporting infrastructure developments for which governments are responsible and the NSW results in this federal election are a wake up call no party can seriously ignore.

School halls and pink batts are all very well, but solid infrastructure expenditure on roads, rail and other transport initiatives bring long term sustainable employment and can spread the concentrated, Sydney-centric employment to local areas, thereby easing the pressures on public transport.

Investment in regional infrastructure has been the ‘elephant in the room' for both parties at State and Federal level for far too long. Now that the people have spoken, echoing the words of The Parramatta Chamber and other business organisations on this issue, surely governments will take heed.

It used to be much easier for Western Sydney and particularly Parramatta, to catch the ear of Prime Ministers and Party leaders. Parramatta used to have Ministers and Shadow Ministers as their representatives; as befits its demographic and economic status. Not so long ago we had a Premier in Toongabbie, who showed much more leadership and initiative than his party was prepared for. Sadly for Western Sydney our glimmer of hope with Mr Rees was too short lived, with his departure deflating the confidence he instilled in Western Sydney.