Tax take - and give please

 At the recent Western Sydney Awards in Business Excellence, Parramatta Lord Mayor, Cr Lorraine Wearne, drew the audience's attention to a stark reality - taxes raised in Western Sydney aren't spent in Western Sydney. Of course this is not just limited to Western Sydney, NSW suffers similarly with the reasoning being that less productive areas need the government investment. Yes they do but not at the expense of the generators of the economy.

 Western Sydney is home to over 246,000 small businesses and while the area is a huge employer, still more people in the region need sustainable employment and business needs the infrastructure investment and spending.

 Handouts via selective programs are not the answer. The serious commitment of tax dollars to the region via government offices moving out of the Sydney CBD and into Western Sydney is probably the most obvious strategy. Many of those people who work in the Sydney CBD travel in from Western Sydney. The travel costs money and those commuters spend in Sydney when with some strategic relocation of government departments that money would be spent here.

  Local sustainable jobs and spending will continue to fuel this economic powerhouse and pump up the tax take. The governments just need to give a bit more back - we've earned it.

Trevor Oldfield AM JP

President