Gillard woos western Sydney in media blitz THE day after making her big pitch to western Sydney voters, Prime Minister Julia Gillard is reinforcing her message in a media blitz. With A-League leaders the Western Sydney Wanderers training behind her on Monday morning, Ms Gillard has outlined what Labor already has done for the region. The government has spent $1 billion on capital funding for 650 local schools, invested $130 million in Nepean hospital and introduced a range of benefits such as the schoolkids bonus and tax-free threshold increases to help families, she told the Seven Network. In a campaign-style speech delivered to about 1000 Labor party faithful at the University of Western Sydney on Sunday, Ms Gillard tried to realign her government with the region's two million-plus residents, telling them they needed recognition, respect and shouldn't be viewed as second-rate. The speech kicked off her five-day tour of western Sydney, which is the third biggest economy in the nation and where a swag of Labor seats are under threat from the coalition. "Just like when I've come in the past, it's an opportunity to immerse yourself, to get to say hello to people, see what's on their minds," Ms Gillard said. She laughed off suggestions her stay in the suburbs was sudden or a stunt, saying she'd been a regular traveller to western Sydney. "A bit like what I did in Queensland last year," she told the Nine Network. I've set up for a while because it enables me to spend some more dedicated time. Travelling around the country and talking to people was a routine part of the job of prime minister. Ms Gillard conceded not everything her Labor government had done was popular in western Sydney. But building a stronger future for the nation required hard decisions. "Building the nation's future isn't about making five or 10 easy decisions that are all popular," she said. If I can look people in the eye and say we will be a stronger country, a fairer country, a smarter country because of the things that I have done as prime minister ... then that's me.