POLICY & REFORM
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to higher education is going to grow
substantially. There is capacity here for
other providers to come into the market
and that competition is healthy. Education
hubs and precincts are great attracters of
additional students and businesses. They
enliven the economies of city centres.
There are many, many collateral benefits
from increasing the number of educational
providers in any location.
What is it about Western Sydney that attracts
educational providers?
There’s an enormous focus on Western
Sydney at the moment for a whole range
of reasons. I mentioned the Western
Sydney Airport, which will be international.
By 2030 – which is, let’s face it, only 14
years away – we’ll have an airport with 10
million passenger transits a year. To put
that in perspective, that’s considerably
[more] than Canberra’s [airport] at the
moment. That means there will be an
enormous amount of infrastructure
development over the next 14 years.
The airport will attract considerable
development. Cities like Penrith, Liverpool
and Campbelltown – and Parramatta
to a lesser extent – are going to benefit
enormously from proximity to a worldclass, 24/7 international airport. This is
part of the reason for the enormous
amount of investment going into Western
Sydney for transport connectivity – the
major transport corridors that are being
upgraded. That’s attracting much interest
to Western Sydney; it’s the region of
Sydney that’s going to grow.
Land is available for people. Affordable
housing options are, too, so you’re seeing
more people moving into Western Sydney
to live. That’s generating a population
growth that will outstrip most parts of
Australia. It naturally attracts educational
institutions to the region.
Then you have other initiatives, like
the light rail that will go into Parramatta,
connecting Westmead, Parramatta and
Homebush. This is an enormous project
from the New South Wales Government
to give us greater connectivity in the
second CBD of Sydney, Parramatta, which
is so important to the lifeblood of this
major metropolitan area. That project
commences in the near future. You’ve
also got the move of the Museum of
Applied Arts and Sciences from Ultimo
to Parramatta. This [involves spending]
hundreds of millions of dollars to create
a world-class, iconic museum on the
banks of the Parramatta River that will
attract a million visitors a year. This is an
enormous opportunity and it will create
great opportunities around it. Museums,
of course, have a strong educational link.
Educational providers will no doubt be
looking at that as well.
There are [myriad] reasons Western
Sydney is front and centre on the map of
economic development for Australia at
the moment and will remain so for the
next 20 years or more. It’s an exciting time.
Western Sydney University is, of course, the
substantial provider of higher education
opportunity in the region [but] there is room
for other institutions to contribute and
those opportunities will grow over time.
Is there anything that could impede
the growth of the educational hub in
Western Sydney?
There are two substantial challenges for
the NSW Government and the federal
government that will affect Western Sydney.
One is the traffic congestion and the lack of
north-south connectivity. We have a radial
system of major road networks and rail
networks in Sydney. [The road network] can
become incredibly congested. There’s a lot
of development work going on [which, over
time will] address some of that congestion,
but at the moment it’s a huge problem. If
that’s not addressed, it will affect anyone
thinking about establishing any sort of
enterprise in Western Sydney – educational
or otherwise. The government’s aware of
that. It needs to do all it can to address it.
The second huge issue is the jobs deficit.
At the moment, 200,000 people a day have
to clog the roads, moving from Western
Sydney to the eastern side of Sydney to
work. The government’s well aware of
that. We need a jobs strategy for Western
Sydney, so we not only see people move
here to live, which is critically imp