NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has promised $260 million for the advanced manufacturing research facility being constructed at western Sydney's airport precinct.
Mr Perrottet said western Sydney is already the home of advanced manufacturing in Australia, with pioneering companies in engineering, pharmaceuticals and biotech based there.
The Bradfield aerotropolis precinct, where the new facility is due to open next year, may be the most significant economic project in the state since the middle of last century, he said.
"This new facility, as part of the aerotropolis, will turbocharge the region's advanced manufacturing capabilities and establish Bradfield as the largest and most advanced industrial ecosystem in the nation," Mr Perrottet said.
"Most importantly, it will support the creation of new, high skilled jobs right here in the west."
Aspirational families had faced a stumbling block looking for high skilled and high paid work in western Sydney - which is also far away from the educational institutions that teach those skills.
The new facility can change all that, the premier said.
"We want to take local businesses from western Sydney to the world, and global businesses to western Sydney," Mr Perrottet said.
The first of $23 million in tenders have also opened for new equipment for the facility, that can be shared across businesses and the community.
"This is about making sure we've got the shared resources that allow small businesses that can't always afford the capital equipment they need to get into global supply chain to be able to access it through the new (facility)," Western Sydney Minister Stuart Ayres announced.
Labor's industry and trade spokesman Anoulack Chanthivong welcomed the budget commitment but said it is the third time the government has announced the facility.
"Stop the spin and start delivering," Mr Chanthivong said.
Artistic renderings were first released by the government in November 2020, when Mr Ayres also announced funding had been set aside to develop a business case.
Mr Perrottet announced the commitment to deliver the facility while giving his first State of the Region keynote speech at the Western Sydney Business Connection conference on Wednesday.
The funding is the premier's first official commitment ahead of the state budget, which is set to be handed down by Treasurer Matt Kean on June 21.
It will be former treasurer Mr Perrottet's first budget as premier.
The government's strong financial management will continue and enable record investment across the board, Mr Perrottet said on Tuesday, shortly before the expenditure review committee met for a budget discussion.
But as always there are challenges.
Cost of living will be a factor in the March election but the premier is confident his government has so far been investing adequately in providing relief.
Mr Perrottet will also have to balance demands from the public sector workforce for pay rises, although he's suggested multiple times the budget will not fully appease the various unions representing teachers, nurses and public transport staff.
For the state to be the best it can be, NSW needs to provide quality health care, education, public transport, roads, as well as cultural investments in art and sport, the premier said.
"We weigh them all up with the competing interests in the budget and we'll deliver," he said on Tuesday.
Australian Associated Press
