Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will be very brief, given the time. Can I use this opportunity to thank the minister for his decision in the last few months to not allow large passenger aircraft to land at Bankstown Airport. My questions relate specifically to page 269 of Budget Paper No. 2, dealing with urban congestion and planning and the money that is being allocated to the feasibility and planning studies to duplicate the M5 East in Sydney. My electorate will welcome this because of the assistance it will provide in making it easier to get to and from the city. I think it will also help with the movement of freight between the airport and Western Sydney. I also place on record my view that more work needs to be done to expand the M5 Motorway. I am sure the member for Werriwa and the member for Macarthur would join me in that. My question to the minister is: can you give us some more detail on that feasibility study and how it will roll out. Can you tell us whether it would be a truck-only tunnel and, if that is the case, whether trucks would be banned from the existing tunnel, which would improve ventilation; and whether this project would be an opportunity to fix ventilation problems in the existing tunnel.

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