The campaign was instrumental in drawing the attention of government to the need for greater investment in infrastructure and essential services to meet the needs of a burgeoning community in Western Sydney.
How it all began
The idea for the campaign was sparked by a meeting between the editor of The Daily Telegraph and a UWS leadership group. The topic of discussion was the serious inequity of government investment – with the population of Western Sydney over 2 million and growing rapidly, and the region a significant contributor to the national economy, very little was being returned by way of investment in basic infrastructure and services by comparison to other regions. It didn't seem fair.The campaign continues
The noise made by the campaign didn't fall on deaf ears. Politicians from both sides of government, and at state and federal level, had already begun to recognise the importance of Western Sydney in terms of generating votes – but the Fair Go for the West campaign was asking them to step up and do something significant to redress the inequity of economic resources being applied to the area.Michael Wilkins, Group General Manager at News Local indicated recently that despite the promises made after the successful 2014 campaign, the battle isn't over. He said “we aim to continue to agitate on behalf of small business and the community again in 2015.” Michael hopes that more small businesses will get involved in the next phase. At the 8 October 2014 Small Business Summit Greater Western Sydney, where Michael will be a panellist in session two, he’ll be letting the audience know how the campaign will proceed in 2015 with the aim of delivering better outcomes for everyone in the region. He’ll be joined on the Summit panel by Lyall Gorman (Western Sydney Wanderers), Danny Rezek (Deloitte), and Professor Barney Glover (UWS).
