John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I draw attention to my question on the Notice Paper today in relation to the long-term operating plan for Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport. When the coalition came to power in 1996, it had an aviation policy called ‘Soaring into tomorrow’, which promised that the government would fix aircraft noise arising from Sydney airport. When the government introduced the long-term operating plan for Sydney airport, it promised the people who live north of the airport—and that includes the member for Grayndler and people in my electorate of Lowe—that they would get only 17 per cent of air traffic movements to the north of Sydney airport.

Over the decade that the long-term operating plan has been operating, not once has that target of 17 per cent air traffic movements to the north of Sydney airport been met. More to the point, if you look at the question I have placed on today’s Notice Paper, you will see that I have asked the minister why the government has failed to deliver on the promise to the people I represent and the people the member for Grayndler represents that we would get only 17 per cent air traffic movements to the north of Sydney airport.

The latest figures provided by Airservices Australia indicate that we are getting 32 per cent of air traffic movements to the north of Sydney airport, almost double what we were promised. Moreover, when you go back to the coalition’s aviation policy in relation to Sydney airport, you see that the government promised that they would not sell Sydney airport until they had fixed aircraft noise associated with Sydney airport. I stand here today, 10 years after the introduction of the long-term operating plan, and report that the government have monumentally failed to deliver what they promised the people of Sydney, the people I represent.

I remind the government that my predecessor, who was a member of the government, resigned from the government prior to the 1998 election because he understood clearly that the Prime Minister never had any intention of honouring the commitments given—in good faith, as the people of Sydney understood—that the noise associated with Sydney airport would be fixed.

I have been treated arrogantly by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Transport and Regional Services over the years with the hundreds and hundreds of questions that I have asked about it, to the point where the ministers for transport and regional services have said to me that they have exhaustively answered my questions and that the long-term operating plan for Sydney airport has been substantially implemented.

The truth is that the long-term operating plan for Sydney airport has not been substantially implemented. It has not been fairly implemented and, over the whole period of the long-term operating plan for Sydney airport, we have been getting up to 100 per cent more traffic movements than we were promised by the government when they came to power. Worse, the government sold Sydney airport to Macquarie Bank and turned it into a shopping centre and a car park, to look after their mates.

The conflict of interest by Max Moore-Wilton, who was then the chief of staff for the Prime Minister—who then moved over to manage SACL and then moved on to Macquarie bank—is appalling. It just shows you how disingenuous the government have been in relation to aircraft noise associated with Sydney airport and the promises that they have broken repeatedly over the last 10 years.

I stand here today and ask the Prime Minister and the Minister for Transport and Regional Services what he is going to do to require Airservices Australia to honour the commitments of the government to deliver only 17 per cent air traffic movements to the north of Sydney airport. That is the purpose of my question on today’s Notice Paper. My constituents deserve an answer. They deserve some honesty—(Time expired)