By XAVIER SMERDON
OVER the next 15 years Australia’s outer suburban population will grow at double the national rate.
By 2026 more than one in five, or 5.4 million, people will live in these municipalities, including Wyndham.
That was the message Wyndham’s Mayor Heather Marcus took to Canberra when she met with Ministers and their advisors ahead of the last sitting of Parliament before the Federal election.
“We wanted to let them know first-hand the challenges we are facing in growth areas,” Cr Marcus told Star.
“We wanted our message to them to be fresh in their minds when they next rise in Parliament.”
Cr Marcus visited Canberra as a representative of the National Growth Areas Alliance (NGAA), which presented its case for the need for more jobs and services for the outer suburbs.
The presentation was entitled Bring the Basics Within Reach.
The NGAA represents 25 councils across Australia, all of which have found themselves in similar circumstances as Wyndham where jobs and infrastructure has not kept pace with the growth in population.
“All these different councils had the same message and I think we were very strong in the way we delivered that message,” Cr Marcus said.
“We think the situation is now critical and both the Federal and State Governments need to find the money to help us now before the gap gets any wider.”
Resident’s messages of what it is like to live in a growth area were also presented directly to the ministers.
