Western Sydney Business Access - January 2015 by Publicitree Australia

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ISSUE 45 January 2015

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17,000 JOBS for sale Wanderers Above, Blacktown Deputy Mayor, Russ Dickens at the undeveloped site with his dog named Cullen and inset, artist impression of the Park.

Tide turns for Blacktown HE multi-million dollar commercial/industrial development that is Sydney Business Park, Marsden Park will further cement Blacktown City as “the centre of the universe”, says deputy mayor Russ Dickens. With Blacktown the largest local government area in NSW - often overlooked by government planners, the development will create about 17,000 jobs when fully operational in 12 years’ time and 2000 by the end of 2015. The project includes a DA from, Lindt, the Swiss chocolate maker to build a 20,330sq m warehouse, 5000sq in manufacturing and storing area over 6.6 hectares. Full story page 3

T www.thehills.nsw.gov.au

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Big plans for Sydney Business Park PROJECTS

Project at a glance • Sydney Business Park plan announced 2010 • 256 total hectares, 46 commercial, 27 parkland, 6 residential • North West Rail link will extend into park • Officially opened on July 4 2013 • 17,000 total jobs by 2025 • 61, 900 homes surrounding park • Will include rainwater harvesting, recycled water, alternate energy sources

By Di Bartok HE multi-million dollar commercial/ industrial development that is Sydney Business Park, Marsden Park will further cement Blacktown City as “the centre of the universe”, says deputy mayor Russ Dickens. With Blacktown - the largest local government area in NSW - often overlooked by government planners, the development will create about 17,000 (17 thousand) jobs when fully operational in 12 years’ time, 2000 by the end of 2015. Clr Dickens said the development will be the “shot in the arm” that Blacktown needs. “We are already the centre of the universe, and this is the largest development we have had in recent times,” he said. “Apart from the large companies coming here, creating jobs, there will be thousands of new homes created.” Clr Dickens said Blacktown was often overlooked by governments, with Parramatta and Penrith receiving bigger slices of the pie. “Where is Penrith and Parramatta? I never go there. This is where it is happening and we are making it happen,” Clr Dickens said. Large companies set to be part of the business park include chocolate manufacturers Lindt, IKEA, McDonalds, Shell, Bunnings, Masters Home Improvement, Swire Cold Storage, Costco, and Hargreaves Property Group. According to their DA, Lindt, the Swiss chocolate makers, is set to build a 20,330sq m warehouse, 5000sq m manufacturing and storing area over 6.6 hectares, with approval expected soon. McDonalds opened in December, Masters Home Improvement expects to open May and Bunnings early in the New Year. Development director of Sydney Business Park, Owen Walsh, said the development gave companies the chance to have their manufacturing and sales operations on the one site. “We are marketing the business park internationally, hence calling it Sydney rather than Western Sydney Business Park,” he explained. “This will be a boon to the whole of Sydney, but especially the Blacktown area.” And Russ Dickens and his fellow councillors could not agree more. “This has been a long time coming. With so many announcements about Parramatta and Penrith, it is good to remember that here is Blacktown, the largest local government area in NSW, more than pulling its weight,” Clr Dickens said. Details, inquiries www.sydneybusinesspark.com.au

Committed purchasers and tenants Bunnings Warehouse, IKEA, Masters Home Improvement, Costco Wholesale, Shell, McDonalds, Hargreaves Property Group, Swire Cold Storage, Lindt.

Above: Blacktown Deputy Mayor Russ Dickens on the Sydney Business Park site.

Above: Artist impression of the Park.

Above: Construction is well underway.

Digging into Lennox Bridge history....................................4 Auburn development site fetches $50m..............................5 Finally we have a true university city .............................6 JANUARY 2015 Liverpool transforms into a regional force .................................8 Why Failure happens book extract .....................................18 Gourmet: where cafe Are our kids failing in maths?.......................24 meets heritage.................................30 WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

VIEW EACH EDITION ONLINE AT www.wsba.com.au Western Sydney Business Access (WSBA) ABN 9336 7098 582 Publisher/editor: Michael Walls M: 0407 783 413. E: michael@wsba.com.au News Editor: Anthony Stavrinos • M: 0411 188 111 Assoiate editor: Di Bartok. • M: 0404 147 743 Business development: Michael O’Dwyer • M: 0402 647 789 Printer: New Age Printing, Rydalmere Design: Design2pro.com Website: www.accessnews.com.au Email enquiries: info@wsba.com.au Phone: 02 4572 2336 • Fax: 02 4572 2340 DISCLAIMER: The publisher, authors and contributors reserve their rights in respect of the copyright of their work. No part of this work may be reproduced or copied in any form without the written consent of the publisher. No person or organisation should in any way act on the information and content of Western Sydney Business Access or www.wsba.com.au without ﬁrst seeking professional advice. The publisher, contributors and agents accept no responsibility for any actions that may arise from the contents of this newspaper or website www.wsba.com.au. The opinions and views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher. Advertisements are published in accordance with WSBA terms and conditions published in the media kit downloadable at www.wsba.com.au. Advertisers agree to indemnify the publisher and his agents for any actions that may arise as a result of published advertisements.

Scheinberg family sells site for $50M DEVELOPMENT ESIDENTIAL developer, Pace Consolidated Limited, has purchased an eight-hectare site in Auburn for $50 million, from the Scheinberg family. The purchase represents the first sale in a portfolio of industrial and residential land being sold off by the family, said to be worth $350 million. The Auburn property includes three warehouses and manufacturing facilities leased to steel manufacturer, BlueScope Steel, until July 2020. Payce paid a 10 per cent deposit with completion to occur in the first quarter of 2015. The company has projects in the Auburn and Parramatta local government areas Marina Quays, formerly known as the Sydney Olympic Park ferry wharf, includes 256 apartments and 4200 square metres of retail space, at Wentworth Point, on the Parramatta River. Payce and Sekisui House, Jaopan’s largest private home builder, are behind the Royal Shores project, also on the Parramatta River, at Ermington. The project has a site area of 20,382 square metres including 612 apartments consisting of nine separate buildings, on the Defence Housing Naval Stores re-development Parramatta City Council has granted land owner’s consent to allow Payce to lodge a permit to Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) for a proposed wharf on the eastern edge of the redevelopment site fronting the river. A council report noted the RMS has advised that as there is no current intention for use of the wharf by the public ferry services the facility would need to be a privately managed wharf. Scheinberg family also sold a 137,000-square-metre site at Dursley Road, Yennora, to Charter Hall Group’s Core Logistics Partnership, for an undisclosed sum.. The warehouse and distribution site, leased to Woolworths, adjoins the Yennora Distribution Centre.

R Traces of Lennox’s Lost Western Wall are discovered.

Digging into Bridge history HISTORY TART digging into history and you don’t know what you will find. Literally digging, that is. Imagine the surprise of workers creating the controversial portals in the heritagelisted Lennox Bridge on Church St when they uncovered the remains of an earlier bridge. Seems it was presumed that when Australia’s first bridge builder David Lennox built his iconic bridge in 1839, the previous Gaol Bridge, built around

1802, had been dismantled. But not so, adding another dimension to the long drawn-out project to create portals on either side of the arch to allow easy access along the foreshore. Heritage protectors fought long and hard to have the project stopped, saying the bridge should not be touched. While Parramatta Council finally won, at least they moved the portals further away from the arch so as not to interfere too much with the integrity of the bridge’s design. And good to see that council appears committed to preserving the Gaol Bridge relics. Lord Mayor Scott Lloyd, said the

works uncovered Lennox Bridge’s original western wall and part of the old Gaol Bridge. He assured heritage lovers that council was working closely with the NSW Heritage Office and archaeologists to find the best way to display the artefacts. Of course, as Parramatta looks forward to an exciting future, it cannot forget the rich colonial past. Thank goodness that Parramatta Council, as well as the Baird government, have always shown such high regard for our diminishing heritage buildings and places when considering projects.

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New swim centre making waves RECREATION By Di Bartok OLROYD residents, it seems, are not as keen to get in the swim as they have been in the past - at least not locally. In fact, according to Holroyd Council, figures, the numbers of people attending Merrylands, Wentworthville and Guildford pools has decreased steadily over the past 35 years. The council hopes to make water play and swimming more popular in the city by putting all their splash into the one pool - a super swim centre at Merrylands. The move to close Wentworthville and Guildford pools has met with sustained opposition from those people who are regular users. But Mayor Greg Cummings said there were not enough regular swimmers at those centres to justify keeping them open. “The figures speak for themselves,” Clr Cummings said. “Our figures show there has been a dramatic 48 per cent decline in the number of people using the local swimming pools over the past 35 years, despite an increase in population.” Council figures show that in 1966, the pools had 219,976 entries with a population across the LGA of 65,983. With the inclusion of Merrylands Pool in 1968, entries rose to a high of 408,296 in 1969. Following the addition of Guildford

Lakes swimming a mid-summer option REACTIVATION ARRAMATTA’S outdoor recreation opportunities could be expanded with Parramatta City Council taking steps to make swimming at Lake Parramatta a permanent fixture this summer. Lord Mayor of Parramatta, Cr Scott Lloyd, said that following the completion of an appropriate safety assessment, Lake Parramatta could be open for public swimming and water recreation activities by mid-summer. “The Lake Parramatta Reserve is a significant natural area within western Sydney and I am pleased that Council has voted to move forward with this proposal,” Cr Lloyd said. “Our first step is to undertake a formal risk assessment of the site. Council would then identify the safety measures that are needed to ensure a safe and clean environment for swimmers.” Currently swimming is only permitted in Lake Parramatta as part of an organised event which requires pre-approval from Council. “Swimming and other recreation activities would re-activate Lake Parramatta as a mustvisit destination and will open up the beautiful surrounding natural environment for people to explore and enjoy.” For more information on recreation at Lake Parramatta visit www.parracity.nsw.gov.au.

P Numbers are declining at Wentworthville Swimming Centre.

Pool in 1978, usage stabilised at around 350,000, but from the mid-1980s, patronage started to dramatically decline even though the population of the LGA was increasing. The decline accelerated in the mid 90’s with 1994 being the last year that more than 300,000 entries were recorded for council’s pools, and by the year 2000, use was down to 240,000 with a population of around 85,000.

By 2010/11, the population in the LGA had reached 100,00 yet attendance figures still continued to decline to under 200,000 annual visits across the three pools, a trend of declining patronage has continued up until last season. Clr Cummings said the release of the data follows the conclusion of council’s community consultation on design options for a proposed Aquatic Wellness Centre at Merrylands.

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for international water sport events, quality recreation facilities and housing. “The potential for recreation, leisure and tourism in the Penrith Lakes Parkland will add a rich dimension to the growing attraction Penrith already holds for almost 1.3 million annual visitors,” Mayor Ross Fowler said after the government’s announcement in December. See, it does not all happen in Parramatta.

End of free parking?

Artist impression of the new Parramatta UWS centre.

