"Sir John Howard" <pmjwhowardj@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:5d4685c6-0c9e-4413-817f-c697cbe21482@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> The great Sydney exodus
>
>
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-great-sydney-exodus/2008/03/02/1204402275498.html
>
> ONE in five Sydneysiders are so sick of traffic and the high cost of
> living they are considering moving to another city.
>
> And in a blow to Sydney's creative energy, NSW is falling behind the
> rest of Australia as people in artistic and cultural jobs abandon the
> state.
>
> The latest Herald/Nielsen poll found 21 per cent of people surveyed
> are thinking of leaving Sydney, with 39 per cent identifying the
> city's high cost of living as their reason.
>
> Crucially, 22 per cent cited job op****tunities elsewhere or a job
> transfer as their main reason for considering moving, while traffic
> congestion was the reason for 13 per cent.
>
> A separate study by the Centre of International Economics found NSW is
> losing jobs in a once-thriving sector that helped give Sydney its
> "glamour city" tag.
>
> Employment in creative and cultural jobs fell by 2 per cent in NSW
> between 2001 and 2006, compared with 1 per cent growth nationally.
>
> The executive director of the NSW Chamber of Commerce, Patricia
> Forsythe, said Sydney could not afford to lose a fifth of its
> workforce, particularly highly skilled workers.
>
> "One in five is a figure that cannot be ignored. It goes to many of
> the issues about which the chamber has had concerns for some time, in
> particular housing affordability and trans****t," she said. "Employees
> are noticing it and employers are noticing it but the issue at the
> moment is the State Government has to notice it."
>
> The Herald/Nielsen poll of 986 people, taken from February 15 to 19,
> found 26 per cent of men and 16 per cent of women said they were
> considering a move away from Sydney. Thirty-two per cent of people
> aged between 18 and 24 are thinking of getting out, and 27 per cent of
> people aged 25-39.
>
> Sydneysiders may be thinking about fleeing the city, but the Premier,
> Morris Iemma, was boasting yesterday about the release of the annual
> Anholt City Brands index, in which Sydney was voted the best city in
> the world for the second year in a row.
>
> He was quick to point out that Melbourne was ranked a disappointing
> sixth, although most voters did not live in Australia.
>
> The Centre for International Economics found NSW was lagging the
> country in employment growth. While employment across Australia grew 5
> per cent between the 2001 and 2006 censuses, it only grew by 3 per
> cent in NSW. The slower growth was evident across all skill levels,
> from managers and professionals to clerical workers and labourers.
>
> Kerry Barwise, one of the centre's directors, said the shrinking
> creative sector was particularly worrying because it was a barometer
> of the city's future health.
>
> "We think it matters a lot because cultural and creative activity
> shapes ideas about what's Australian and it's often at the leading
> edge of what happens next in the real economy," he said.
>
> Brian Redican, a senior economist with Macquarie Bank, said rising
> rents and mortgage stress were driving people out of Sydney.
> "Certainly the combination of high house prices as well as high
> interest rates and high petrol prices are putting considerable strain
> on household balance sheets," he said.
>
> "In 2005 and 2006 we saw a lot of people moving out of Sydney up to
> Brisbane and also to Perth but in 2007 that became much less
> prevalent. People might be surprised how much house prices in other
> other cities have gained on Sydney."
>
> He said the outlook for 2008 was still bleak, especially for people
> living on the city fringe.
>
> "The impact of petrol prices can really affect people in those areas,
> who have been crunched by all the factors," he said.
>
> The Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, said she could understand people's
> frustration with life in Sydney. "We have really got work on
> liveability of this city, and that's about affordable housing programs
> and, most of all, it's about public trans****t," she said. "The city
> really needs very urgent action on public trans****t."
>
> David Hensher, director of the Institute of Trans****t and Logistics
> Studies at the University of Sydney, said a congestion tax was needed
> urgently.
>
> "The reason London's congestion tax has been a success is the money
> has gone back into improving the public trans****t system, and that's
> got to be part of the deal," he said.
>
> The president of the NRMA, Alan Evans, called for the filling of
> missing road links like the rest of the M4 east, and the F3 to the M2,
> and also said "the public trans****t system itself doesn't meet the
> sorts of requirements of this city".
They certainly have ****ed it up. NSW is the worst of all the useless
Labor
Govts at the moment. They look to have an unassailable lead.
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