'Proceed with caution': John McGrath

“While I would definitely recommend proceeding with caution, I can also see a lot of opportunities for savvy buyers,” said John McGrath, CEO, of McGrath Estate Agents, when highlighting suburbs which were undervalued compared to their neighbours as potential targets for growth. Locally, he identified North Parramatta, Oatlands and Ermington. The company recently opened an office in Parramatta.

FOI requests expose 'omission'

Parramatta City Council says Sydney Ferries Corporation confirms no data exists to justify the cancellation of the Parramatta RiverCat service, following three Freedom of Information requests to the corporation. The Bret Walker report, while recommending the service be scrapped, admitted there was ‘limited data’ on costs, patronage or service reliability. “All three FOI requests now expose just how limited that data is. It defies belief that the State Government may be now taking such advice even when there is no reliable data and no comparison with other Sydney Ferries services,” said Lord Mayor Paul Barber. Council would hand a submission to the NSW Transport Minister John Watkins which highlights, in the strongest way, this extraordinary omission,” he said.

Funds to develop industry

The largest recipient of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s funds to develop the NSW complementary medicine industry was Professor Alan Bensoussan from the UWS Centre for Complementary Medicine Research, who received $590,200 towards a clinical and physiological evaluation of Chinese herbal medicine for irritable bowel syndrome. Professor Bensoussan said two-thirds of Australians were embracing complementary medicine to the tune of up to $2.5 billion annually. A Joint Chair in Traditional Chinese Medicine has been established at the University of Sydney and UWS.