A true university city EXCITING developments on the horizon for the Greater West in 2015, with major plans from all councils, and the latest Metropolitan Sydney Strategy driving the future with jobs, housing and business growth. For Parramatta, moving the Centenary Square development along, with some healthy business interest, is a priority. For Sydney’s “dual CBD”, there will be an invigorated business centre, driven in large part by the future UWS CBD campus. With the announcement that Charter Hall Group that two of its managed funds are putting up the dosh for the campus building in Macquarie St, we can see Parramatta truly becoming a university city. Lord Mayor Scott Lloyd, said commencement of the project with Leighton Properties and Charter Hall was a major achievement in the development of Parramatta Square. He said the 14-level A grade building was a world-class urban renewal project and further evidence of the future growth in value of commercial property in Parramatta. “We are delighted

Councils won’t be overlooked PARRAMATTA may be the “dual CBD” in the State Government’’s view, as expressed in the Metropolitan Strategy, but other western Sydney councils are not to be overlooked. As Blacktown deputy mayor Russ Dickens stated when crowing about Sydney Business Park in Marsden Park - “where’s Parramatta? I never go there.” This tongue-in-cheek comment from the cheeky vet echoes the sentiments of mayors and citizens of Penrith, Blacktown,

that another blue-chip Australian company has shown such a strong commitment to the future of Parramatta and the development of its key commercial precinct, Parramatta Square. We would like to congratulate Leighton Properties and Charter Hall on their deal and thank them for their investment in our city.” Construction is expected to be completed in late 2016 for the first semester of university in early 2017. There already is a UWS presence in the CBD, as well as city campuses for University of New England and Charles Sturt University. There can be no better way to invigorate a CBD night-life than having young people studying in the hub. Restaurants and bar managers have told me how the increased presence of young students has helped to bring Parramatta alive at night, along with the many residents moving into the CBD. Looking forward to having more Centenary Square developments confirmed. Especially waiting for confirmation of the “open secret” of a major bank taking up a slab of the Square. Liverpool, Holroyd and The Hills who are looking forward to major developments in their areas. Penrith Council has a huge project that will bring people from outside the area flocking to the outer western city for recreation. Already with the Nepean River offering a range of water activities, Penrith is jumping for joy over the State Government’s plans for the Penrith Lakes Parkland proposal. With community consultation under way, the Parkland proposal will see major infrastructure

AND Holroyd mayor Greg Cummings warns that Parramatta overtaking Holroyd will have more drawbacks than benefits - parking for one. Hitting out at forced mergers of council areas, Clr Cummings said an amalgamation with Parramatta, Auburn and Ryde councils could mean the end of free parking for residents of Holroyd. Clr Cummings warns that timed, paid parking meters could be introduced to the area if the State Government proceeds with threats to force amalgamations. Seems Holroyd residents agree. A recent council survey showed that 98 per cent of respondents were opposed to amalgamation. Holroyd residents know when they are on to a good thing - with a less frenetic yet comprehensive shopping precinct, best enjoyed with free parking. There is anecdotal evidence that people bypass Parramatta for shopping to come to Merrylands, fed up with having to pay for timed parking. The Government has been offering cash incentives for councils that merge voluntarily but have made noises about forcing amalgamations. Apart from the parking issue, Clr Cummings reckons that valued community services such as Meals on Wheels and free immunisation would be doomed. “While Holroyd continues to provide our young families with free immunisation for children, there are no such services in Parramatta and Auburn,” Clr Cummings said. “If these council services change, are scaled back or are removed, we estimate up to 400 jobs could be lost from the Holroyd area, 150 alone from our childcare services.” Clr Cummings said a new council could be based at Parramatta, rather than Merrylands. And where would everyone park?

Residential high rise in Hills IT is inevitable that high and medium rise developments crop up around railway stations - so Castle Hill residents had better prepare themselves when the North West Rail Link is operational. The Hills Council’s plan for residential development in the town centre to accommodate an additional 6000 residents will soon be on public exhibition. The area north of astle Hill Rd and Old Northern Rd is set to have three-storey townhouses and residential flat buildings ranging from four to 20 storeys. The taller developments will be at the edge of the town centre and, from there, the height of buildings will gradually drop. An important part of the precinct plan is to have enough recreational and green space. Deputy Mayor Michelle Byrne said she agreed with the concept of having the taller developments closer to the town centre.

Lots of money in pizzas THERE’S a lot of money to be made out of pizzas it seems with the palatial Glenhaven home of Italian restaurant supremo Frank Criniti fetching $9 million when it was sold recently. Needless to say, it was a record for the area. The magnificent resort style acreage, known as “Petalinda’’, had been on the market for just one month. The luxurious six-bedroom residence in Gilmour Close has a stunning list of features, including a security system that uses fingerprint scanning technology and a 23m indoor pool. It also boasts a 14-person sauna, championship-size tennis court and gymnasium. Bought in 2011 for $5.6 million, the Crinitis spent another cool $2 mill on renovations at the 2ha property. The sale, to a buyer from nearby West Pennant Hills, also includes some Gucci and Hermes furniture and a $120,000 wine cellar. As if he was not successful enough, with a string of Sydney restaurants including one in The Piazza in Castle Towers, Mr Criniti is relocating overseas with his young family to expand their successful chain of Italian restaurants. Mama mia!

Spread of community banks IN recent years, community banks have cropped up all over Sydney, with investors feeling they have more control of their money. Following on the success of the Galston and District Community Bank, founded 12 years ago, a group of business leaders in the Hills will launch one at Norwest. The Norwest Community Bank, which is expected to open in the second half of next year, will direct profits via grants to sporting and community groups in the Hills. It will be a branch of the Bendigo Bank, which has 17 community banks in Sydney that have contributed $8 million via grants to their communities. Last year the Galston branch of the Bendigo Bank shared just under $300,000 in profits to projects such as men’s sheds, sports groups and schools. Branch manager Gary Mangan said that since June 2008 it had given $1.792 million to its community through 630 sponsorships and donations. John Mason, chairman of the volunteer steering committee for Norwest Community Bank, is seeking pledges. “No money is required at this stage and there are no signatures required – just an indicative pledge of support,” Mr Mason, the former chairman of Sydney Hills Business Chamber and Hills School Industry Partnership, said. The pledge could be investing in a small parcel of shares in the Norwest Community Bank branch (from $500 to $5000) or pledging to transfer some or all of your banking business to the community bank. “We are halfway towards the targeted number of pledges we need to get the branch off the ground, but we need community support to get it over the line,” Mr Mason said. The community bank will offer all the services of the major banks, with perhaps more friendliness and personalised service. I’m in favour of moving some of the power away from The Big Four.

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page 26 WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

Councils campaign to raise awareness about asbestos RESIDENTS ARRAMATTA, Holroyd, Fairfield, Blacktown, The Hills, Liverpool, Penrith and Hawkesbury have joined forces with the Environment Protection Authority to fight the ever-growing problem of illegal asbestos disposal. The Western Sydney Residential Asbestos Disposal Scheme (WSRADS) is a 12-month pilot program to raise awareness and offer rebates for asbestos disposal. Parramatta Lord Mayor Scott Lloyd said he encouraged all western Sydney residents to take advantage of the WSRAD scheme that offers generous rebates to eligible residents to collect and dispose of household asbestos. “It is imperative that we increase people’s knowledge about asbestos, raise awareness that asbestos products can be in any home built or renovated before 1987, where to find it and how to manage it safely,” he said. Residents will be able to dispose of up to five tonnes of asbestos material during the pilot program and take advantage of reduced tipping fees, and additional rebates if using a licensed asbestos contractor.

The Environment Protection Authority’s Director of Waste and Resource Recovery, Steve Beaman said the scheme provides homeowners the opportunity to have their legacy asbestos waste removed safely by professionals. “Many homeowners may have loose asbestos sheeting, such as fibro, left in the backyard over many years known as legacy asbestos. Over time these pieces of sheeting can become brittle and may begin to break down,” Mr Beaman said. “It is important for homeowners to dispose of any asbestos correctly and by a professional to reduce any hazards.” Contact your council for more details.

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Floorspace shortfall may stall Parramatta growth DEVELOPMENT By Red Dwyer AN Parramatta find sufficient floorspace capacity by 2036 to accommodate the projected employment and housing growth? A study, commissioned by Parramatta City Council, found a shortfall of almost 660,000 square metres under a “trend” scenario of 27,000 additional jobs and 5000 addition dwellings. Under a “high-growth’ scenario the shortfall was 1.8 million square metres. The study, by SGS Economics & Planning, noted Parramatta is encountering major constraints within the CBD, on the one hand, and increasing competition outside the city’s boundaries, on the other, affecting the growth of the city. Since 1968, Parramatta has been identified as Sydney’s second CBD: the major employment and economic hub in Western Sydney. However, problems within the city, such as, public transport access, congestion, calls for residential space in the CBD core and lack of large floor plates does not favour employment growth. Externally, an arc of the three business parks – Norwest, Macquarie Park. and Sydney Olympic Park/Rhodes – offers large foot plates in campus-style accommodation and a range of amenities which “provide a compelling offer to potential tenants”, noted the study. Consequently, these parks host a “significant concentration of employment and,

in particular, office-based employment,” the study said. “Macquarie Park, Norwest and Sydney Olympic Park have all experienced considerable growth in office floorspace in the last 10 years”. Significantly, Parramatta with 690,000 square metres of office development has been surpassed by Macquarie/North Ryde, with 850,000 square metres. Parramatta City Council, which has a strategy of maintaining the CBD core as an employment-only precinct, has been receiving planning proposals for residential development in the core. The study recommended, among others, council should continue to exclude residential development from the core or could implement a high threshold requirement for non-residential floorspace – a minimum of 20,000-30,000 square metres – to a mixed-use proposal. Consideration, also, should be given to the potential to accommodate employment growth in other locations in the “Greater Central Parramatta”, such as, Auto Alley, Westmead, Rydalmere, Camellia and Granville. Council will place on public exhibition the Draft Parramatta City Centre Planning Framework Study, prepared by Architicus, and the Draft Parramatta CBD Planning Framework Economic Analysis, prepared by SGS Economics & Planning. Demand is strong for large floorplate offerings but there is a lack of stock on the market, which can accommodate this, according to the latest Colliers Office Market Report “This has prevented Parramatta from benefiting from the state government’s stated decentralisation policy,”

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Liverpool – from caterpillar to butterfly TRANSFORMATION By Anthony Stavrinos IVERPOOL fresh-faced Ned Mannoun may be one of Australia’s youngest mayors at only 32, but he’s hardly put a foot wrong in his mission to build a bigger and better city. His solid performance at the halfway mark in his mayoral term has repaid the faith residents placed in him in 2012 when he was popularly-elected to the top job, reinforcing his political future as one of the Liberal Party’s rising stars. And he can even get away with the occasional corny line when fronting the media, as he did recently on TV, spruiking plans for a major face-lift and rejuvenation of Liverpool’s CBD. “We want to take Liverpool from being a caterpillar, into a butterfly; it’s a transformational change,” Cr Mannoun recently told the Nine Network, which in May also reported the same “major makeover” was coming, only this time there was a slick new ‘fly over video’. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=5DZVFDHxxl0 Liverpool City Council is looking to invest more than $15 million to transform the city centre into a place that that will encourage busi-

ness to invest and people to visit. The transformation begins with five key revitalisation projects, including establishment of a “city nerve centre” connecting to shops, transport and services within the CBD the 5,000 people working in - and thousands visiting - one of Australia’s largest health and medical precincts,. A ‘City Eat Street’ will liven the southern end of the CBD with restaurants, coffee shops and nightlife catering to all ages, tastes and budgets, while a revitalised ‘Macquarie Mall’ will form a vibrant hub showcasing and connecting a diverse mix of nearby shops. New ‘Urban Breathing Spaces’ will connect the CBD to the Georges River and transform Bigge Park into an integrated public recreational space while more defined ‘Gateways’ will serve as entry points into the CBD. “Residents won’t be hit up for this,” explains Cr Mannoun, who says special levy on business interests collects $1.5m per year which is reserved in a special fund for these types of projects.. “It’s only the commercial property owners and the developers who are building this.” Council in September, allocated $1million from the Town Improvement Fund (TIF) towards further work to bring three projects - revitalisation of Macquarie Mall and Bigge Park and a transformation

of key gateways - to implementation stage. “Building Our New City is progressing well,” Cr Mannoun says. “From our first consultations with business and community about the need to prepare our city for future growth, to working closely with the NSW Architect’s Office and urban designers, through to (Council’s) decision to take three projects to the next stage, we are well on our way to transforming our city.” Of course, the spectacular rise of Liverpool as a key commercial and residential centre has not come about solely because of the enthusiasm and hard work of Cr Mannoun. There is some long term transport planning that has come to early fruition, reinvigorated action by the local business community and its leaders and developers are proposing new buildings that will change the way people perceive Liverpool and entice them to visit in larger numbers. But it is the new Badgery’s Creek Airport, in Liverpool’s LGA that will supercharge its econominc fortunes. According to a Deloitte study, prepared for the NSW Business Chamber, the new airport will tip between $9.2 billion and $15.6 billion into Western Sydney’s economy between 2020 and 2050 and over the same period between $15.7 billion and $25.6 billion into the economy for the whole of Sydney. http://www2.deloitte.com/

Driving force: Ned Mannoun.

au/en/pages/economics/articles/ economic-impact-western-sydneyairport.html Liverpool is the biggest winner, with nearly 16,000 jobs to be created generating incomes totalling close to $5 billion. And with the tidal wave of economic benefits, the long-serving president of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce – the man they call “Mr Liverpool” – Harry Hunt believes it’s more important than

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ever for local business to have a strong voice. In February this year he was re-elected for his 11th straight term and publicly acknowledged there had been criticism around that time and he’s since gone about addressing the issue. “The transformation of Liverpool into a major regional city for South West Sydney is becoming Continued on page 9

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South West Rail Link Image is indicative only

New Edmondson Park Station: will include 400 commuter car parking spaces and a street-level concourse and transport interchange.

