Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Western Sydney airport has the potential to transform the Macarthur area and far beyond. If you look at Macarthur on a map you will very quickly conclude that transport, particularly rail, is key for locals to get to and from their workplaces, job sites, schools, universities and key appointments in major city centres such as Sydney CBD, Parramatta, Liverpool and others. Soon there will also be another major working commercial site up and running in the Bradfield area and the soon-to-be opened Western Sydney airport business precinct.

This is an exciting opportunity for my electorate, but I am very fearful that we might miss the boat—or in this case the train and plane—to have a rail line built to connect our region to the aerotropolis. I've always believed that rail is the best way to connect our region, as our main roads, particularly the Northern Road, the M7, the M5, the M8, are congested already—they're more congested than ever before—and the proposed rapid bus service to the airport is likely to be a very slow, tortoise-like movement because of the traffic on the major linking roads.

Further, having rail would enable commuters from connecting lines to link up, thereby expanding access to the airport precinct and helping bolster its financial viability. The fact that the past New South Wales and federal Liberal-National governments did not proceed with the construction of a rail corridor in our region to Western Sydney airport shows just how little they focused on south-west Sydney and how poorly they understand the new rapidly growing areas.

I'm having constructive discussions with my federal and New South Wales Labor colleagues regarding the need for rail, and we are, in fact, proceeding with a scoping study about this. But I don't need a scoping study to tell me that a rail link to Western Sydney Airport is vital. I'm delighted to see that we also have been able to fund the Campbelltown Station car park upgrade that will bring over 500 new spots for commuters. I'm really delighted with the announcement recently that the Fifteenth Avenue upgrades will proceed, which will improve the road links, but we need the rail. Rome wasn't built in a day, but it would have been completed sooner if they'd had a rail line to connect their workers to the site! We will complete that rail line, and it is very important to link Macarthur to a whole range of areas including Wollondilly, Wollongong, the Illawarra, the Moorebank intermodal, the Southern Highlands, Sydney and Kingsford Smith Airport, north-west Sydney, northern New South Wales and western New South Wales. The list is endless. We must get this rail link done and we will as a Labor government. I'm committed to making sure this happens, so let's get the rail link to Western Sydney airport done.

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