PM says west isn't second best - Sky News Australia

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told the voters of western Sydney the federal Labor government will make sure the area gets a fairer share of what its creates.

Ms Gillard was speaking to 1000 ALP members gathered in an auditorium at the University of Western Sydney's Parramatta campus on Sunday.

She said being from the west does not mean someone was second rate.

'I want to make sure that areas like Sydney's west - and the people who live and work here - get a fairer share of what you create,' she said.

'You deserve it because of your work and your endeavour.'

Western Sydney has the third biggest economy in Australia and a population of more than two million people.

It's also home to a handful of marginal federal Labor seats that the government could lose at the national election in September.

Ms Gillard referenced the federal Labor government's achievements in health, schools and the national broadband network project.

'Put simply, we don't accept that other suburbs come first and you come second,' she said.

Ms Gillard promised to put jobs and Australian workers first, deliver the NBN and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, improve education and help families manage living costs.

She noted pressures on manufacturing businesses due to the high Australian dollar which is making exports more expensive and less competitive.

'This is the story across the nation - but the businesses and exporters of Sydney's west feel this pressure of the high Aussie dollar more than most,' she said.

But western Sydney was better equipped than other parts of Australia to adapt and rise to meet the opportunities presented by the rise of the Asian middle class over the next 20 years.

'So let's go and get that work, seize that opportunity, create those jobs,' Ms Gillard said.

The prime minister also raised the spectre of the coalition revisiting its dumped Work Choices policy, warning the audience that 'another path' could lead to wage cuts.

'Doing that would require Work Choices to be back or something worse,' she said.

'I'll always fight anyone and everyone who wants to take us down that path.'

Ms Gillard referred to her 'plan' to create better jobs and help western Sydney families 'making a good life', but made no new policy announcements.

'The grind of long daily commutes, on infrastructure that's barely coping, on roads that need co-operation between governments - and we'll have more to say about that in coming days,' she said.

In a clear reference to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, the Adelaide-raised Ms Gillard said she didn't grow up on Sydney's north shore.

'I grew up a lot further west and a lot further south,' she said.

Earlier on Sunday, the government announced a plan to fight gang-related drugs and gun crime by creating a $64 million National Anti-Gang Taskforce.