Australian politics

When Julia goes west by GDL

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, will as from today (Sunday 3/3/2013) be living in western Sydney for a week. The PM wants to be closer to the people of western Sydney so that she can understand better why whey are so vexed against the government.
Western Sydney is house to close to two million people. Most of them were born overseas or a recent migrant. They are religious and have children. Most of them have a mortgage or live in rental houses. Most of them have jobs in administration, retail, hospitality, in hospitals or schools or drive a truck. A good percentage are blue collar workers. The migrants there are more educated than the Australian born. The middle band is better educated with a high proportion of bachelor's or higher degree than the national average. There are also many professionals living in western Sydney. Muslim accounts of 16 percent of the 1.66 million voters.
The Labor holds party 12 seats in western Sydney from the last elections. According to some polls, the labor government is likely to lose them all at the forthcoming elections. There is antipathy to Labor because of the carbon tax, the high cost of electricity and cost of living in general, the dense traffic and the lack of infrastructure and worried about the influx of boat people.
Western Sydney is the growing economic zone and many business have settled in those areas. It is also where houses are still affordable and so a fast growing residential area.
According to some analyst, western Sydney could determine which party wins government at the next elections. This is probably why this part of Sydney is attracting so much attention form the government and the opposition.
So the PM will be campaigning for five days in western Sydney, meeting the people , discussing with them and try to understand their frustration and anger. She will stay at the Novotel at the Rooty Hill RSL and so avoid travelling everyday from Kiribilli House in North Sydney to the west. This is an acknowledgement that the traffic to the west is a real problem.
During her stay in western Sydney, there will also be a cabinet meeting after which the ministers will answer questions from the public.
Julia's journey to the west starts today and interesting to see the results after five days of campaigning, sorry governing.
GDL.