Assistant cities minister Angus Taylor says economic change has made the outer suburbs and semi-urban areas ripe for political disruption across the world

There are some big questions floating around in politics right now, none more so than the one relating to the forces behind Brexit, Trump and – in the eyes of one Coalition frontbencher – Australia’s federal election.

Assistant cities minister Angus Taylor believes the answer lies in the outer suburbs of big cities, peri-urban areas and regional towns.



“If you look at the UK, if you look at Australia, if you look at the US, there is political disruption going on,” Taylor told Guardian Australia.

“And the disruption is coming from the outer suburbs and regional cities. That’s where Trump has focused, that’s where Brexit was focused and we saw that in the recent federal election.

People in those areas are crying out for solutions Angus Taylor

“And that is because people in those areas are crying out for solutions. They want governments to come up with solutions and so that’s where we are focused.”

Taylor is one of the younger, driven, ambitious generation. He is of the class of 2013, one rung below the more senior members of the Coalition. He floats between the right and centre right, resisting categorisation. While the former McKinsey partner and Rhodes scholar was omitted from the first Turnbull ministry, the spectacular departure of former ministers Jamie Briggs and Mal Brough meant he did not have long to wait.

At the same time as he was given the cities portfolio earlier this year, Taylor’s southern NSW seat of Hume was pushed further north towards Sydney after a redistribution. It now straddles rural towns such as the farming community of Boorowa and regional cities such as Goulburn, stretching into peri-urban areas leading up to Camden in south-west Sydney. While he suffered a swing of only 3.4%, his colleagues in western Sydney took much bigger hits. Liberal MP Russell Matheson lost the neighbouring seat of Macarthur to Labor’s Mike Freelander on an 11.7% swing.

Trump supporters look to Brexit and see only one thing: freedom Read more

When party pollster Mark Textor joined Liberal federal director Tony Nutt to address the partyroom in the post-election briefing, one of the factors he named was lifestyle pressures such as high mortgages and commuting. Voters in western Sydney, Textor said, had a “greater level of cynicism” than other Australian voters.

“I think it is a pattern everywhere, I don’t think it’s confined to western Sydney, though clearly we saw it in western Sydney,” Taylor said in a wide-ranging interview with Guardian Australia.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Property construction on Sydney’s north-western fringe. Angus Taylor pinpoints the outer suburbs as a key political and economic battleground. Photograph: Will Burgess/REUTERS

“This is true in the outer suburbs of Perth or the outer suburbs and the peri-urban areas of Brisbane and that message – we don’t need a pollster to give us that message.

“That message is embedded in the results at the election and has been embedded in the results of the United States primaries and the UK Brexit debate. If politicians weren’t seeing this now they would be ignoring the very obvious signals.”

But what do politicians do with this message in a post-Brexit world?

To include or enable?

George Megalogenis, in his Quarterly Essay Balancing Act, argued the political system could not restore public confidence without a more responsive government.

“And the economy won’t stabilise without a more active government,” Megalogenis wrote.

“The default setting of politics in the 21st century – to trust in the market – has proven to be bad economics, even for Australia, the only high-income nation to avoid the Great Recession. It has left us with gridlocked cities, growing inequality and a corporate sector that feels no obligation to pay tax.”

Inequality has also been troubling Labor policy minds such as frontbencher and economist Jenny Macklin. Her opposition project has been a wide ranging report into policies which tackle inequality, wrapping the notion of economic growth in the notion of inclusion. She has quoted the work of Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, who has argued inequality is bad for economic growth.

As a conservative, Taylor sees government as an enabler. He rejects increased default government spending in favour of providing opportunities, to individuals, communities and business. Infrastructure spending is necessary to create liveable cities and regions and he favours public-private partnerships where government sees infrastructure as an investment to drive economic growth.

Stress in the city

While the political rip pulled Australia towards a double dissolution election, one of the lesser known government policies released in April was the cities deal. It was worked up by Taylor with Malcolm Turnbull’s new cities division in the department of prime minister and cabinet.

$50m 'investment-banking style' unit to fund transport projects Read more

“The plan will draw on the Commonwealth’s coordination capacity and the strength of its balance sheet at a time of historically low interest rates, to get the best infrastructure projects off the ground,” their statement said.

But what does that mean for people squeezed by mortgage stress and long commutes?

Enter the 30-minute city – a favourite for both sides of politics. In Taylor’s version, it does not mean you can get across the city in 30 minutes – in a city the size of Sydney or Melbourne you never will. It means reversing the jobs tide rushing towards the central business districts by creating “job hubs”.

For example he believes Sydney should be three cities - the CBD, Parramatta and Badgerys Creek/Penrith. In another era, it might be known as decentralisation. But rather than move a big government department, Taylor says its all about laying down the infrastructure for business to provide jobs and to give people a comfortable place to live. That means transport, roads and amenities.

“We [government] are not the job creator, the private sector is the job creator, but we are an important enabler,” Taylor said.

“We create the infrastructure, we can influence the planning decisions, we can influence whether these places are great places to live that are well connected.

“Just the fact that we are committed to Badgerys Creek [airport] and the infrastructure that will surround Badgerys Creek as well as spending billions of dollars in western Sydney on infrastructure, we are an extremely important enabler.”

Swing city – where politics and policy collide

As counting continued in the Queensland seat of Herbert, where Liberal MP Ewen Jones continues to trail Labor’s Cathy O’Toole by a handful of votes, Taylor and Turnbull travelled to its heart in Townsville this week.

They announced the federal government was in discussions with the state and local governments for a Townsville city deal, which would create an agreement to work on providing infrastructure, attracting businesses and jobs in a town where unemployment has hit 13.2%.

The city deal sounds a little airy fairy until you remember the fight between the Andrews Victorian Labor government and the Abbott Coalition government over the East West Link, a $3bn, 18km toll road project in Melbourne.

'Quietly confident' Cathy O’Toole awaits Herbert's cliffhanger result Read more

The tied federal funding of $1.5bn was promised by Abbott and rejected by Andrews, who said he wanted to prioritise the Melbourne Metro rail project. The money was never handed over because the two tiers of government could not decide on a priority.

On the Townsville deal, Taylor described the Queensland government as “extremely collaborative”.

The political and policy synergy which meet in the most marginal seat in the land is no accident. Another city deal is expected in Launceston, in northern Tasmania. (The Coalition lost all three of its seats Bass, Braddon and Lyons in Tasmania.) The third? Swing city – western Sydney.

It could sound like pork barrelling in the marginals. But Taylor says the policy solution is required because those areas were reacting to issues of liveability.

“I think it is very symbolic, it says the outer suburbs and the regional cities have to be a priority for any government in the western world now,” he said.

“At the ballot box, they have made that clear. And rightly so, because there are issues to be resolved.”