*Labor urged to keep city moving despite dumping $50b in projects*

Stamp duty reforms new Metros and tunnels are among big-ticket projects
NSW’s new government will dump on the scrapheap. See the projects which
won’t go ahead here.

Lachlan Leeming

Daily Telegraph, March 27, 2023
15 comments

New Premier Chris Minns has been pressed to keep building the Sydney of
tomorrow and not to pull up stumps on the new Metros, highways and
infrastructure the city needs, despite $50 billion of projects going down
the drain.

As the curtain falls on a 12-year Coalition government which got Sydney
moving by building WestConnex, the Sydney Light Rail and the booming Metro
network, top business leaders and peak bodies from across the city have
pleaded with Labor not to shirk from planning the city’s future.

Mr Minns, who will be sworn in alongside his leadership team of ministers
on Tuesday, campaigned on a platform of being financially conservative amid
soaring inflation and interest rates, with Labor’s pledges including not
pushing ahead with $50 billion of Coalition projects they claimed were
unfunded.

Labor’s election means projects the Coalition steadfastly backed will be
axed, including raising the Warragamba Dam wall, building two Metro
extensions in Sydney’s west, and a tunnel under the Blue Mountains.

Dominic Perrottet’s signature stamp duty reforms will also be repealed,
while his plans for a superannuation-style Future Fund for children will
also fall into the ether.

Labor will instead back a mandate including hospital upgrades and new
schools in western Sydney, while lifting the stamp duty concession for
first homebuyers to $800,000.

Eamon Waterford, CEO of the Committee for Sydney, said the new government
had to continue the Coalition’s ambitious streak.

“We’re still playing catch-up on transport infrastructure – especially in
the west, where the network still connects best to the Sydney CBD, not to
the west itself,” he said.

LABOR’S SCRAPHEAP:
-Stamp duty reforms forecast to cost $729m over four years
-$260m for business cases for Metros linking Westmead to the new Western
Sydney Airport, and Glenfield to Bankstown
-$2b plan to raise Warragamba Dam wall
-A tunnel under the Blue Mountains from Blackheath to Little Hartley
forecast to cost $8-$11b
-A $10b tunnel linking the Northern Beaches to north-east Sydney
-A weekly cap on public transport of $40 down from $50

LABOR’S PROMISES:
-Lifting the stamp duty exemption for first homebuyers to $800,000 and
concessions to $1m
-An extra $200m into Parramatta Light Rail Stage 2 and $300m to make train
stations disability friendly.
-A $60 weekly cap on tolls
-$1.1b package to upgrade local roads
-Introducing staffing ratios for nurses and hospital upgrades at Fairfield
and Canterbury worth $340m

“It is critical for the new government to stay the course on the size of
the infrastructure pipeline – and to deliver a network that gets people
quickly, safely and efficiently where they need to go.

“If we get it right, it’s a platform that will drive the state’s success
for decades to come.”

Business Western Sydney CEO David Borger said Labor should reconsider its
pledge to dump business cases for two Metro extensions – one linking
Westmead to the new airport and the other linking Bankstown to Glenfield.

“You’ve got to see infrastructure as a way of enabling housing and
housing’s the biggest issue in our city at the moment,” he said.

“The only way you can compare which (Metro) lines are beneficial is to do
the studies.

“Having said that, we’re at peak infrastructure now, we’re running out of
money, big inflation factor, (and) there’s a hunt for infrastructure
workers.”

Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) President Barry
Calvert said his group would pressure the government over infrastructure
for the booming region.

“What we’re going to be doing with the new government is calling them in
and saying we want forward planning – don’t let 10,000 new homes go into an
area until the infrastructure is planned for.”

Labor’s incoming Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said they had been elected on a
transparent platform which included detailing which projects they would
dump in a bid to balance the books.

“We made a deliberate point of being very upfront with the people of NSW
about what we will build and equally about the tough decisions we need to
make at a time where interest rates are rising, debt’s up and people are
under immense pressure,” he said.

Mr Mookhey said Labor was looking forward to upgrading hospitals in
Canterbury and Fairfield, building a swathe of new schools in booming
western Sydney, and building local infrastructure.

“We‘re mindful of the fact that so many communities have felt like they’ve
gone without the essential infrastructure that they rely upon,” he said.

Bathurst Mayor Robert Taylor however described Labor’s dumping of a
proposed 10-kilometre tunnel on the western side of the Blue Mountains as
“absolutely devastating” and feared the bush faced a lack of investment in
coming years.

“We’ve got an inferior arterial road … to pull that funding for the tunnel
is absolutely devastating. We’ve been advocating for this major upgrade for
20 years,” he said.

“We’ve got nothing major proposed for regional areas … it’s just like the
bush is being forgotten.”

“Obviously the people have spoken, but I just don’t hope they forget people
do live on the other side of (the Blue Mountains).”

Comments:

Hayley
5 hours ago
Labour will pour billions into pet left wing projects like climate change,
a NSW voice, funding the LGBTQI + museum
Matt
5 hours ago
So instead of all this infrastructure spending, NSW should see by the end
of Labors first term no shortage of nurses or teachers as they will have to
do something.
Frank
5 hours ago
So the main Highway feeding food into Sydney from the central west, will be
again left to deal with one of the most dangerous passes in Australia (Mt
Victoria) which still utilizes a bridge built by the convicts.
Abandoned by federal Labor and now State Labor. It’s a joke.
Steven
6 hours ago
I'm sure Labor will find some climate change myths and other fairy tale
idealisms to waste money on
Joe
7 hours ago
Welcome back to the Carr build nothing do nothing years again
George
7 hours ago
Our extraordinary infrastructure growth has been the envy of the western
world. The amount of global investment it has attracted has so many flow on
benefits for taxpayers in NSW amd Australia. Hopefully these projects can
continue under public private partnership models - they have worked so well
to deliver so much.
Schnauzer
12 hours ago
Northern beaches residents will have to wait at least a decade before a
tunnel link is back on the menu. Never go near the ALP, they just don’t
care about God’s country, never have, never will. The LNP were stalling
also, but at least they didn’t scrap the plans altogether, take it off the
menu completely like the ALP/Greens have just done.
Oh well, next time eh?
Ray
14 hours ago
I hope Minns isn't planning on building a hospital downstream of
Warragamba?? Business advice for investors of the future !! Candle
industry, Pushbikes and Rickshaws but they still need Chinese manufacturing
from Australian Coal and other mining. Blessed are we in NSW that
industialism will be closed down and we can rely on China to supply us our
needs from Australian products!
Raymond
14 hours ago
why cant we have nice things.
Anthony
15 hours ago
Back to the Bob Carr days of 11 years of inaction and a hefty blow out that
the Liberals cleaned up ...again
Matt
5 hours ago
It was 16 years.
Helen
15 hours ago
This could be a very short honeymoon
David
16 hours ago
Labor built nothing last time they were in power in NSW and the lefty
leopard won't change its spots this time in. Regressive, union puppets
James
16 hours ago
First sign of the return to Bob Carr days of deliver nothing. In the
meantime, wages will blow out, state taxes increase, followed by the
interest rate remaining high due to wages blow out. Good luck NSW for the
next 8 years. Fancy asking Dom for guidance on governing. You are now
captain of the ship, figure out your own course Minns. NSW will be governed
by a bunch of school kids.
David
16 hours ago
It's always Sydney that gets everything.. We too pay taxes outside Sydney

[Tony P]