Sydney's great income divide - NEWS.com.au

Source: The Daily Telegraph

IT'S the map that shows the stark east-west divide of Sydney tribes.

While in the west each person struggles to survive on up to $22,000 a year, those in the north or east of the city enjoy more than double that.

Using Australian Tax Office data of personal income, boiled down into postcode and population, the University of Western Sydney has for the first time revealed how far the pay packet has to stretch. "This does not tell us differences in earnings from one worker to the next, it shows us the mouths that have to be fed from each paypacket," UWS Professorial Fellow in Economic Geography Phillip O'Neill said.

It reveals the bottom 20 per cent of Sydney's income receivers live around Blacktown, Bankstown, Fairfield, Liverpool and Campbelltown, concentrated on the Great Western Hwy and Hume Hwy corridors, where families survive on between $3915 to $22,251 per person a year. Family members in Parramatta, Richmond and Hurstville and Riverstone live on between $22,252 and $26,497.

The top 20 per cent are clustered around the inner harbour, eastern beaches, the Mosman-Manly corridor, and the north shore, where there is $45,000 to $125,000 available per person.

"There is a distinct, stark and enduring income divide across Sydney," Prof O'Neill said. "There are fewer jobs per person in western Sydney, and these jobs pay less. It's as simple as that.

"People with better jobs are more likely to live in the eastern suburbs or the north shore - or are moving there."

Prof O'Neill will front the NSW Business Chamber Future of the Western Sydney Economy forum today with the research, calling for "genuine political will and effort" to entice private investment because government employment targets were not enough.

Prof O'Neill said according to latest Census data, only three sectors in the west - health and community services, education and training, and public administration - experienced jobs growth that matched planning targets.

"These sectors are led by public expenditure. Private sector job generation in western Sydney has failed dramatically to meet the needs of western Sydney families," he said. "If high-quality sites for private sector investment are created in western Sydney private businesses can get on with job creation.

"This gives western Sydney workers the opportunities to work locally and governments can avoid expensive investment in infrastructure."

Western Sydney mother Tina Sinsbury said pressures of raising two children on one income made her want to return to work, despite not wanting to put her baby into childcare before he turned two.