Image g is indicat indi indicati indicative attiiive at e only onl o on y

Image is indicative only

New Leppington Station: will include 850 commuter car parking spaces. The new station will also include lifts and a streetlevel concourse and transport interchange.

Glenfield Junction Northern Flyover: will carry the new East Hills track over the existing South Line. Construction of the flyover commenced in June 2010.

Glenfield multi-storey commuter car park: was opened in September 2010. The new facility provides 730 free, untimed commuter parking spaces. It also includes lifts, CCTV and security lighting. The design of the car park’s external panels incorporates community feedback.

Rail bridge over Camden Valley Way

Glenfield Transport Interchange and Glenfield Station: opened to the community on Sunday 23 September 2012.

Rail bridge over Campbelltown Road 500 metre Rail bridge over Cowpasture Road and Sydney water supply canal Rossmore train stabling facility: will provide train stabling (parking) facilities for the network. The facility will be able to accommodate 20 eight-car train sets.

Rail tunnel under Hume Highway

Glenfield Junction Southern Flyover: will connect the new rail line to the existing network, carrying it over the South Line and Southern Sydney Freight Line. Construction of the flyover in the rail corridor commenced in June 2010.

Continued from page 8

increasingly more evident as cranes dominate the Liverpool CBD landscape,” Hunt says. “Within two years there will be an additional 2,000 residents in the Liverpool CBD alone. By mid-2030, one in every 2 residents in Sydney will live in Sydney’s West.” Hunt has been a member of The Western Sydney Airport Alliance since its inception and says he’s pleased its efforts have driven forward the development of a western Sydney airport at Badgery’s Creek. Alliance members have always

believed a major employment catalyst was needed in western Sydney to increase the number of job opportunities and improve the work-life balance of the regions two million residents. “The need for a strong voice for the Liverpool business community has never been more important and we have been making changes to accommodate the new demands placed on our Chamber,” Hunt says. “We will be increasing the Executive to eleven Board members to enable greater member participation to better serve our business community.

WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

“We are strengthening our partnerships with government at all levels. We are growing the Chamber with concerted efforts to increase our visibility within the business community.” Hunt says membership numbers have been increasing at unprecedented rates, as more and more businesses realise that Liverpool needs a united voice to drive infrastructure developments critical to ensuring business in Liverpool receives maximum benefits. In another boost to the area, the NSW Government recently announced the new 11.4km South

Glenfield South Substation

West Rail Link between Glenfield and Leppington had been completed ahead of schedule and underbudget. It includes two new stations, Leppington and Edmonson Park. It will provide a crucial link to Badgery’s Creek Airport in the future, when the line is extended from Leppington. The NSW Government has protected this transport corridor among 19 that have been identified across Sydney to allow the expansion of the rail network to service expected growth areas. Now Liverpool Council wants the NSW Government to bring the city’s existing rail connection with

Seddon Park commuter car park: was opened in October 2009. The extended car park provides 112 free, untimed commuter parking spaces.

the Sydney CBD “up to speed” because it took 50 minutes to commute from Liverpool station to Central. At a December meeting of Liverpool Council a motion was passed to lobby the NSW Government for a new express service between Liverpool and Central. Councillor Mazhar Hadid said that it took more than 50 minutes to commute from Liverpool station to Central. The motion included plans by Liverpool Council to circulate a petition advocating for the express train service.

7 easy steps to decluttering … and profiting from it AS you move forward into the New Year and your resolutions, let go of what’s holding you back. Here’s how to get rid of your clutter - and profit from it. RESOLUTIONS

“

By Laura Shin s you start the New Year, you’re probably making resolutions and other plans for your fresh, clean slate. What if you challenged yourself to make 2014 your best year yet? As outlined in these seven steps to living your dream life, this is just what Betsy and Warren Talbot did when, in 2008, they decided to spend the rest of their lives traveling. After two years of selling almost everything they owned and saving with a singleminded focus, they embarked on a worldwide trip without end. Thirty-some countries, three books and thousands of readers later, the Talbots, publishers of Married With Luggage, are living their dream life. Among the many steps they took, one key was decluttering — and not just for the purpose of having a tidier or better organized home. “Clutter gets in the way of being able to see the life you want,” says Warren. “It ties you down to what you’re doing now, and it’s difficult to see and envision the life you want when you’re surround by all the things about the life you have now.” If you really want to make some changes to pursue a goal, one secret to getting there will be to let go of everything standing in the way. Plus, you could earn some extra cash that way. Here’s how to do it right.

1. Figure out why you want to declutter. Don’t declutter simply because you think you should. Tie it to a personal goal you have to change an aspect of your life — whether it’s because you want to move, get out of a particular living arrangement, start a business or something else entirely. “Imagine how you want your home to function, so you can see how to declutter it,” says Betsy. You may want to park your car in the garage again, or to be able to peacefully read your newspaper in the living room without other things distracting you.

2. Determine why you tend to clutter. The Talbots say people with clutter fall into three personality types: “the storekeeper, the person who keeps things because they might need it someday; the romantic, who holds onto everything for sentimental value; and the Pollyana, who takes in every broken, mismatched thing because one day they’re going to fix it and it’s going to be fabulous,” says Betsy. If you’re a storekeeper, if you end up not using something in a set period of time, it needs to go. Romantics, ask yourself whether your memories or relationships would go away if the items did, and remember that they

Decluttering is a big job. As you start to collect your unused, unnecessary items, start with the more valuable items to get your momentum going.”

exist whether you have a reminder or not. Pollyannas should put a deadline on revitalization projects — if you don’t repair something within a certain timeframe, out it goes.

thing here needs to find a new home — just not in your home. As you start selling, people who come by to pick up items may find something else they’re interested in buying off you.

3. Identify the items you’d like to get rid of.

5. Start selling.

Now for the fun part. Be smart about how you choose what gets the boot. For the kitchen: Get a big box, and put all your utensils in it. Whenever you need an item, pull it out of the box and put it back in your kitchen. After two months, toss anything you haven’t used. (More on what to do with your discards in a second.) For your closet: Turn everything in your closet backward on your hanger. As you wear each item, hang it back up face forward. After three months (for the clothing for each season), anything still facing backward is now one of your castoffs. For your bathroom: Any outdated medicines should go. Same with dried up, old makeup. Use the kitchen box trick here, and discard whatever you don’t use in a month, but give medicines a few more months. For your living room: Decide how you want to use the room. If you want to use it to watch movies, keep relevant items. If you want to use it to read and play games, keep your books and the games. But if you have games leftover from when your kids were young but no one uses them anymore, then it’s time to find them a new home.

4. Set up your staging area. As you start to collect stuff on the outs, put them in a designated location. “It should be a place that you see on your way in and out of your home, so it becomes a motivation to get it out of there, and you can see progress as those things leave your home,” says Warren. This spot is now your “staging area,” and any-

Decluttering is a big job. As you start to collect your unused, unnecessary items, start with the more valuable items to get your momentum going. “If you’re going to sell items, it’s nice to sell one quickly so you can start making money from your junk,” says Warren. This could also help you get started on your goal, if, for instance, part of the reason you want to declutter is to start your own business, put the proceeds toward that venture. Or, if your goal is to entertain more, use it to host a dinner party. Identify your most valuable items, and figure out whether it makes the most sense to sell them via eBay or another website or outlet. Designer clothing can do quite well on eBay and at consignment shops. The disadvantage for potential shoppers on eBay is that they won’t be able to try on the item first while, for you, a consignment shop will give you a much smaller audience for your items, though that group might be more likely to buy since they can try the item first. Online selling is especially appropriate for large items, like furniture, for which shipping could be an issue and which the buyer will likely want to see in person first, though a consignment shop is best for vintage furniture items that could earn a higher price. To sell on sites like eBay, “The key is in having a system,” says Betsy. “Clean it up, photograph it well, write an engaging ad, and price it competitively.” When all else fails, have a good, oldfashioned stoop, garage or yard sale — just be prepared to get a lot less for your wares, and take whatever you can get.

6. Donate or recycle the rest. For anything un-sellable, find out where you can recycle or donate the item. With donations to places like the Salvation Army, you can also take a tax deduction if you itemize. Put out the call on social media: “There’s always someone in a state of transition in their life, whether it’s someone going to school or who has a kid going to college, someone just getting divorced, someone just getting married. Those people are always interested in things you might have, so it’s important to put a note on Facebook,” says Betsy. Donate unwanted, unused toiletries to women’s shelters. Meanwhile, unsold electronics and batteries should be recycled so as to keep their toxins out of landfills. “You want to do as much as you can to keep it out of landfills,” says Warren, so once your other options have been exhausted, you can put it in the trash.

7. Keep yourself decluttered. If you’ve done a big push but still think you could streamline more, get rid of one thing a day. “If you do that, you’ll be at least 365 items lighter by the end of the year,” says Betsy. But once you’re happily more minimal, follow the self-explanatory “one thing in, one thing out” rule. While this is obviously useful to the Talbots since they live out of their backpacks, it can also help anyone who has just decluttered stick keep themselves from accumulating more things — keeping your home light, and your bank account plump. Laura Shin is the author of “The Millennial Game Plan: Career And Money Secrets To Succeed In Today’s World.” This article originally appeared on Forbes. com.

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WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

Congratulations Anthony HILLS Council has congratulated Anthony Moss (pictured below) on being elected to the role of Chairman of the Sydney Hills Business Chamber. Mayor Jefferies said that Mr Moss will be a great ambassador for The Hills business community. “Anthony Moss has been a very active Chamber board member for some time and will bring a great deal of enthusiasm to the role,” Mayor Jefferies said. Mr Moss replaces outgoing Chairman Tony Eades.

Stuart Ayres with The Deputy Premier, Andrew Stoner and Penrith Mayor Ross Fowler OAM at the Western Sydney Tourism round table discussion.

Penrith in on roundtable PENRITH Mayor Ross Fowler OAM participated in a round table discussion with stakeholders from the tourism industry across Western Sydney recently. The meeting, to discuss a Western Sydney Tourism & Events Strategy, was organised by the Western Sydney Business Chamber and the Tourism and Transport Forum. The State Government is delivering $500,000 over two years to develop a Western Sydney Tourism & Events Strategy.

New business committee PARRAMATTA City Council has established an International Business and Investment committee. Its aims include promotion and facilitation of international businesses and investments in Parramatta; help local businesses to explore international opportunities;

and the promotion of international economic and cultural partnerships. The committee will work closely with Council’s economic development team.

New dean at uni PROFESSOR H Patrick McNeil has been

appointed inaugural executive dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, at Macquarie University. He commenced his role on November 3.

MOU signed PARRAMATTA City Council and Sydney Water have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together on initiatives such as improving the water quality of Parramatta River and planning future water needs.

$30 million grant BLACKTOWN and Penrith councils will receive a combined total of almost $30 million

this financial year as part of the federal government’s Financial Assistance Grant program. Blacktown will receive about $18.5 million and Penrith, just over $11 million. The money will be used for general purposes and spent on local roads.

CCTV at Oatlands CCTV will be installed in the Oatlands Village shopping strip along Belmore Street East to improve safety and security for customers and retailers. Hills Shire Mayor Clr Andrew Jefferies said that Council would fund and install the CCTV cameras in response to calls and concerns raised at a community forum hosted by Parramatta MP, Geoff Lee.

Property Investment & First Home Buyer Seminar. A guide to buying your ﬁrst home and investing in property. We Invite you...

