 Liberal Action Team On the Campaign Trail |
| Sydney is Open for Business - Under New Management |
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In four short years Sydney has lost its international business confidence.
Regrettably the current Lord Mayor has talked Sydney down undermining our business confidence both domestically and overseas. She has failed to promote the City to international investors. Investment and jobs have been driven away with constant public attacks on Sydney’s infrastructure and the environment. Uncertainties, additional red tape and lack of action over planning laws by the City of Sydney have seen the City CBD, once crowned with construction cranes and excitement, now largely silent. Investors have shifted their focus and jobs interstate and overseas. Sydney2030 plans for slower jobs growth in Sydney. That is a plan for a slower economy and Sydney slipping further behind our national and international competitors. Sydney cannot plan to have slower growth in the future. That’s a plan for economic stagnation. Meanwhile our interstate competitors like Melbourne and Brisbane put out the red carpet to investors keen to steal our hard won global city status. Overseas competitors like Shanghai, Dubai and Singapore make their case for global investments and are draining Sydney of the clever young workforce that we once so jealously coveted. Sydney needs a positive Lord Mayor who is an ambassador for our City, a salesman that talks up the greatest City in Australia. A positive civic leader who rolls out the red carpet for international investors and spruiks the City’s market advantages against our national and international competitors. As Lord Mayor with my Liberal Action Team we will regain Sydney’s business confidence. We say ‘Sydney is open for business – Under New Management’. This will take a bold confidence building initiative to get Sydney back on the front foot asserting our economic strength and vision - an action that will draw breath and turn the heads of our competitors. The Liberal Action Team’s ‘3 Global Towers’ (3GT) project will rezone three sites in the City for global commercial towers. 3GT will be recognised internationally as beacons of our economic dominance and projecting our global economic destiny in the Asia Pacific. The 3GT will be located in the CBD near Circular Quay, Barangaroo south and Chinatown in the western CBD area. Clearly such bold visions must be implemented with the cooperation of the State Government and we would expect their support for re-energising Sydney’s economy. 3GT will each be between 80 and 100 floors and will add in total at least an additional 240,000 square metres of premium commercial floor space to the CBD. In total 50,000 new jobs and more supply of dwindling and valuable office space for another decade. Replacing the jobs carved out of Sydney’s economy by Sydney2030. As the Property Council recently stated, “Sydney is emerging as an important global city ... competing on a global stage with cities like Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong. It is imperative that more... office buildings be introduced and attract global tenants on prestigious sites, which can compete...†3GT will be driven by top level environmental sustainability and international excellence in architectural design. We would seek designs that capture and express our unique city, environment and diverse peoples. Existing planning rules do not allow innovative design responses. Liberal Action will rewrite the CBD planning rules to attract and reward architectural innovation. In the future when people see the skyline of Sydney they will recognise it from the 3GT and not only from our beloved timeless icons by the harbour. To facilitate the new business focus and empower the Lord Mayor’s office to rebuild business confidence we will establish an International Business Directorate reporting directly to the Lord Mayor and headed by an experienced corporate leader. I will establish and chair a Corporate Business Advisory Board to guide the Council in this important task. We will seek out investment opportunities from overseas and build the business cases to secure the deal for Sydney. Business delegations and conferences will be welcomed to the City and Council will establish a strong network of international business partners. Our Council will send an annual road show of Sydney business leaders overseas and interstate to claim back the jobs and investment from our competitors. Sydney needs a new generation of positive leadership to restore business confidence and get this City back on its feet again. Only a Liberal Lord Mayor can achieve that. |