Western Sydney Votes: How Australia's Most Dynamic Region is Shaping the 2023 NSW Election

Produced by the Centre for Western Sydney, this special report shows how Australia's fastest growing, most diverse, and politically contested region is shaping the 2023 NSW election

Untapped Talent: Western Sydney's Remarkable but Inequitable Labour Market

This issues paper analyses the 2021 census data, considering the profound but uneven changes to educational attainment, industry mix and labour force participation. Western Sydney has registered a significant increase in its educational attainment over the past decade. The region’s proportion of higher skilled residents now sits on par with the national average. In some areas it exceeds that level. The shift is profound but uneven within the Western Sydney region, producing complex implications. Additionally, the census data reveals persistent socio-spatial polarisation between Western Sydney and the Rest of Sydney when it comes to high productivity jobs. This issues paper produces an analysis of the census data, and considers the implications of the data for policy makers in the State and Federal Governments of Australia

Western Sydney Votes: The Voice Referendum

Western Sydney was once again positioned as a key 'electoral battleground' in the 2023 Voice Referendum – with voter behaviour in the western suburbs of Sydney projected to be critical to the outcome. The referendum was always going to be challenging in a region like Western Sydney, where trust in government has been profoundly compromised in recent years. However, the region is diverse and complex, and so is voting behaviour. This paper examines Australian Electoral Commission Tally Room data (as at 2PM Sunday 15 October 2023) and presents a geographical mapping and key analysis of the votes in the Voice referendum

Parramatta 2035: Vibrant, Sustainable, Global

This Review, prepared at the request of the NSW Premier, tests the proposition that Greater Parramatta can become a ‘global city’ by 2035. Parramatta, in the past five years, has been the focus of intensive and accelerated urban regeneration. Equally, it has been the recent beneficiary of substantial public infrastructure investments. Ensuring these positive developments work to the city’s benefit, particularly against liveability and sustainability benchmarks is an emphasis of the Review. The city’s elevation into a ‘global’ cohort is conditional on the preservation and enhancement of these attributes, particularly in fundamental areas like housing affordability, cultural expression, and connectivity. Recognising the investment and talent attraction properties of these elements is a vitally important and, ideally, distinctive element of Parramatta’s current and future character. The Review identifies four priorities where government should now focus its efforts for this region over the next decade: 1. Greater Parramatta needs a Strategic Plan and better cross-government cooperation and investment in the region; 2. The development of the Greater Parramatta region needs to balance the goals of liveability and growth and better manage the unequal impacts of change; 3. Greater Parramatta’s economic future needs to be secured through preserving and investing in the region’s industrial and urban services land; and, 4. Sustainability needs to be a priority to ensure Greater Parramatta’s successful transformation into a resilient global city-region. The Review concludes that Parramatta will become a ‘global’ city, and notes that the real question is one of what type of global city it chooses to become. The Review makes twelve recommendations framed thematically across three priorities: 1. Strategic Planning and Governance; 2. Planning and Infrastructure Priorities; and, 3. Liveability and Sustainability

Western Sydney Votes: The Results: 2023 State Election

The Centre for Western Sydney report highlights the results of polling in the 2023 NSW State Election in Western Sydney, Australia's fastest growing, most diverse, and politically contested region

Western Sydney Transport Infrastructure Panel: Independent Panel Report

Western Sydney2 is an economic powerhouse. It is culturally rich, geographically extensive and one of the fastest growing regions in Australia. Over the next 20 years Western Sydney will be home to more than 2.2 million3 people, with a population increase alone greater than the population of Canberra today. Growth however is not Western Sydney’s primary challenge, but rather the capacity for infrastructure and services to keep up with this change. In fact, the single greatest limitation to realising Western Sydney’s potential today is transport infrastructure. As Western Sydney accommodates 50% of Greater Sydney’s forecast population growth (8%4 of Australia’s) over the next 20 years, it will require its fair share of investment in infrastructure and services to unlock the significant economic, community and productivity benefits it has to offer. In this context, the Western Sydney Transport Infrastructure Panel (the Panel) was established in December 2022 with specific Terms of Reference to identify the strategic transport infrastructure priorities for Western Sydney (the Region) by Q2 2023. Appointed by the Prime Minister, the Hon. Anthony Albanese, and the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, the Hon. Catherine King, the Panel of nine members was established to deliver on the Australian Government’s 2022 election