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Reading the tea leaves for SMEs in 2015 FORECAST By John Burke Condon Associates

RYING to understand economic analysis of trends and predictions can be confusing but as the mist of confusion clears these can be useful tools in your business planning for 2015 and beyond. The challenge is to determine what impacts upon your business. We talk about small businesses here, (less than 20 employees) because there has been a steady decrease in the number of medium sized businesses (20 – 200 employees) over recent years according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Count of Australian Businesses. A declining value in the Australian dollar to the US dollar will favour exporters in contrast to importers and retailers who sell imported goods. A lower Australian dollar favours the education and tourism sectors. An increase in demand for goods from Australia’s major trading partners such as China will increase demand for our major exports such as iron ore puts upward pressure on the Australian dollar. A useful research tool is the Reserve Bank’s quarterly Statement on Economic Policy published February, May, August and November each year. This includes a section on Economic Outlook. It is freely available on the RBA’s website. The Australian terms of trade are expected to trend down by approximately 4% during

2015 with a flattening out in mid to late 2015. The terms of trade can be described as the amount of imported goods an economy can purchase per unit of exported goods. This downward trend in terms of trade is in large part owing to weaker-than-expected commodity prices, particularly for iron ore. This should be marginally offset by the effect of falling oil prices on import prices. In China, the GDP growth in 2015 and 2016 is expected to trend gradually lower reflecting factors such as the declining working-age population. The US economy is likely to show continued steady growth. Domestically, the available indicators suggest that GDP growth will remained moderate. Growth of resource exports and non-mining activity is likely to have been offset by a further decline in mining investment. There is likely to be a moderate growth of consumption and measures of business conditions and confidence are likely to be close to their long-run averages.

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Conditions in the housing market are consistent with strong growth in dwelling investment. The non-residential building sector should support investment in the near term; however forward-looking indicators, such as nonresidential building approvals, have weakened over the course of 2014, implying that there is likely to be less growth in the non-residential building sector. There will be a decline in mining investment. This will have an adverse impact on those businesses involved with the supply of goods and services for building mining infrastructure. GDP growth is expected to slow over 2014/15, before picking up to previous levels of growth over 2015/16. The depreciating exchange rate for the Australian dollar has, to a large extent, offset the declining terms of trade. The latter tends to be contractionary for the economy because the lower prices received for exports adversely impact national income and expenditure. An exchange rate decline is expansionary because it increases export incomes in Australian dollar terms and increases import prices, which causes households and businesses to substitute towards domestically produced goods and services, where those goods and services can be produced domestically. Household consumption is expected to pick up gradually. The forecasts envisage that consumption will grow by more than income, implying a further gradual decline in the savings. This is consistent with constraints on wages growth and an aging population that

will increasingly rely on retirement savings to supplement income. So if you are retail, don’t automatically expect growth, especially in the long term. You will have to continue to deal with cost pressures if you are relying on imported goods. Dwelling investment is expected to increase at an above-average pace. Dwelling investment is being supported by low interest rates, strong population growth and relatively low rates of construction over the past decade. Those involved with construction in the housing sector should take advantage of the opportunities, while those involved in the non-residential construction sector should prepare for a slowing in activity. The unemployment rate is expected to be the same for some time. Wage growth is expected to remain low especially with pressure on public and private sector employers to contain costs. Labour productivity is expected to grow. Combined, these forces should mean that unit labour costs will remain well contained. Those businesses with labour being a large proportion of their costs, such as in the service sector, should take this opportunity of low wage growth to improve the training and quality of their existing staff teams who are likely to be stable in the medium term. Inflation will remain the same. This is due to lower wages pressure, reduced government expenditure, (demand), and lower crude oil prices. On the other hand, pressure will come from the higher costs of imported goods, including many retail items, due to the lower exchange rate. Pressure will also come from the housing market.

ƉŚŽƚŽŐƌĂƉŚŝĐ ƐŽůƵƟŽŶƐ ĂŶĚ ƐƚƌĂƚĞŐǇ ďƌĂŶĚŝŶŐ v ŚĞĂĚ ƐŚŽƚƐ v ƉƌŽĚƵĐƚƐ ĐŽƌƉŽƌĂƚĞ ĞǀĞŶƚƐ v ĐŽŵŵĞƌĐŝĂů ǁĞĚĚŝŶŐƐ v portraits v ŶĞǁďŽƌŶƐ v ĨĂŵŝůǇ

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^Ž ŝĨ ǇŽƵ ĂƌĞ ŚĂǀŝŶŐ ĂŶ ĞǀĞŶƚ͕ ŶĞĞĚ ƉŚŽƚŽŐƌĂƉŚƐ ĨŽƌ ǇŽƵƌ ďƵƐŝŶĞƐƐ Žƌ ĂƌĞ ůŽŽŬŝŶŐ ƚŽ ƵƉĚĂƚĞ ǇŽƵƌ ŽŶůŝŶĞ ƉƌŽĮůĞ͕ ĚŽŶ͛ƚ ŚĞƐŝƚĂƚĞ ƚŽ ĐŽŶƚĂĐƚ ŵĞ ƚŽ ĚŝƐĐƵƐƐ ŝƚ ĨƵƌƚŚĞƌ͘

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WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

HANDS OFF HOLROYD The Baird Government wants to merge Holroyd Council with Auburn, Parramatta and one third of Ryde Councils. This is bad news for our community. You can do something about it! Send a message to the Baird Government.

Tell your friends and family to support the Hands off Holroyd social media campaign, sign our petition and attend the community meetings in 2015.

www.handsoffholroyd.com.au WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

Ph: 1300 207 122 www.mitronics.com.au enquiries@mitronics.com.au 14

WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

Mr Baird: Hands Off Holroyd! LGA MERGER

ing our free Immunisation Programs for Children, Childcare, Aged and Disability Services, Out of School Hours programs (OOSH), and Home Library Services, could all change – for the worst. And if Council services are scrapped, the result is that we could lose up to 400 local jobs throughout Holroyd. The new ‘mega’ Council will be based in Parramatta or Ryde instead of right here in Merrylands – and that will mean longer delays for ratepayers and business owners when dealing with Council related issues.

That’s why we are urging our ratepayers and local businesses to join together in the fight against our forced amalgamation. So far, more than 7,200 people have jumped online or signed our Anti-Amalgamation petitions in support. We all know that Holroyd is sustainable and financially fit for the future. Our message to Mr Baird is loud and clear: Hands off Holroyd!

“

If Council services are scrapped we could lose up to 400 local jobs on Holroyd.”

By CLR Greg Cummings Mayor Holroyd City Council

OLROYD City Council has proudly represented its community for over 140 years. As Holroyd has grown, Council’s wide range of services and infrastructure has expanded accordingly, to continually meet the needs of our ratepayers and business owners. You might remember back in mid-2014, the Holroyd community agreed to a special rate variation (SRV) to allow Council to ensure it can continue to maintain and renew our existing infrastructure whilst our Section 94 Infrastructure Plan has been put in place to support growing areas. Holroyd’s new Local Environmental Plan (LEP) and Development Control Plan (DCP) have been developed to increase growth opportunities and investment into the area and we are surging ahead to become a progressive place to invest, live and play in Western Sydney. If trends continue, the increase in value of developments from 2012/13 to 2014/15, which based on current projections will reach a total value of $1 billion in Development Applications received, will see an increase in development activity of approximately 250%. To support the rapid growth of our City, Council has approved the fast tracking of $45 million of essential infrastructure works that are essential for the increase in development activity to occur in a timely fashion. Council is also finalising a comprehensive vision for the feel and structure of our streetscapes with the objective of bringing a vibrant contemporary look to our community spaces. But after 140 proud years, Holroyd could be literally wiped off the map by the Baird Government, which seems fully-intent on amalgamating the State’s councils. As a result, Holroyd could be forced to merge with Auburn, Parramatta and a third of Ryde. The State Government proposals for local councils under the ‘Fit for the Future’ campaign can be found at their website at www. fitforthefuture.nsw.gov.au. Holroyd now has six months to outline to Premier Baird and Local Government Minister Paul Toole why we should remain our own entity, in 500 words or less. That means explaining 140 years of history and commitment to our community in 500 words, explaining how ‘local’ is more efficient than a bureaucracy and explaining how we plan to continue to provide for our community over the next four years. All of this, in just 500 words. As Mayor, I am increasingly concerned about the impacts a forced merger will have on Holroyd’s everyday services, programs and infrastructure, at a time when the community continues to grow. Merging Holroyd is just bad news for everyone living and working in the area. Residents and businesses could be hit with increases in rates, businesses with higher fees and charges and paid parking could be introduced across our suburbs, putting an end to free on-street parking across Holroyd. A long list of crucial services, includ-

WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

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Collaborative approach to drive growth THE PLAN

“

By Clr Scott Loyd Lord Mayor of Parramatta

HIS year is set to be another exciting one for Parramatta as we continue to work towards Building Australia’s Next Great City. There are many projects already underway that are set to transform Parramatta into a world class CBD. In 2015 building will start on the first development of Parramatta Square PS1, which will be home to 10,000 University of Western Sydney students. Parramatta Square is Council’s $2 billion urban renewal project and will be a vibrant mixed-use hub with high quality commercial and residential development and innovative public domain space across three hectares in the middle of our CBD. We are receiving plenty of interest on Parramatta Square and we hope to have more positive news as the year progresses. At the end of last year the NSW Government made some major announcements as part of its metropolitan strategy, A Plan for Growing Sydney. The plan highlights Parramatta’s key role in providing the homes, jobs and businesses of the future. NSW Planning Minister Pru Goward came to Parramatta to launch the plan, which confirms Parramatta CBD’s status as Sydney’s second CBD. This approach is consistent with our Council’s vision for growth with initiatives such as Parramatta Square, activation of the

Approach is consistent with our vision.” riverfront and creating a new commercial precinct in Auto Alley. The strategy details how our CBD has the potential to reach 100,000 jobs in the next 20 years and that Greater Parramatta including Westmead, Parramatta North, Rydalmere and Camellia, will become one of the key Strategic Centres for Sydney. Our Council will work closely with the Government to drive investment and growth in areas such as medical research, education, innovation and technology, bringing the jobs of the future to Parramatta. The strategy also focused on further development of the area between Parramatta and Sydney Olympic Park, and outlined the intention to further develop the Camellia precinct. This year we will also be analysing feedback received from the public exhibition of our three key City Strategy documents, which cover the Parramatta River Foreshore, Auto Alley and the CBD Planning Framework. Part of our CBD planning framework includes a proposal to remove height limits from CBD buildings. In the NSW Government’s

NSW Planning Minister Pru Goward MP, Lord Mayor Cr Scott Lloyd and Member for Parramatta Dr Geoff Lee MP.

metropolitan strategy they commit to working with Council to review expansion opportunities in our CBD including updated building height controls.

These are all extremely positive announcements for Parramatta and we look forward to driving more investment into our great City during 2015 and beyond.

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Parramatta now Capital of Western Sydney THE REGION By Geoff Lee State Member for Parramatta

T’S official, Parramatta is the “Capital of Western Sydney” and Sydney’s second CBD. Last month the Minister for Planning, Pru Goward released a “Plan for Growing Sydney” – a 20 year plan to shape our global city. The plan positions NSW to take advantage of growing opportunities from Asia – with Asia expected to account for half of global economic output within the next decade. This plan also provides the framework necessary to deliver more jobs and accelerate housing supply so that we can both meet future demand and drive NSW’s economic prosperity. Today, Western Sydney is home to 47 per cent of Sydney’s residents and only 36 per cent of the jobs while Sydney CBD has 10 times more jobs than other centres – as a result every morning 200,000 people in Western Sydney wake up and travel into Sydney’s CBD to work. They end up spending hours stuck in cars, buses or trains. Today congestion costs Sydney around $5 billion per annum and is expected to grow to $8 billion by 2020 if we do nothing. The plan identifies priority growth areas Greater Parramatta to the Olympic Peninsula in a series of connected specialist precincts. The health precinct at Westmead will grow from 16,000 jobs to 25,000 in 20 years. Last week the Minister for Health Jillian Skinner announced the start of an estimated $1 billion

Parramatta CBD is the focus of developments.

upgrade for Westmead Hospital, the largest upgrade for the hospital in 35 years. The Parramatta Heritage Precinct will generate 2,000 jobs and 6,000 homes through the transformation of government lands into a vibrant mixed-use precinct. Close to $100 million will be invested to restore and adaptively re-use the heritage buildings in the precinct, making it a place that not only rivals the Rocks, but is bigger and better. Greater Parramatta will grow to 100,000 jobs over the next 20 years making it the financial, banking and professional services centre

for Western Sydney. Rydalmere education precinct will be expanded to recognise the important role of the University of Western Sydney in tertiary education and research. The Camellia Precinct will be transformed from an industrial wasteland to a waterfront living. As a long-time advocate for its redevelopment I am encouraged by the Minister’s announcement of $900,000 to start the planning of the new Camellia. Located just 2.5km from Parramatta CBD, the precinct offers substantial opportunities for remediation and redevelopment follow-

ing the closure of the Shell refinery to create upwards of 30,000 jobs and 30,000 homes. A new arts, culture and entertainment precinct will be developed in Parramatta. This will have the Powerhouse Museum as its anchor tenant and create space for local artists. The relocation of the Powerhouse will meet increasing demand for more conveniently located entertainment and artistic options in Parramatta and be a catalyst for further arts growth in Western Sydney. Parramatta has also been selected as a Green Grid pilot to connect open spaces, strategic parks and pedestrian and bike paths. This will provide significant benefits in making Parramatta a vibrant city. The $1 billion investment in Parramatta’s light rail will not only improve commute times, light rail will shape Parramatta City and surrounding suburbs. New urban infill sites like the Parramatta Heritage Precinct and Camellia will be transformed into modern vibrant communities. Light rail will link the growing population centres with employment, sport and education centres to alleviate congestion on our roads. Overseeing the implementation of this plan will be the Greater Sydney Commission – a new government body that will bring together and coordinate across the many key stakeholders including, local government, private sector and community and state government agencies. For far too long Western Sydney and Parramatta have been ignored – this plan, in conjunction with the NSW Government’s Long Term Transport Master Plan and Rebuilding NSW lays out a clear road map for building Western Sydney’s international competitiveness and future economic success.

