CommSec’s State of the States report ranks NSW as Australia’s best performing economy, whilst NAB’s Monthly Business Survey has recorded positive business conditions in NSW for 45 consecutive months.
Our Government has been working extremely hard to turn the economy around over the past seven years. And it’s not by accident that NSW has risen to number one again!
In 2015-16, for the first time in 25 years, NSW became the best-performing economy in the nation. Our state has succeeded in retaining the #1 ranking ever since, holding a reputation as the engine room of Australia.
This is great news for hard-working small businesses and retailers across the Central Coast.
This also means that the Government can now invest record amounts of money in education, health and infrastructure.
Indeed Premier Gladys Berejiklian has committed to ensuring that every single region across NSW gets its fair share – including our Central Coast community. Together with the Liberal team, I’m focussed on ensuring every single suburb receives the infrastructure and services they need.
Throughout 2018 we will continue to work for you, ensuring our local area is the best place to live, work and raise a family.
Among our key priorities is the much-needed and long-overdue redevelopment of Gosford Hospital. This investment totals $348M and will provide a larger emergency department and intensive care unit, more operating theatres and improved maternity, cancer and cardiovascular services.
Construction has been powering along! External scaffolding has been removed and the internal fit-out is now underway. A new 800 space car park adjacent to the hospital is also being built to ease the ongoing traffic and parking pressures.
Further to the north, Wyong Hospital is also undergoing a $200M redevelopment, which means more than half a billion dollars is being invested in our fantastic public hospitals on the Central Coast.
The positive flow-on effects from this commitment is more jobs for local clinicians and nurses, and better health outcomes for our community.
Another core focus is investing in education for our future generations. In last year’s State Budget we pledged millions of dollars to build 25 new classrooms, teaching spaces and additional core facilities at Wamberal Public School and Terrigal Public School, which will future-proof our local education facilities for years to come.
This replaces older demountable classrooms and will cater for projected growth in the local community. Designs have already been drawn up and published for consultation before construction commences later this year.
In the last eighteen months alone, public schools across the Central Coast are benefitting from $24.7M of maintenance work to ensure that all students have access to the best possible facilities and resources.
Strong fiscal management has also enabled the Government to roll out the Active Kids Rebate. This new initiative will make sports activities more accessible for all kids, with a $100 voucher per school-aged child per year.
Active Kids vouchers became available on 31 January, and within the first ten days over a quarter of a million vouchers were claimed. 100,000 of these have already been redeemed, which is easing cost of living pressures and incentivizing sports participation for NSW families.
So throughout 2018, I’ll be working my hardest to ensure our Central Coast region gets its fair share and becomes an even better place to live, work and raise a family.
Adam Crouch is State Member for Terrigal.
