Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I note that a lot has been made of the front page of The Daily Telegraph today when it comes to the vexed issue of Sydney's second airport. A lot of people seem to suggest that the Prime Minister has picked up on the concerns of Western Sydney and will now consult with people about the location of the second airport.

I do not buy this for one minute. The Prime Minister is trying to extract himself and the government from a home-baked mess, which is that the people within the coalition who are spruiking for the creation of a second airport have been leaking and backgrounding for a solid period of time now about the fact that this airport will be constructed, even though last January the then opposition leader and now Prime Minister said, 'We have absolutely no plans for a second airport at Badgerys Creek.' Then, last week, we saw the suggestion splashed across the papers that an airport decision would be made in cabinet this week. So, to get himself out of it, the Prime Minister had to cobble together this grouping of Western Sydney MPs he allegedly was going to consult with about the airport.

It is interesting that when in government Labor, under then Minister Albanese, brought together a cross-party group to discuss the issue of airport needs. It was made up of members of the coalition and of Labor. In this one we have the Prime Minister bringing together just Liberal Party members to consult with. What is interesting is that one of the members who will be most affected by the airport as proposed in previous plans, the member for McMahon, is not involved. However, the member for Mitchell, who is at least three or four electorates away, has been brought in. I note that the member for Reid, potentially, is going to be brought in, and he, too, is three or four electorates away from the site. And I would not be surprised if they put the member for Barton in. But the member for Barton does not even know what side of the chamber he is sitting on, so, if he cannot locate himself on the right side of the chamber, I do not know what he will bring in terms of consultation on the location of an airport.

What gets me going is that if you are going to be fair dinkum about this you are going to broaden the debate out and you are going to involve people in this decision. You are not going to have the decision rammed through on the people of Western Sydney. What I am also interested to hear about is the cajoling and bullying of Western Sydney on the issue of the airport. We are being told that the economic development and growth of Sydney is being affected because Badgerys Creek has not been built. If people are serious about that, why is there no discussion, for instance, on the curfew that exists at Sydney airport and the caps that are put on the number of flights that are allowed every hour at the airport? We have sunk all of this money into the infrastructure there. We have airlines that want to be based there and we have the fact that passengers want to be close to the CBD of Sydney. Yet no thought has been given to increasing the number of flights allowed per hour or the bandwidth in which they are allowed to land at Sydney airport. But we are being told that we can put millions of dollars and potentially billions of dollars into this airport in Western Sydney, and we have to cop that development without looking at the funds to be made.

What is also interesting is that there are rumours around the place that Qantas is going to be cutting out more jobs. Qantas is under all sorts of pressure. We do not have money for SPC Ardmona and we do not have money for Holden, but we have money to help Qantas, potentially, by providing a 24-hour-a-day airport right in the middle of Western Sydney. Coincidentally, there is money to be found to reduce aircraft noise for the member for North Sydney and southern area MPs, but they will force an airport the size of Brisbane's out in Western Sydney. It is simply not good enough.

The people of Western Sydney have been insulted by the lack of consultation about this airport. Their MPs are not being involved, and this group being brought together by the Prime Minister has been brought together simply to ram through in his own party room a decision on this airport and break a promise that Prime Minister Tony Abbott made when he said he had absolutely no plans. The people of Western Sydney, especially those who are represented by the members for Lindsay and Macarthur, and the Labor members in Western Sydney, will be railroaded, and the wishes of Western Sydney will be denied. (Time expired)

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