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How apps can solve traffic time problems HACKATHON By Kate Hill Partner Deloitte Private

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is a telling hint to one of business life’s most frustrating problems: losing time. Business owners are always struggling to find more time to run their business. Whether they are stuck on back-office work when they would rather be mapping out a growth strategy for the next six months, or sitting in heavy traffic morning and night, the race against time is a common problem we all face. Often, the struggle through road traffic is the most infuriating demand on our time, and the one over which we have the least control. No-one has the capability to empty the roads at will. And it is likely to worsen. The daily traffic numbers are expected to rise as WestConnex completes the toll road network in Sydney. Traffic is continuing to rise on the M4, while more motorists from growth areas in Western Sydney are using toll roads to get to and from work in the city. There are 1.6 million residents in Western Sydney, and nearly half a million more are expected to flood into the area in the medium term. According to the University of Western Sydney, the population in Greater Western Sydney will exceed 2.3 million by 2026. More workers, and larger businesses, are expected to flood into Western Sydney as well. Over 300,000 jobs will be created across Greater Western Sydney in the next 30 years. All this growth will put enormous pressure on Western Sydney’s road network. In this situation, business owners can only try to deal with the inconvenience as best they can. For some, that may be choosing to work from home when it becomes difficult to head into the office. However, for those who must head into the office, technology and improving smartphone apps may provide the answer to improved travel times. Transport for NSW, aware of the problem

of increasing traffic, are working together with Deloitte to support app developers who can develop the next generation of apps for NSW road users. Eight teams from the successful Codeworks Hackathon will design apps that can help business owners save time on road travel, letting them put more into their business. These app designs include concepts like selecting the best routes to avoid congestion and traffic accidents, real-time road information for the public, optimised departure times and modes of transports for reduced travel

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According to the University of Western Sydney, the population in Greater Western Sydney will exceed 2.3 million by 2026.” time, providing delivery drivers with a trip planning app, an app for car-pooling options, and providing transport options for quick and easy traffic routes. Deloitte will provide the winners of the Hackathon with incubation support over the coming months, including mentoring and coaching around technical development and commercialisation. This support includes expertise in data analytics, design, transport and digital technologies. Increasingly sophisticated technologies are allowing businesses to rethink their core processes and capabilities, and create more value for the business at a faster pace. Cloud computing is simplifying back office functions, while social media allows key stakeholders to connect more tightly, and communicate and collaborate faster and more easily. Yet business owners should not forget the value of technology in solving one of their most basic and intractable problems: getting to work on time.

WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

WHY FAILURE HAPPENS “Success is not final, failure is not fatal.” - Winston Churchill EXTRACT 2 from the new book about human behaviour called Selfish, Scared and Stupid by Dan Gregory and Kieran Flanagan published by WILEY. e live in an era of overindulgence. While the media likes to turn the spotlight on our junk food and computer game–addicted youth, our overindulgence is not confined to the physical (or lack thereof). Today, our psychological lives are also characterised by relentless positivism and happiness delusions as we strive to create a perpetual mono-emotional state, such that we can never be truly sated. One of the problems with our overindulgence in the positivity and hope fantasies touted by much of the self-help school is that they inform so many of our strategies in business, and in life for that matter. Added to this is the fact that they’re not especially helpful if we want to achieve actual results. Sure they’re entertaining and they temporarily make us feel good (selfhelp’s comparison with rock concerts is well earned: you leave on a high, buy the merchandise and a month later it’s all gathering dust). But the motivation industry’s almost religious status has convinced many of us to abandon our own cognitive processes and ‘follow our bliss’: trust the universe and invest in a cork-board! (It’s important to note at this point that there is a huge distinction between affirmations and mental rehearsal.) Consequently, great ideas, extraordinary teams, powerful organisations and some exceptionally gifted and talented individuals often fail. This is principally because they haven’t even considered the possibility of failure, let alone designed an environment or processes that help them thrive in spite of it. Worse, they come to blame themselves and process failure as a character trait rather than as simply another result, however undesired it may be. For instance, if we were to suggest to you that you volunteer to be the test subject for a never before tested parachute design that we were really positive and fist-pumpingly confident about, how readily would you give up the option of a reserve chute? The question is almost ridiculous, and yet this formula is repeated in offices, homes, schools and fitness centres around the planet every day. In fact, rather than being the exception, it has become the strategic norm. We have designed our world in such a way that only perfect execution can succeed … and just in case you haven’t taken a good look around recently, perfection is pretty rare. Of course, there are a number of reasons for this. It is in our natures to err towards optimism. Hope is quite possibly the most powerful drug we have ever injected into our cerebellums and many of us have an addiction so acute that we will sacrifice almost everything to satisfy it. Now we’re certainly not suggesting that optimism underscored with effort is a bad thing — quite the contrary. What we’re talking about is the baseless optimism that dominates so much of our social commentary and leaves us impotent in the face of reality. More importantly, we’re asserting that one of the consequences of this kind of optimism is that we court failure by not accounting for it. We act as if we are generous, bold and intelligent all the time, and as a result we adopt hope as a strategy. We shun criticism as pessimism and at the first sign of negativity, we put our fingers in our ears and note at this point that there is a huge distinction between affirmations and mental rehearsal.)

Consequently, great ideas, extraordinary teams, powerful organisations and some exceptionally gifted and talented individuals often fail. This is principally because they haven’t even considered the possibility of failure, let alone designed an environment or processes that help them thrive in spite of it. Worse, they come to blame themselves and process failure as a character trait rather than as simply another result, however undesired it may be. For instance, if we were to suggest to you that you volunteer to be the test subject for a never before tested parachute design that we were really positive and fist-pumpingly confident about, how readily would you give up the option of a reserve chute? The question is almost ridiculous, and yet this formula is repeated in offices, homes, schools and fitness centres around the planet every day. In fact, rather than being the exception, it has become the strategic norm. We have designed our world in such a way that only perfect execution can succeed … and just in case you haven’t taken a good look around recently, perfection is pretty rare. Of course, there are a number of reasons for this. It is in our natures to err towards optimism. Hope is quite possibly the most powerful drug we have ever injected into our cerebellums and many of us have an addiction so acute that we will sacrifice almost everything to satisfy it. Now we’re certainly not suggesting that optimism underscored with effort is a bad thing — quite the contrary. What we’re talking about is the baseless optimism that dominates so much of our social commentary and leaves us impotent in the face of reality. More importantly, we’re asserting that one of the consequences of this kind of optimism is that we court failure by not accounting for it. We act as if we are generous, bold and intelligent all the time, and as a result we adopt hope as a strategy. We shun criticism as pessimism and at the first sign of negativity, we put our fingers in our ears and chant, ‘I’m not listening, I’m not listening’. Or else, we double down on a positivity bender and cavort like an evangelical congregation reciting cheery affirmations laced with doubt and desperation: ‘I am rich, thin and successful … I am a preciously unique snowflake filled with abundance’, and the like.

The truth is, we set ourselves up for failure Children in modern life are, rather notoriously, never allowed to experience anything remotely like failure (heaven forbid they miss out on a ‘pass the parcel’ prize). As a result, failure hits them hard when real life refuses to grade them on a curve suspended over a padded floor with a loving acceptance of ‘their own special spelling’. Of course it’s easy to pick on children and no-one will thank us for it, so let’s turn our attention to the adult world. The same can be said of most corporate and government processes, business systems and self-management programs. The more you set strategy or design systems without a consciousness of even the possibility of failure, the greater the chance of realising that failure actually is. Diets — or ‘wellness programs’ as they have come to be euphemised — are famous for simultaneously promising the virtually impossible in record time, and for almost universally failing to provide lasting results. And yet, the more preposterous the claim and the more inflated the possibility, the more these books, powders, audio-programs and reality television shows seem to sell. What’s more concerning is that when we do eventually fail or backslide (the faith-based terminology is not coincidental), we end up blaming ourselves rather than the system we’ve bought into. We desperately self-flagellate as our internal dialogue runs to phrases such as, ‘I’m weak … I’m hopeless … I can’t do it …’ and so the cycle continues. By ignoring the possibility of failure in our

WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

Authors Dan Gregory and Kieran Flanagan.

thinking, we unwittingly increase the chances of it ultimately eventuating. Contrast this strategy with the design parameters of commercial aircraft. In 2012, while speaking at an international business summit in Bangkok, Thailand, we struck up a conversation with another speaker, Richard de Crespigny. Richard is the Qantas pilot who successfully landed QF32, the Airbus A380 that, en route from Singapore to Sydney, experienced catastrophic engine failure causing an enormous hole in the wing (which, it is pretty well agreed by all flying experts, is rather a bad thing to happen!). In a typically Australian, self-deprecating way, Richard is quick to deflect credit for the safe arrival away from his skills as a pilot and onto his crew and his aircraft. But when you probe a little deeper into his story, you really do get a sense of just how ‘foolproof’ the systems built into the A380 actually are. It turns out that all commercial aircraft are designed with the possibility that they may crash taken into consideration. And this stretches to considerably more than the life vest and its amazing light and whistle combination (which no doubt is immensely reassuring as you bob up and down in the middle of a vast ocean). Failure, it turns out, is actually factored into the engineering. In other words, when a system suffers a serious failure, the plane will, in most cases, stay in the air. It is only in the very unlikely event of multiple system failures of significant magnitude that you may really want to locate the nearest exit (if only to be sure of where holes in the plane are supposed to be). But even this understates the over-engineering involved in the building of the A380 (given the successful landing of QF32, the term ‘over-engineering’ may be an overstatement in itself). According to de Crespigny’s account, the aircraft exceeded even his expectations and what most pilots would consider its baseline specifications. The plane simply refused to let a ridiculously long string of errors lead to complete failure. So it appears that, when it comes to things where our lives are at stake (such as sitting in a metal chair at 9000 metres while travelling at 800 kilometres per hour) we start to get a little more realistic about our chances of success and in fact we improve those chances by preparing for the chance of failure. So how is it that we set ourselves up for failure?

