IT is still another 16 months until NSW voters return to the polls, but the Berejiklian Government is already positioning itself for a fight in key seats across the Greater Sydney region.
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But there will be plenty of battlegrounds for the government right across the state and it cannot allow itself to fall back into a Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong way of thinking.
Two announcements last week, however, leave us wondering if the government is getting that message.
The first, a rebate on car registration for drivers who spend more than $50 a week on tolls, is clearly targeted at the families right across Sydney’s west.
They are the voters who are racking up huge toll bills as they travel along the motorways network to work, school and weekend sport.
Of course, the hard sell for the policy will stress that the rebate is available to all NSW drivers but the reality is that very few motorists west of the Great Dividing Range will be in a position to claim.
But the government has nothing to gain by creating a city versus the bush debate.
No Sydney motorist is compelled to drive on a motorway. There are always alternative routes, but drivers will argue that the alternatives are poorer quality roads and more time-consuming.
That’s certainly true, but the alternative routes in the city will still be better quality roads than many country drivers are forced to drive on every day. Where’s our compensation?
The other big announcement last week was the plan to tear down and rebuild two Sydney sporting stadia – at a combined cost of more than $2 billion.
Again, we will all have access to the redeveloped stadia at Moore Park and Homebush once they’re completed, but Sydney voters – and Sydney sports fans – will be the biggest beneficiaries.
Incredibly, though, neither the Homebush nor Moore Park stadium will be rebuilt to house more spectators, so you have to ask just how necessary this investment is. There may be convincing political reasons but the public policy reasons remain unclear.
While the Berejiklian Government shores up votes in Sydney, though, the Farmers, Shooters and Fishers Party is continuing its pitch for votes in the bush.
The Berejiklian Government needs to be wary of winning the battle in Sydney but losing the war across the state.
