As I tuned into the NSW Government’s Budget 2020-21 announcement on Tuesday, I couldn’t help but hold a level of anticipation. Amid recent announcements that Australia is facing a recession, I needed to know as I scanned the influx of media announcements – was Western Sydney going to be a ‘winner’ in this year’s budget?
The Communities of Change Roadshows are underway, delivering key insights from the Communities of Change Report, throughout the local government areas of Western Sydney. The Roadshow sessions are an opportunity to ask questions and discuss the report with WSCF specialists and facilitators, specifically relating the data to current and future service delivery in local government areas.
The NSW Government released its much-anticipated Budget this week. I was excited. We had the recent signing of the Western Sydney City Deal. We saw a strong public discourse of governing ‘with heart’. And we have an election(s) looming. I was excited and keen to hear how this would all play out in reality, to get to the heart of priorities across Western Sydney and beyond, in NSW. What I found is that this Budget, in the main, begins to address some of the infrastructure priorities of the region but has some considerable way to go before it gets close to being a Budget that will foster, sustain and improve community wellbeing and liveability.
Joint Media Release St Vincent de Paul Society NSW and Western Sydney Community Forum Parramatta, 23 May 2018: The release of a major report on the changing landscape of Western Sydney reveals important insights which could impact future planning and investment in community health and wellbeing. The ‘Communities of Change: Western Sydney Now and Into the Future’ report, a collaboration between Western Sydney Community Forum and St Vincent de Paul Society NSW, highlights areas of potential shortfalls in investment and service delivery.
"Social infrastructure & services are just as vital to liveability" To create liveable communities, multiple interdependent and related factors need to be considered, prioritised and financed. The Greater Sydney Commission’s (GSC) draft long term plan for growing Sydney on behalf of the NSW Government, Towards Our Greater Sydney 2056, provides an impressive vision that prioritises the significance of central and western Sydney in creating a global metropolis. The recently released GSC draft District Plans draw on this emerging vision to operationalise and bring this aspiration to reality through a focus on creating a liveable, productive and sustainable city.
A number of commitments are encapsulated within the Western Sydney City Deals which look towards a more connected city, a commitment towards 200,000 new jobs and the support for education and training for those jobs, support for local character, wellbeing and belonging, housing packages and a built-in monitoring and evaluation mechanism.