Discipline is hard work As the sun rises on a crisp 1 January morning, those living in the Northern Hemisphere breathe out visible air in the cold as they step into a fresh new world rich with possibilities. Meanwhile those in the Southern Hemisphere, many of whom are already halfway

through the new day, bury their toes in the sand on sun-drenched beaches clutching Moleskines and pens with pages optimistically titled ‘New Year’s Resolutions’. We may have partied hard over the holiday break but now it is time to get a grip on our lives — to make some ‘positive’ changes, rein in excesses and do a little exercise, maybe learn a language, be kinder to our livers and perhaps get back to playing the piano. This is the kind of interior dialogue we all engage in as we usher in a new year (those in Asia no doubt think this is a ridiculous practice best left until the ‘real’ new year a few weeks later). And what better way to embrace these possibilities than to apply a little healthy discipline. After all, surely that’s a good thing. It shows we’re willing to take responsibility for our lives and not passively allow life to simply dictate terms to us. So we swear off alcohol, join a gym, go out and buy some appropriately stretchy fitness attire, throw out every can of soft drink and refill the refrigerator’s crisper tray with loads of fresh vegetables (where they will, of course, rot as they have all previous Januaries). By February, we’re berating ourselves, ‘Why am I so undisciplined? Why can I not stick to anything? What is wrong with me?’ The answer is, ‘Nothing is wrong with you’, unless of course you consider being exquisitely human ‘wrong’. Yet, much of our culture, certainly the ‘self-improvement’ industry, asserts that what we are lacking is discipline. They inform us that our attitudes need a tune up, that it’s all about our states of mind and that we should push ourselves to higher levels of self-control. This, of course, is mostly nonsense. Many of those who espouse this herculean discipline, be they personal trainers, life coaches or ‘self-actualising consultants’, are just as undisciplined in other areas of their own lives. Consider the typical Boot Camp–owning physical trainers who scream at their clients as they torture them in public parks but are incapable of picking their children up from school on time or organising their receipts come tax time. It makes you wonder how they would respond to a rather feeble looking accountant standing over them and screaming, ‘You’re worthless and weak … look at your expense reports … you disgust me!’ Discipline, it seems, owes rather more to the hierarchy of our own personal values and internal filters than it does to any self-imposed directions running to the contrary. But does that mean we should all surrender to failure and simply give up? Well, yes and no. There are certainly some things we should give up, such as strategies that don’t actually work (more on that later). But it would be wrong to see this as surrender. What it does indicate is that being successful in any sphere of life clearly comes down to quite a lot more than discipline, not in the least part because we don’t actually behave as predictably and rationally as we think we do.

Human irrationality In the 1600s, French mathematician, inventor and philosopher Blaise Pascal famously suggested in his dissertation on ‘decision theory’ that human behaviour was the result of an individual looking at all of their available options, weighing up the pros and cons and then making the most logical decision possible. Of course, this was in the 1600s and there was very little reality television around to dissuade him from his idealism. More recently, scholars of the behavioural sciences, such as Daniel Goleman in his ‘Emotional Intelligence’ series, have suggested that we are far more driven by emotions than simple logic and that by developing our Emotional Quotient (EQ), we may better understand what drives human behaviour and belief systems. This certainly seems to be the case. Everything we do is to some extent filtered through how our actions will make us feel. Continued on page 20

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Of course, we still post-rationalise our emotional decisions. There are plenty of men in their fifties driving around in sports cars who can tell you all about aerodynamics, German engineering and their marque’s racing heritage … but all they are really interested in is attracting women half their age. Alarmingly, behavioural studies carried out in Las Vegas indicate that this may often be a successful strategy (good news for the ageing gent in a Porsche or Ferrari then). Hot on the heels of Goleman’s research is the work by Simon Sinek, who tries to narrow down our emotional focus to dealing with a single question — ‘Why?’ — a question that he rather neatly dovetails into the subsequent questions of ‘How?’ and ‘What?’ This echoes the earlier work of Friedrich Nietzsche and of Viktor Frankl, who, in Man’s Search for Meaning, asserts that one can achieve any ‘what’ if the ‘why’ is large enough. All make a compelling case for the importance of developing and buying into a clear and inspiring ‘Why?’ This has certainly been a significant part of our leadership strategy during our combined 50 years in the commercial world and it is abundantly apparent in other people whose leadership we most admire. However, as anyone who has ever been on a diet can attest, ‘why’ is often temporary. Initially the ‘why’ — be it a high-school reunion three months hence, or a wedding, or a hot date — will inspire enormous amounts of action and even results. But, inevitably, time goes by and the ‘why’ fades. All of a sudden, we find ourselves back on the sofa in our sweatpants, watching Oprah and eating chicken out of a bucket! Why? Good question. It turns out that, like discipline, an inspiring ‘why’ can be difficult to maintain over the long haul. A lot of this is driven by our sense of Identity Congruence, our innate need to behave in a way that aligns with our sense of self. If the ‘why’ or the program of discipline conflicts with who we think we are at our core, it is highly unlikely to be sustainable. However, it is also a function of the environment and systems we create around ourselves. Discipline is a lot easier to maintain in an environment that supports it. Abstinence is relatively easy when you’re an overweight, bombastic senator with nothing on offer (versus being a charismatic President such as Bill Clinton). Eating fresh food is simple in the absence of fast-food options in your local area and workers without families in remote locations are more likely to be willing to put in a little overtime than those surrounded by other priorities. (Why wouldn’t they be?) People working in business-to-business sales often pride themselves on the rationality of both themselves and the customers they serve. In fact, many scoff at anything other than an order-taking approach to engaging their customers: ‘They’re not interested in soft sell, they want what they want. It’s a necessity’. While we hold an almost fetish-like fondness for office equipment, it does seem a bit of an overclaim to call it a necessity. So what is it that drives these ‘rationalists’ of the corporate procurement world? When you dig a little deeper and ask them some provocative questions, the process of buying business-to-business products reveals itself to be anything but the straightforward, rational process that its participants claim it is. Do they buy the best product? No? Then perhaps they are not driven by a rational need for quality. Do they buy the cheapest product? No? So it seems they’re not driven by a rational need for economy either. The truth is, if they are lazy, they buy what they have always bought; if they are fearful, they buy the best known brand (remember, ‘no-one ever got fired for buying IBM’); if they are the typically disengaged middle manager, they don’t change things until someone higher up the chain complains. Of course, the list of causes goes on and on, but very few lead to the world of rational decisions that Pascal promised. These compromised decisions even follow us into our personal lives. A restaurateur once shared with us that if you have an oversupply of a particular wine, you should present it on your menu as the

second least expensive option, something they referred to as the ‘first-date’ wine. The paying partner’s ‘logic’, they claim, runs along these lines: things may not go well, so they don’t want to waste money on the really good stuff, but of course, looking cheap may decrease the chances of things going anywhere at all. So they assiduously avoid the cheap plonk and opt for the second most expensive option (‘A very good choice if I may say so, Sir’).

Beliefs are hard to shift So, if discipline is hard to maintain and our rational minds are little help, perhaps we can enlist the help of belief systems. Of course, this is easier said than done. Yet this methodology — the shifting of belief systems — has come to dominate in the spheres of leadership, psychology, marketing, sales and performance coaching. We talk about changing our beliefs in such a casual way that it makes us seem ignorant of just how powerful these beliefs actually are. Many of our beliefs have proved stubbornly hard to move in even the slightest terms over the past few millennia and have in fact led to wars, murder, family breakdowns and even suicides. Nevertheless, it seems to be a logical place to start. One of the main problems with most

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We tend to personalise failure when we experience it. For all the corporate world’s talk of failure being an essential ingredient to success, it is seldom greeted with the enthusiasm of a student learning a valuable lesson. The language is often reminiscent of the breakup speech, ‘It’s not you … it’s me!’ “ campaigns around behavioural change, be they commercial, government or personal, is that we do tend to focus only on shifting beliefs. We employ communications campaigns, advertising, keynote speakers, audio programs and the like. However, try as we may to bludgeon our beliefs into submission with affirmations, rational platitudes and emotional blackmail, the beliefs prove to be the cockroaches of the mental world — impervious to even nuclear attack! Almost every one of us can name at least one thing in our lives that we believe down to our toes is bad for us, self-destructive, unhealthy or emotionally heart wrenching. We know we should stop doing it and yet, despite all our affirmations — sticky notes stuck to the refrigerator, extra coaching sessions and seemingly rigorous strategies to counter this behaviour — we continue to do it. Part of the reason for this is that our beliefs are very much attached to our conception of ourselves. For example, followers of the various religions do not typically say, ‘I believe in the teachings of the Bible’ (or the Koran, the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita the Dhammapada)’. They are far more likely to say, ‘I’m a Christian’ (or a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist). For people who are of Jewish ethnicity and Jewish religious belief this is no doubt even more self-defining. What this means is, changing what you believe is not as simple as … well … changing

your mind. It actually involves changing your conception of who you think you are. So what are beliefs in essence? It is helpful to think of beliefs as simply meanings we’ve attached to the events that occur in life, either through personal experience or adoption through cultural context. Over time, and in accordance with our brain’s desire to streamline our very complicated decision-making processes, this distinction tends to get lost and the meanings we’ve attached to one occurrence start to become more concrete, universal and non-negotiable. At this point our brains behave very much like The Filter Bubble, which Eli Pariser describes in his excellent book of the same name. We selectively filter the information we seek and then absorb to reinforce these newly entrenched beliefs and simultaneously filter out anything that may challenge them. This is part of the reason why true diversity is so important in teams. Ethnic, gender and cognitive diversity actually make a group or team collectively smarter. They allow for points of view that would otherwise be missed in a more homogenous group due to contextual blindness. What this all means is that our beliefs are far more powerful than we give them credit for. But what is more disturbing is that we tend to view our own internal persuasive powers as more than up to the challenge of changing them.

Our brains are over-confident Confidence is drummed into those of us who have worked in the corporate world. It is seen as one of the defining characteristics of a leader and its absence is seen as a life sentence of working in middlemeh! So much so, that employees are often rewarded for talking themselves, and their capabilities, up while quietly intelligent souls who come at the world with a dose of wariness and caution are not so quietly sidelined and told, ‘Stop being such a downer’. Of course, there’s nothing innately wrong with a healthy sense of confidence or in being engagingly extrovert. In fact, it can be very useful as long as it is supported by a measure of complementary competence. The reasons why over-confidence evolved in our collective psyche are not completely understood, although perhaps having a bit of swagger and being skilled in the persuasive arts was as important to reproduction in our prehistoric years as it appears to be today. However, the problems with over-confidence are two-fold. Many of us don’t know where confidence ends and over-confidence begins, but more concerning are the small over-confidences we use in our everyday decision-making — the things we don’t even process as overly confident. The educated guesses we make, the assumptions we use based on past experience and the little generalisations we cumulatively filter the world through have the capacity to create enormous problems. Part of this is socialised into us in schools. Whenever a student asks a teacher how to spell a word or what the capital of a particular state is and the teacher replies, ‘What do you think?’ or ‘Try to answer it yourself’, they are unconsciously increasing the chances of guesswork becoming a lifelong strategy. In fact, when we conduct over-confidence tests in the field, asking random passers-by in the street a series of questions they think they should know the answer to — such as, ‘How many countries are there in Europe?’ — or asking them to point in the direction they think is north, people are far more likely to take a guess than to simply admit, ‘I don’t know’. Of course, teachers are not to blame for this; taking chances based on limited information is necessary for human beings to just get through a typical day. This is partly because we don’t want to appear ignorant and lose social standing, but also because we create mental shortcuts out of a need for efficiency and rarely have all the information we would like before making a decision. For example, even though we know there is a slim chance a driver may not see the red light as they approach an intersection, most of us still step boldly onto the street when that

little green figure appears on the other side of the road without a moment’s hesitation. The ‘confidence’ we exhibit in other people’s social conformity, however, can get us into rather a lot of trouble. Just how much of an issue our overconfidence can be is explored in detail in the book Confidence: Overcoming Low Self-Esteem, Insecurity, and Self-Doubt. Tomas ChamorroPremuzic, a professor of business psychology at University College London, writes that lower confidence is in fact necessary for gaining competence, which obviously sits at the base of genuine confidence. In other words, overconfidence gets in the way of us being curious, asking questions and developing our skills such that real confidence is justified. But the issue is larger than that. When you consider that, statistically, for any endeavour humanity has turned its hand to, half the people involved possessed a less-than-average competency, you begin to understand just what the scale of the over-confidence problem may be. The dilemma really lies in what overconfidence robs us of. Of course leaders must convey some sense of certainty in order to engage their team to at least attempt to prove a hypothesis right or wrong. It also makes sense that they have a reasonable amount of confidence that their hypothesis is probably correct. However, over-confidence stops us looking too closely at blind spots and possible errors. It has us ‘hope for the best’ and ‘keep calm and carry on’ rather than dealing with issues that may completely derail our objectives, regardless of our confidence levels.

Laboratory conditions don’t exist Even when we don’t rely on our own prejudices, belief systems and confidence levels and instead do some research into what may be the best course of action, we can still come undone by the environment we choose to test in. Entire industries exist to help mitigate the mistakes we may make in our endeavours. Researchers, social scientists and strategists of all sorts test hypotheses, conduct double blind experiments and enlist carefully selected polling of ‘typical’ subjects, producing reams of data … even big data (the corporate world’s new security blanket).

