Western Sydney

Western Sydney is a major region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It has a number of different definitions but one consistently used is the region composed of the 10 councils which are all members of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils:

Western Sydney as defined by the WSROC region covers 5,800 square kilometres and had an estimated resident population as at June 30, 2008 of 1,665,673.^[1]

Western Sydney is also used to refer to the Greater Western Sydney region, which is the combination of Western Sydney as defined above and the Macarthur Region (also referred to as South-western Sydney). As well as the 10 councils listed above, the GWS region includes Camden Council, Campbelltown City Council and Wollondilly Shire Council.

The NSW Government's Office of Western Sydney uses the broader Greater Western Sydney definition to refer to the region, which includes both WSROC and MACROC council areas.

Political influence

Western Sydney is considered a particularly crucial region in federal politics [1], and the region's social conservativism has been credited with forming policy on migration and the treatment of asylum seekers by both major political parties [2].