The Committee for Sydney welcomes today’s announcement from Premier Dom Perrottet that he will create a new Cities Minister position, as well as expanding the remit of the Greater Sydney Commission to include Newcastle, Central Coast and Wollongong.

Gabriel Metcalf, CEO of the Committee for Sydney: 

“This is exactly the right move. Sydney is not an island, it is part of a broader megaregion that includes Newcastle and Wollongong. This has been the missing scale of planning.

To make this idea really live up to its potential, it needs to be backed up by an investment in transport that will actually tie the megaregion together. We think the starting place is a fast, one-hour rail connection between Sydney and Newcastle, to be ultimately followed by rail upgrades to Wollongong and Canberra.

Focusing a cities minister at this scale opens up big opportunities to think about settlement plans. Perhaps more people would like the chance to be live in the Central Coast where temperatures are lower in summer. 

But equally this initiative needs an economic development focus to bring jobs to Western Sydney and Newcastle. It’s not simply a traditional town planning exercise.”

Relevant reports and papers: 

• The Sandstone Mega-region: Uniting Newcastle, the Central Coast, Sydney and Wollongong – June 2018 
• The next transformative project: fast rail to Newcastle – July 2021
• Improving Sydney’s Future Transport: Twelve ideas for the update to the Future Transport Strategy – October 2021