And yet, failure is everywhere. We have often been wary of the true intentions of much research and testing, suggesting (perhaps unfairly) that this work is largely used as ‘screw-up insurance’ — in other words, research conducted not to inform, but as a defence should things go horribly awry. An employee or consultant can hardly be held responsible for failure if the research suggested success was a more likely outcome. However, even when the aspirations and the participants involved in the research are noble and rigorous, errors still persist. Part of the reason for this is the choice of environment in which research is conducted and the margins for error agreed upon. So much of the research people do isn’t conducted in the real world and the artificiality of the environContinued on page 21

WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS JANUARY 2015

Continued from page 20

ments we create can’t help but skew the results. For example, if you ask someone about their political ideals in a polling questionnaire, they are likely to want to appear more caring, more intelligent and more interested than they may actually be. As a result, a lot of research suffers from much of the same over-confidence in its results as our own best estimates. To be fair, big data has started to go a long way to improving this process, given its real-world sourcing, although, like all data, big data is only as powerful as its interpretation and application. Another possible solution lies in a more scientific rather than corporate view of research; that is, research that’s designed to generate information, not conclusions. In other words, rather than looking only to prove a hypothesis, we should also use research as a way of identifying the threats to our hypotheses and the conditions under which this proof may come undone. So instead of focusing on an outcome, we should be focused on generating outcomes.

We over-focus on results Exacerbating the problem are our goal-fixated cultures. Again, this is a hanger-on from the world of personal development. For years self-help gurus and business consultants have whipped us into a frenzy with goal-setting exercises and experiences that are analogous to facing our fear — such as walking on hot coals or performing a ‘trust fall’ — all while they drum into us a mantra of a no-excuses results obsession. Given the fervour with which the corporate world has embraced this kind of thinking, you’d expect organisations around the planet to be ridiculously over-achieving and ticking off milestones and goals like crazy. But

that’s not what’s happening. In fact, the gap between our goals and our achievement of those goals is glaring. In 2011, researchers at US management consulting firm Bain & Company found that among the organisations they surveyed, a mere 20 per cent achieve their annual goals and expectations. Once again, as we’ve seen in our personal lives, this is often interpreted as the failure of the individuals involved while our systems and the process of goal setting itself remain unquestioned. At sales conferences around the world, inspirational speakers with big teeth and a disturbingly psychotic amount of enthusiasm pump up salespeople, telling them to focus on results with pithy maxims such as, ‘Don’t make excuses, make results’. The same empty platitudes are often applied in every sphere of life. To experience this phenomenon for yourself, simply hire a personal trainer or a life coach. One of the favourite anecdotes of the goal-setting fraternity is the 1953 Yale goal study. The story has it that 1953’s graduating class at Yale was surveyed to see who had written goals and who had not. It transpired that only 3 per cent of students had written down goals. Years later, when the class was contacted again to check on their progress since leaving college, it was revealed that the 3 per cent with written goals had eclipsed the personal wealth of the other 97 per cent put together. What makes this story interesting is just how powerful stories are in building corporate cultures and strategy, but mostly what makes it interesting is that it is completely made up. Yale has repeatedly denied any knowledge of this survey in 1953 or in any other graduating year. Yet this story has been repeated so many times by so many different sources that it has fallen into the category of belief. As a result, goal setting remains the holy grail of corporate

and personal strategy, but more than that, it is often the only strategy employed, which is not to say that goal setting isn’t useful or that it doesn’t lead to success. In fact, we annually set goals for our organisation and staff and use benchmarks of accomplishment to monitor our progress. The issue occurs when it is seen as a single-bullet strategy. Buddhists refer to this results obsession as ‘attachment’ and they frame attachment as one of the roots of disharmony. We prefer to see it more as one strategic strand of many that are available. In other words, a clear goal or result is useful, but it may become a limitation as better options and information become available. A great example of this is the Indian story of how to catch a monkey. It is said that in order to catch a monkey you have to stake a coconut filled with peanuts to the ground. The coconut must have an opening in it just small enough for a monkey to slip its hand into, so that when it reaches inside, grabs the peanuts and forms a fist, its hand becomes too large to come back out again. The monkey becomes so fixated by the goal that its hand becomes stuck and therefore it is trapped. (The story doesn’t explain why you’d want to catch a monkey; we’ll leave it to you to add your own editorial flavour.) What’s interesting about this story is that it’s a metaphor for how modern goal obsession has affected some of the actual results we’ve achieved. Poor work–life balance, chronic health issues, family breakups, environmental disasters and artificially stimulated truck drivers falling asleep at the wheel are all examples of goals getting in the way of success. In reality, we actually have very little control over results in our lives. The drunk driver who fails to yield as we approach an intersection, the earthquake that claims our home and even the client who fires us because their marriage is on the rocks and they feel a need to assert power in at least one aspect of their lives: all of

these examples, despite the self-help industry’s protestations to the contrary, lie beyond our control. However, what we can control — and this is where we should look for control — is our behaviour and our environment.

Failure is an error in design We tend to personalise failure when we experience it. For all the corporate world’s talk of failure being an essential ingredient to success, it is seldom greeted with the enthusiasm of a student learning a valuable lesson. The language is often reminiscent of the breakup speech, ‘It’s not you … it’s me!’ So instead we look to apportion blame, limit damage and, depending on the political environment we’re working in, find a scapegoat. That’s very much how we build our cultures inside organisations too. So, given that so much of what passes for strategy in the worlds of business and personal development is fraught with faux science, ineffective processes that fight against human nature and systems that set us up for failure, what do we do now? We would like to suggest that we need to change environments and systems, not people. Rather than ignoring or denying our foibles, weaknesses and bad habits, we should instead be designing our systems with them in mind. If we assume that failure is simply part of the process (and we should), then rather than planning for the best-case scenario (those days when we are filled with willpower, charisma, clarity and courage) we should instead plan in such a way that we can be successful on days when we are just average, middle of the road or plain old run of the mill. In other words, we need to design for being selfish, scared and stupid. Published by WILEY, Selfish, Scared & Stupid is available now in paperback, RRP $25.95, from all good bookstores and www.selfishscaredandstupid.com

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Are kids failing maths because they can’t read? CLASSROOM By Misty Adoniou Senior Lecturer in Language, Literacy and TESL at University of Canberra

HERE has been a lot of hand-wringing about mathematics lately. According to national and international testing we are not getting any better at it and plenty of good reasons have been offered for why this may be so. Not enough students are studying it, not enough students like it, and not enough qualified teachers teach it. But a much less discussed explanation is that some of our kids fail in maths because they can’t read the questions. How is maths teaching changing? Students often complain they can’t see the point of maths - beyond basic arithmetic. In response, keen teachers look for ways to show them how maths is relevant to their daily lives. Trigonometry is set inside problem solving about rugby ball angles and penalty kicks, probability is used to predict the winners of X Factor and Pythagoras’ theorem is applied to save people from a burning building. This shift to meaning and context in learning maths is laudable, but it does fundamentally change the nature of maths teaching in ways that teachers are not currently trained for. When we build stories around maths problems to give them a real-life relevance, we introduce contexts that may be unfamiliar to some students, or information that is irrelevant to the maths of the question. One of the questions in the most recent PISA maths tests began: Ninety-five percent of world trade is

moved by sea, by roughly 50,000 tankers, bulk carriers and container ships. Most of these ships use diesel fuel. Engineers are planning to develop wind power support for ships. Their proposal is to attach kite sails to ships and use the wind’s power to help reduce diesel consumption and the fuel’s impact on the environment. None of this information was necessary to solve the mathematical question that followed. A student may spend a deal of time distracted by this information, either trying to read it successfully or trying to figure out if the paragraph contains anything crucial to the maths question that followed. Being a good reader with a broad general knowledge has become integral to mathematical achievement, so teaching language has become a necessary part of teaching maths. Many maths teachers roll their eyes when talk turns to teaching language in the maths classroom. They already have a packed schedule just trying to fit the maths content in, let alone teach language - and, anyway, isn’t that the English teacher’s job? But being an avid reader of novels is no guarantee of success in maths, as the math-

ematics classroom generates its own unique mix of everyday language and maths-specific language. It is only the maths teacher who has the discipline knowledge to teach it. This is equally true for the generalist primary teacher who must also teach how language works differently in every subject area, including maths. Language in the maths classroom Vocabulary is the key to success in reading comprehension and this is particularly true in mathematical reading. In a novel, unknown words can often be guessed from context, or even skipped, and meaning can still be maintained. However, in maths, if one word is not understood it is probable the entire sentence will be misconstrued. In the PISA example given earlier there is no redundancy in the maths question that followed the lengthy prelude information. At what approximate speed does the wind blow into a kite sail when a wind speed of 24 km/h is measured on the deck of the ship? The linguistics of this question are more complex than the maths it seeks to test. Often, words in mathematics can seem familiar to the student but are used in ways that are specific to maths. For example, in this question from a Year 7 maths textbook the word “decimated” is key to getting the maths right. 99 Roman soldiers who fled from battle were to be punished. The group was lined up and decimated. How many were killed? Mathematically, “decimated” maintains its original meaning of “one in ten”. In common parlance, however, “decimated” has come to mean “completely wiped out”. Clearly, the two interpretations of the word “decimated” will each result in a very different answer to this maths problem, but only

one will be correct in the maths classroom. It’s not just words. Sentences can also work differently in mathematics. Usually in English there is a sequential logic to sentences; we start at the beginning and read through to the end and rely on this predictability for comprehension. However, in mathematics the logic of sentences may be organised in more unexpected ways. For example, “Draw a circle with a diameter of one-third the sum of 6+9+15”, requires the learner to start the operation from the end of the sentence and move backwards through to the beginning of the sentence in order to successfully complete the instruction. These language differences need to be explicitly taught to students, but very often the language is so familiar to teachers they fail to notice what they should be making visible to their students. All teachers need a strong and explicit understanding of how the English language works. Knowing your content simply isn’t enough to make a real difference to student learning outcomes. Why it matters Students who fail in mathematics are less likely to go on to further study and more likely to have lower-paying jobs. To teach maths properly we have to be clear on whether students are getting it wrong because they don’t understand the maths or because they can’t comprehend the questions. Either is serious, and both require very different teaching solutions. Teachers must take up the challenge and teach both the content and the language of mathematics, but how well prepared are they to do that? ARTICLE COURTESY: WWW.THECONVERSATION.COM.AU

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Children learn to lie from the age of two – here’s how to get them to tell the truth LEARNING By Lara Warmelink Research fellow for Security, Department of Psychology at Lancaster University

YING is often seen as bad behaviour in children. Fairy tales and folk stories, from Aesop’s Peter who cried wolf to Washington’s cherry tree tell children to be honest and never lie. But what can we do to encourage children to tell the truth? Children learn to lie from about the age of two. The first lies children learn to tell are denials of wrongdoing. From the age of three they also learn to tell “white” lies. These are lies that are told to benefit other people or to be polite.

For example, a child learns that when you’ve made a surprise birthday present for mummy, you don’t tell her about it and when your aunt gives you a present you should thank her, even if it’s horrible. Telling these lies well is an important social skill.

Developing a social skill Young children start to learn to lie as they mature cognitively and socially. In order to lie, children have to understand that other people have their own beliefs and thoughts that are not the same as theirs. A child also has to realise that other people may believe things that are wrong. This is a skill called theory of mind and it develops slowly in the preschool and kindergarten years. As children become more able to think about what other people think and feel, they learn when it’s appropriate to lie and how to lie convincingly. Lying convincingly is difficult for young children. They often fail at this, especially if they are asked further questions. Researchers in one study found that 74% of lying children gave the game away in their answer to a followup question. And as children age they are more likely to understand that they need to match the answer to follow-up questions to their lie. Around 80% of three and four-year-olds revealed themselves, but only around 70% of five-year-olds and 50% of six and seven-yearolds did. Failing to learn when to lie and how to do so convincingly can lead to problems for older children. Research has shown that adolescents with lower social skills are less convincing when lying than their peers with better social skills.

Persistent lying is also a sign that children have not developed socially and cognitively as much as their peers. Children who lie often are more likely to be aggressive, criminal or show other disruptive behaviour. The negative effects of telling tales are related to whether it is perceived as lying by others, for example by parents or teachers. It is difficult to study whether children who lie a lot without others finding out also show these negative effects.

