GRANT GOLDMAN:
It is the prime concern of any politician or leader in this country, to create jobs which actually creates wealth and gives us a better economy, it’s pretty simple. Australian and New South Wales Governments have committed to a generational deal to deliver almost 100,000 jobs, more housing and better transport for Outer Western Sydney in the first City Deal for New South Wales. In fact the nation’s largest ever planning and investment partnership. We do have the Prime Minister of Australia on the line right now, Malcolm Turnbull.
Good morning Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Grant, it’s great to be with you and it’s great to be on 2SM.
GRANT GOLDMAN:
And I played that song ‘Young at Heart’ just for you.
PRIME MINISTER:
The parliamentary correspondent…
GRANT GOLDMAN:
And I played that song ‘Young at Heart’ just for you this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
[Laughter]
That’s right.
GRANT GOLDMAN:
Now this is exciting because the creation of jobs as I said is one of the most important things in any economy.
PRIME MINISTER:
Grant that’s what it is all about, it is about driving those opportunities of better jobs, better paid jobs, ensuring that our children and grandchildren have even better opportunities than the ones we’ve had. Right at the heart of our city is the growth in Western Sydney and we are working the Western Sydney City Deal and the Memorandum of Understanding that we’re signing today with the State Government ensures for the first time that the Federal Government, the State Government and local Government, will be working together in a very coordinated way to make sure that all of our investments in infrastructure deliver the right outcomes in terms of job opportunities, in terms of greater environmental amenity, in terms of better transport, better opportunities for education.
Developing that thirty minute city and as you know, just to clear, the thirty minute city doesn’t mean you can drive from Cronulla to Palm Beach in thirty minutes. What it means is that wherever we live in this great city of ours, within a reasonable commuting time or travel time, there should be lots of opportunities for work, lots of opportunities for education, for recreation and so this focus on Western Sydney is of vital importance.
GRANT GOLDMAN:
In fact we’ve been watching it for a while. If you look at Parramatta and all the plans for Parramatta, the sky scrapers are going in and the business opportunities in Parramatta and of course the airport which is not going to be too far away, 24 hour airport, it really makes truly Sydney an international city in many ways with two airports. Now I’ll ask you this question, what related services do you think will be making more jobs available than others?
PRIME MINISTER:
You’ve identified the probably single biggest transformation which is the Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek. This is going to drive tens of thousands of jobs over the years ahead. It will develop industries associated with it. It will provide an opportunity not simply for people in Western Sydney to get an airport that is closer to them, but it will provide a second centre of investment, business, innovation right there at Badgerys Creek in Western Sydney. Obviously part of the work we are doing with the State Government is ensuring that we have the right transport infrastructure so as you know, we’re already investing nearly $3 billion towards road works there. In fact we are investing well over $3 billion infrastructure in Western Sydney but a big part of this project is going to be to ensure that we have a rapid rail connection to the airport and there is a discussion paper out on that at the moment.
GRANT GOLDMAN:
True.
PRIME MINISTER:
My Ministers are working with their state colleagues and of course local Government on that.
GRANT GOLDMAN:
Prime Minister it’s true that if the infrastructure is not there with development it’s going to be a failure isn’t it? So you’ve got to go further than just put in situations like airports and build great cities, areas for people to live and work.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah Grant I agree and I think one of the things we used to do better – 100 years ago in fact, and we’ve got to start doing well again now – is we’ve got to put the infrastructure in ahead of the population. You know there are well over a million people going to move into Western Sydney over the next few decades and so that’s basically a population the size of Adelaide will be moving into Western Sydney west of Blacktown. Now we’ve got to make sure that we have the roads the rail, the airport, the educational facilities, the amenity to ensure that all of that can be achieved in a way that provides great lifestyle, the city’s got to be liveable, and obviously it has to provide the job opportunities, the employment opportunities.
You see one of the curious things –and it’s a function of geography – is that what we call the centre of Sydney the CBD, is actually not in the centre at all. It’s on the eastern perimeter. That’s why the focus on Parramatta. You would have seen Lucy, my wife who is the Chief Commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission talking a lot about that this week. That’s why it’s important to be focussing more development, more infrastructure of every kind, both social and physical infrastructure, in Parramatta and of course further west, because that’s where the people are, that’s where the growth is going to be.
GRANT GOLDMAN:
True. Well with $1.9 billion for the local economy and a further 400 million across the rest of Sydney, it can only be great working with the state government as well to make it happen. Congratulations on that.
Look just before you go, what do you make of the American elections? Would we take their lead by saying lets have campaigns that go for 18 months?
Why do they do this so long?
PRIME MINISTER:
I know. I know Grant, and as you know, because of the need to have the double dissolution election over the Building Construction Commission Bill and the Registered Organisations Bill, we had an eight week campaign and everyone thought that was too long.
GRANT GOLDMAN:
Yeah it was.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
I pledged there will never be another one, another eight week campaign. But it was important, ending that union thuggery and lawlessness on construction sites was a very important economic reform
GRANT GOLDMAN:
Having said that, it’s still there.
PRIME MINISTER:
It is there but if the Senate votes to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission, we will have a tough cop back on the beat. We know it worked under the Howard Government; the Labor Party abolished it at the behest of the CFMEU. That’s the union that has 113 officials - 113 - before the courts for breaches of the law. They regard the fines that are imposed on them like parking tickets. So we’ve got to get the rule of law back onto construction sites, we’ve got to reduce the cost of construction. It will mean big projects, like the ones we are talking about in Western Sydney, can be completed sooner. But those bills passed the House this week and we’re looking forward to the Senate approving them in coming weeks.
GRANT GOLDMAN:
There you go, good to talk to you Prime Minister. I know you’ve got a busy day ahead.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you Grant.
[ENDS]