WESTERN SYDNEY AIRPORT JOBS PREDICTIONS QUESTIONED

Member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman MP has welcomed a new report released at the by the ‘Jobs for Western Sydney’ Group at their official launch on Saturday.

At the launch, and in a speech she delivered earlier that week in Parliament, Ms Templeman congratulated the group and report author, Dr Ian Watson.

“I congratulate the group on the serious work they've done to work through the numbers and what they're trying to do to get behind the spin, to get to the bottom and to paint a realistic picture, because that's what people deserve.

“Contrary to the claims of a jobs bonanza, only 120 construction jobs and 800 airport jobs would be targeted to Western Sydney workers in the first stages of the project.

“That is a lot lower than the expectations people in the community have about how readily they're going to be able to get work, and it's been confirmed to me that anyone who takes a job on the airport project and relocates to the region for the duration of that work will be considered a local.

“So you don't have to have been born in that area or gone to school in that area or live in that area now with your family. You just have to be able to move into the area, and they can tick a box and say, 'Oh, there's another local.'

“So there isn't even any guarantee that the local jobs will go to an existing local employment pool.

“Dr Watson's report finds the overall job claims, such as 8,700 aviation jobs by 2031, are vastly exaggerated, and his analysis is that the proposals for the adjacent business park and for the aerotropolis appear unrealistic.

“Nothing in what I have learnt of this airport plan since it was first talked about, noth