The temptation test What can adults do to encourage a child to tell the truth? Victoria Talwar, Cindy Arruda and Sarah Yachison conducted new research to investigate this. They tested children between the ages of four and eight. For their study, the team used the “temptation resistance test”. In this test, the researcher

puts a noisy toy behind a child, so they can’t see it. The researcher then leaves the child alone with the toy and asks them not to peek at the toy in the meantime. As you might expect, around 80% of the children do peek at the toy. When the researcher comes back, they ask the child whether they peeked. The child can now lie and deny this and 67.5% of children in the study did. The researchers wanted to know if threats of punishment (such as “you will be in trouble if you peeked”) and appeals for honesty influenced how often the children’s lied. They tested two appeals. One where they told the children that the researcher “will feel happy if you tell the truth“ and one where they told them “telling the truth is the right thing to do”. They found that without an appeal to tell the truth, more than 80% of the children lied, whether or not the child was threatened with punishment. Saying that telling the truth would make the researcher happy reduced lying to around 50%, for both threatened and not threatened children. Saying that telling the truth was the right thing to do reduced lying to 40%, but only when the child was not going to be punished – but 80% of children who were told they’d be punished if they peeked, but that telling the truth was the right thing to do, lied. The research suggests that if you want a child to confess to a wrongdoing, you should reassure them that they won’t be in trouble for confessing and tell them that telling the truth would make you happy. And then you cross your fingers the child is not one of the 40% who are likely to lie anyway.

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ARTICLE COURTESY: WWW.THECONVERSATION.COM.AU

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The winners of the 2014 Women With Altitude Awards.

Women reaching greater ALTITUDES CELEBRATION HE Altitude Awards, sponsored by York Jewellers, were held in December 2014. These awards are an opportunity to acknowledge women from the Blue Mountains and Western Sydney who have made outstanding contributions as; business owners, volunteers, employees and creative thinkers, in retail, charities and community organisations. Women with Altitude founder, Andrea Turner-Boys said: “The Altitude Awards are about celebrating and championing the achievements of women in business from our region.” Winners from 10 categories have been chosen for their outstanding contribution in each field. An independent judging panel announced the winners of each category at the Gala Presentation Luncheon on Thursday, December 4th at Tattersall’s Function Centre, Penrith. “These awards are about supporting one another, building on our businesses, celebrating how far we’ve come and planning for the future, both professionally and personally. “Small business owners are always incredibly busy and focussed on building their business, often with limited support or encouragement. These awards are a way for them to connect with their peers and the small business community,” said Ms Turner-Boys. The 2014 Altitude Awards are held annu-

ally by Women with Altitude. Women with Altitude exists to connect professional women and entrepreneurs, and encourage collaboration, business referrals and business support. This business networking group provides inspiration, encouragement, support and business knowledge. Their members range from sole operators to businesses owners with 25 staff. The 2014 Altitude Award winners are as follows:

Shannon Preskett, Little Knick Knacks • Penzance Advertising, Skys the Limit, Regional Business Woman of the year Award Recognizing a businesswoman who is leading the way in her business or industry, Demonstrating innovation, development and leads by example amongst her peers. Must be from a business established 3+ Peita Davies, Choice Home Loans

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Penrith

• Women with Altitude, Member of the Year Award A voted category. This woman demonstrates the core values of openness, warmth, and generosity. She embraces the value of networking and relationship building with an abundance mentality. Winner: Fiona Donnelly, Telopea Services • Akorah, On My Way Award Best up and coming small business for new businesses and businesses operating 1+ years and located in Blue Mountains & Western Sydney Regions. Winner: Amanda O’Bryan, Creative Queen Bees • ATA, Soaring Solo Award Micro Business of the year – Sole operator business owned and run by a woman in Blue Mountains & Western Sydney Regions. • Jo Muirhead, Purple Co Penrith CBD Corp, Retailer of the Year A retailer, shopfront or online retailer based in Blue Mountains & Western Sydney Regions.

• Compass Training Climb Every Mountain Award Best Business of the year – Must have been operating a minimum of 4 years and located in Blue Mountains & Western Sydney Regions. Amanda Wylie, Insignia Hair & Day Spa • Western Weekender, Emerging Talent An employee, trainee or apprentice from Blue Mountains & Western Sydney Regions who demonstrates initiative, leadership, determination and ability. Fiona Skrzypnik, AT+A • Creative Queen Bees, Big Ideas Award A person or business who has exhibited outstanding creative thinking. – A product, concept or service that’s come to life from an original idea. Must be located Blue Mountains & Western Sydney Region. Nellie Barnett, UpRaw Café & Juice Bar

Blacktown • Write Copy

Service with a Smile Best customer service practice from a business located in Blue Mountains & Western Sydney Regions. Either business to business or business to consumer, this category recognises outstanding service. Kellie Tickner, Nicole McMillan, Lynn Mathison Coreen Ave Veterinary Clinic • Target Radio Community Spirit Charity or organisation that aims to achieve social, cultural, community or environmental outcomes for our region. Operating minimum of 6 months and located in Blue Mountains & Western Sydney Regions. Donna Patriarca, BREED • Women with Altitude Judges Choice Award Deb Cash, Beaut-T-Ful Bags • Brave Awards (Medallions): Melissa Ferrari, Paint the Town Read Lorna Hollinger Lisa Mandavy-Sammour Lisa Gorman Trish Fehon The major sponsor for the 2014 Altitude Awards is York Jewellers who are celebrating 40 years in business this year. They are joined by the following local businesses who have sponsored individual categories in the awards; Accounting and Taxation Advantage, Akorah, Compass Training, Write Copy, Penrith CBD Corp, Target Radio Network, The Western Weekender, Creative Queen Bees, Penzance Advertising Agency and Women with Altitude.

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Wearable technology VS health revolution BEHAVIOUR By David Glance Director of UWA Centre for Software Practice at University of Western Australia

RUMOURS are surfacing that Microsoft will launch its own smartwatch in the next few weeks. Given that Microsoft Windows Phone accounts for just 2.5% of the world smartphone market, the watch will work with Apple and Android devices as well as Microsoft’s own platform. What is interesting about this move is that the commentary about the device is focusing on its role in tracking heart rate rather than its other features. The focus on the health aspects of wearables is part of a general trend amongst technology journalists who predict a “coming revolution in healthcare” as a result of these devices. This is not surprising given that when Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Apple’s smart watch he described it as a “comprehensive health and fitness companion.” The future of wearables as health devices is easy to imagine. Sensors will collect a range of data, software guided by artificial intelligence algorithms will make sense of this data and both the wearer and the wearer’s physician will be updated with a real-time analysis of the wearer’s health status. Couple this with the terrifying statistic that in 2012, 50% of all US adults, that is 117 million people, had a chronic disease. In 2006, 84% of the total health budget was spent

looking after this 50% of the population. The situation in the rest of the world is not that far behind the US. Unfortunately, there are many problems with this picture that make the impact of wearables on health outcomes extremely limited. The first of these is the limited number of people who currently use any sort of fitness tracker or smartwatch. Somewhere between 5% and 15% of Americans wear fitness trackers of any sort. Of these, 35% will stop wearing their devices after six months. It is not known what proportion of people with smartwatches actually use the fitness tracking capabilities of these watches on an ongoing basis. There is little information about the

demographics of people who purchase fitness trackers and smartwatches; however, given the cost, consumers are likely to be the “wealthy well”. People suffering from chronic disease on the other hand are more likely to come from the less educated and lower income population. And then there is the issue of what data these devices collect and what we can actually do with that data. Fitness trackers and smartwatches currently report activity through steps and heart rate. This is useful information to measure exercise intensity and duration, but not very useful as a diagnostic for health. Even if sensors could deliver information

that was useful in actual diagnosing or managing health conditions, there would always be an issue with doctors reluctance to rely on information they haven’t themselves collected and on equipment that was not medically certified. Acting on unverified information could leave medical personnel legally if that information later turned out to be incorrect. None of the smartwatch manufacturers is currently interested in taking their watches through a medical certification process and so the data that comes from them is always going to be couched in legal disclaimers. Finally, there is the issue of privacy. Storing step counts on Fitbit.com’s website may be acceptable to most people but the idea of storing more sensitive health-related information with companies like Apple and Google will prove another major barrier to adoption. It was privacy fears that stalled the adoption of Google’s and Microsoft’s previous attempts at providing a cloud-based health record services. Doctors and health services wanting to interact directly with data provided by patients’ wearables would have to be extremely confident that they could do this without that data being accessed by hackers. Fundamentally however, wearables do not address the central issue of the burgeoning chronic disease problem which is caused by poor diet, drinking alcohol, smoking and lack of exercise. The root cause of these behaviours are social and economic. While the tech companies may try to market wearables on the basis of health benefits, these devices will never be a revolutionary cure. ARTICLE COURTESY: WWWTHECONVERSATION.COM.AU

Email: info@GreaterBBC.org.au 28

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Café where heritage and nature meet By Kim Wilkinson Editor www.gowestgpurmet.com.au

ARRAMATTA Park would have to be among the most beautiful locations in Western Sydney, with its expansive cycle ways, leafy walking tracks, playgrounds, ample picnic areas, sporting grounds and entertainment spaces, and lush aboriginal landscape meandering around the Parramatta River. It’s also a world heritage site, forming one of 11 Convict sites around Australia. Nature meets aboriginal and colonial history in this spacious and varied outdoor landscape, providing an oasis from the hustle and bustle of the city centre with a constant reminder of our national heritage. One of the highlights of this modern urban park is the beautifully refurbished ‘Old Visitors Centre’ – now known as Parramatta Park Cafe. Located on the Eastern side of the park, overlooking the river bank, and about three quarters of the way around the one way drive, the Cafe is a popular spot with bike riders, mother’s groups, and dog owners! This dog friendly cafe is a rare find – the perfect place to enjoy a great meal, and take your best friend along too! While only open till 3pm, their All Day Breakfast is great for those who like an extralong sleep-in on the weekend, but don’t want to start their day with lunch! The breakfast menu includes all the usual suspects – a wide selection of toasts with jam (including gluten free bread), fruit breads and Bircher Muesli, and some good value hot breakfast items with a huge range of sides to make your own unique combination.

Reservations are recommended, especially on the weekend, and are taken no less than 24 hours in advance. On the particular lazy Saturday we chose to take advantage of the late breakfast option, we hadn’t managed to organise a reservation. Thankfully we were able to grab a table when arriving around 11:30am, however I don’t think we would’ve been as fortunate if we’d arrived any later. The first thing you’ll notice is how relaxed you feel amongst the natural bushland setting. Whether overlooking the river, or taking in the park views, the fresh air and sounds of cicadas and birdlife quickly take your mind off city life. The outdoor wrap around verandah is a great setting any time of year – where you can enjoy a cool breeze in summer or find a sunny spot on a winter’s day. We found a nice corner outside to watch the bike riders go by. Milly (our pooch) was offered a bowl of water and Hubby had his

ever-favourite Eggs Benedict with ham. I was keen to try the Vegetarian Big Breakfast, and very glad I did. My two eggs where poached well done as requested, and delicious alongside the tomato, avocado and hash brown. The staff were very accommodating to swap the mushrooms for sautéed baby spinach – which completed the meal perfectly. We were all of us where impressed with the taste and quality of the coffee and food, and the friendly service and would eagerly return for breakfast again. Lunch provides another broad range of enticing choices including gourmet toasted sandwiches, and salads that you can make your own with a selection of extras. There’s also soup, burgers, pasta and seafood dishes including Grilled Barramundi Fillet with salad dressed in creamy balsamic and chips too good to resist. The tartare sauce supplied on the side isn’t too tangy, however lemon is also supplied to adjust to your

desired taste. The dessert range of biscuits, cakes, tarts and slices changes regularly and can be found on display inside. The Cafe is also licensed, providing a good selection of beers, sparkling, white and red wines – making it the perfect setting for a unique business meeting or special occasion. With all its many favourable attributes, the best part about Parramatta Park Café, is if you are ever tempted to over indulge in the enticing range of food and beverages on offer – there is 3.5kms of walking track where you can go and walk it all off !

PARRAMATTA PARK CAFE Entry via Parramatta Park Gatehouse Cnr Pitt & Macquarie Streets, Parramatta NSW 2150 P: 02 9630 0144 E: cafe@ppeventcentre.com.au W: http://www.ppeventcentre.com.au Open: Everyday 8am to 3pm

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