Business Sydney says today's budget targeting childcare assistance will boost workforce participation, especially amongst women, assisting the dire labour shortages that continue to hamper Sydney's economic recovery.
"Every sector of the economy is struggling to secure staff and the Premier estimates that the extra childcare funding and assistance packages to help women into work, will bring an extra 95,000 women into the workforce over ten years. This will be invaluable in filling the many job vacancies and boost the economy," said Paul Nicolaou, Executive Director of Business Sydney.
"Also assisting the skills shortage is the extra $82.7m over 4 years for 70,000 additional fee-free training places on top of the 100,000 fee free apprenticeships and 70,000 fee free traineeships already being delivered. This will improve skills supply for the construction sector that is battling to meet demand, especially with the growing needs of the government's increased $112 billion infrastructure pipeline."
"As we strive to make Sydney the smartest city in the country and our region to attract investment and meet the demand for IT workers, the additional $108.5m for two Institutes of Applied Technology is a wise investment and in the longer-term, finding for education reforms in early childhood, better schools and teachers, will produce a smarter workforce for the future."
"The long-awaited transformation of Circular Quay - gateway to the CBD - gets a boost with another $216m allocated for design work, but if $25 million is needed to put a flagpole on the bridge, a new Circular Quat is still a long way off."
"The CBD's ageing heavy rail network will benefit from $660m in new signalling equipment for the City Circle line along with $567m to upgrade the Opal card's digital capabilities and investment in active transport infrastructure, will all assist the still-slow return to workplaces and visitation to the CBD."
"The western harbour is the CBD's next growth area and it's pleasing to see the government's commitment to retaining heritage aspects of the precinct with $49m allocated to complete remediation of the old White Bay power station to make it safe for exciting future uses including arts/culture, retail and hospitality."
"This is a budget with generous and targeted spending on women, childcare and schooling reforms, skills and training, along with a bulging infrastructure pipeline that will all help grow Sydney's economy as small, medium and large businesses continue to navigate uncertain worldwide economic challenges."
