The Premier spent Friday in western Sydney, keeping his finger on the pulse of what communities outside of Sydney are looking for.
As Minns was touring Penrith, housing was a key discussion point, with the Premier saying western Sydney has done its bit to help the housing crisis.
“I think Penrith and the broader community have done a lot. In some parts of the surrounding areas too much,” Minns said.
“I’ve seen some communities like Marsden Park which have been asked to take on so much of the heavy load when it comes to new housing and what my government’s been attempting to do through the last three years is to build more housing close to the city.
“I think western Sydney’s been taking its share plus everyone else’s share and this means we can take the foot off the throat of western Sydney communities and they can grow at a more sustainable pace and not just say if there is going to be new home building, it has to go out west. That’s not far.
“A proportion of it does but not all of it. That’s what we saw, I hate to get political, but that’s what we saw under the previous government, basically it all went to western Sydney, and nothing was built closer to the CBD.”
Donna Davis is expected to recontest the seat of Parramatta at the next election, with Labor finalising candidates for the March 2027 poll in the coming months.
“We’ll run for every seat no matter the circumstances. I’m sure we’ll have strong candidates, and we’ll give it a go, but it is up to the voters…” he said.
“We try to go into these election campaigns in a humble way and don’t take anything for granted. I’ll leave it up to the voters.”
Speaking of the election, Minns ensured his government is the best to lead NSW for another term.
“Firstly, we recognise this tough economic time and we’re not going to be silly about how hard it is for families, how difficult it is to meet mortgage repayments or rents,” he said.
“Sydney is one of the most expensive cities on Earth, but we believe we’ve got the plans in place to make life easier for families and put the economy in a better direction, certainly better than what the previous government did.
“I can point to some examples, investment in schools and hospitals for western Sydney is starting to pay off. Changes to planning have meant we are seeing, for the first time in five years the December and January figures for new house builds are leading the nation, we haven’t had that in a long time.
“We think we’re best placed to promote jobs and economic growth whilst looking out for families.
“I think the alternative plan that was tried for 12 years, I mean, the previous Coalition Government that was in for 12 years, was privatising government assets and putting a wages cap on essential services. I think that model would not work for our current economic conditions, and we’ve got a better plan.”
The next State Election will be held early next year.
