The following morning, the media blitz began, Ms Gillard knocking over several live crosses as the sporting team of the moment, the NRMA Insurance Western Sydney Wanderers, trained in the background.
Later, she posed with the team, it’s executive chairman Lyall Gorman and Football Federation Australia CEO David Gallop, as she was presented with her own jersey – an item that is apparently hard to come by – complete with her name on the back “GILLARD”.
By Thursday it was all over, the high point for Ms Gillard being a welcome dose of adulation on the last day of her visit during a visit to a jobs expo where she was mobbed by admirers.
But if the reaction to her visit from the president of the Parramatta Chamber of Commerce, Stephanie Dale, was anything to go by, the business community of western Sydney remains sceptical about politicians visiting the region for a series of media-driven appearances.
“More promises, more open-ended statements of quick-fix vote generating rhetoric - is that all we are to expect from this week’s visit to Western Sydney by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition?” Ms Dale said in a statement.
“Western Sydney, being equal in population to the whole of South Australia represents a major footprint in the economy of the State and with a predicted massive population explosion in the next 14 years, has associated infrastructure requirements that simply are not being adequately addressed.
“These are not problems which have occurred overnight and yet suddenly we are the focus of promises from both sides, flung to a disgruntled community in a vain attempt to turn the tide of disenchantment.”
She said western Sydney could not be bought – it needed to be convinced by seeing results and to date they had been sorely lacking in western Sydney.
“The business community of Western Sydney expects more from their leaders – we want governance and responsible leadership,” Ms Dale said.
“We want a well-managed country that encourages and incentivises business to grow, employ more, and build a strong economic platform. After all, even though the Government promises more jobs in their over-arching statements to the eager press, the question is: How will they ensure those jobs exist?
“It appears that the only jobs they create are Public Service roles. It is the small business, the manufacturers, and the service providers etc who must be confident enough to create the increase in jobs. They need to be assured that they can afford to open their doors tomorrow!”
Ms Gillard’s visit felt like an election campaign, with ministers and local MPs and a big media pack on her trail. Recent opinion polls for Labor suggest it faces losing a number of its prized seats in the region and comments and vox pops extracted from locals in places like Rooty Hill, where the prime minister based herself, hinted that even Labor supporters where in two minds over their support for the PM.
During her western Sydney stay the PM asserted she was maintained she was visiting as part of her role in governing; listening to local concerns and outlining the government’s initiatives to help.
In the kick-off to her visit at UWS, Ms Gillard promised that Sydney's west would not be placed second to other regions by her government, which was responding to residents' concerns.
In the following few days, she announced a series of initiatives to benefit the region, addressing local concerns about traffic congestion, gang crime and jobs.
But her promise to stump up $1 billion for the WestConnex road project may have served to heighten ill-feeling with the NSW government, after she set conditions to access the funding: specifically that routes must go all the way to the CBD and Port Botany.
On the final day of her visit, Ms Gillard described it as a "good week" in the west, but would not comment on sugestions Labor was "dead in the water" in the region for the forthcoming election.
"We're not here to talk about opinion polls, we're here to talk about issues that matter for the people,” she said. "People will make their own decisions in September about how they want to vote.
"This government has a very clear plan for the future. We've charted the course and we want to pursue it ... on the other side of politics we just see negativity. Come September people will make their choice."
At a Mulgoa preschool in Sydney's far west on the last day of the PM’s visit, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said he didn't need to make a big deal about his visits because he knew the area so well.
"The people of western Sydney want a plan, they just don't want a visit," he told reporters. "This is not foreign country as far as I'm concerned. They want a constructive engagement that doesn't just start on Sunday and end on Thursday."
In comments designed to ruffle the feathers of his Labor opponents during a TV interview earlier in the week, he described western Sydney as “the new Liberal heartland”.
