One of the major arguments for Badgery's Creek airport is that we need "higher skilled" jobs here in Western Sydney. In fact one of the main lobbyists for this airport David Borger wrote an article about why we need this airport - because it would deliver "Western Sydney's knowledge jobs".
As someone that arguably possesses these types of "higher skills" mainly in the tech industry I would love more jobs locally that were both innovative and high paying. However as someone who does work in this industry I can tell you it's not happening anytime soon for quite a number of reasons.
The heart of it is this; "If Parramatta, Sydney's second CBD, does not warrant these jobs what makes a whole new area even further remote do so?". This is especially true because:
- Knowledge jobs like to be based in areas where the "talent" lies and they are in close proximity to other businesses of the same caliber; the pool of talent in those areas outweighs the cost of the extra rent the company is paying for being in the city.
- Quoting the article the words of CBA's CTO himself: ""Moving to the transformed Australian Technology Park will put 10,000 of our people in the heart of a growing technology hub, providing us with a significant opportunity to partner and collaborate with universities, start-ups and other innovative companies,"".
- With a company earing +$6 billion a year (Commonwealth Bank) the cost advantage of moving out west is small; conversely recruiting for startups is extremely important and hard.
- Collaboration and knowledge sharing, meetup's and the like are extremely important to tech professionals. They would prefer to be localised with each other as much as possible.
- Higher skilled jobs earn higher incomes which is obvious; what that means of course is that many of the company owners live in prestigious areas as a result.
- An example being one of the founders of Atlassian; arguably one of the most sucessful Australian tech companies and where his house is located. Do you expect him to travel from Paddington to Badgery's to see how his company is doing?
- Similarly their staff mostly live near these places of work. Increasingly the workforce of the tech industry is globally sourced - if you moved to a new city for a high skilled job would you move to its outskirts or try the inner city first? There's a lot of inertia here to expect them to change to working on the complete other side of the city.
- There's a lot of competition for technology and science areas. Everyone knows that these are the jobs of the future.
- The one mentioned in the article near Redfern
- One just announced by Mark Baird our NSW premier at the former industrial Bays Area precinct
- Macquarie Park (near North Ryde) is already a technology area and will develop even futher due to its better location. Anecdotally Macquarie Park is already considered a remote place to work from some of the technologists I know and work with.
- There's more in Sydney but I think you get the hint thus far.
As said before by myself; I don't think it's airports that encourage these sorts of jobs anyway. Baggage handlers, logistics workers and tourists vans maybe; but not someone who has enough money to value their sleep at night and has to concentrate at work the next morning. They do serve existing cities however.
Western Sydney should stick to what it's best at; especially the Blue Mountains. Embrace what you are good at:
- Open Spaces
- Less Congestion
- Outdoor areas and backyards for family members
- Quiet and peace a simple drive away if your not there already
- A place "away from the hustle and busle"
- A more "laid back" atmosphere
Unfortunately a 24/7 airport with flight paths over the Mountains and over many Western Suburbs probably conflicts with most of these things. You will never be able to compete against the city with what it is good at on its own terms. It has the advantage not just its scale; but with the fact that it is in a place that people desire to live not just for jobs and amenities; but because it still has preserved its heritage and its environment more so than other cities. This of course attracts people with higher incomes. It's no coincidence that the most livable suburbs according the Census are right near a big National Park in the middle of our city; what other cities can claim having nature like that in the middle of them!
For a good reason why workers in these higher skilled jobs may want more than "just a job" see this link.
If Parramatta won't do it for some time yet; what hope do we have for the area around Badgery's Creek to do it anytime soon? Will leave you to think about that question.
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