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

Badgerys Creek airport is being promoted as a project all about Western Sydney. The claim is it'll deliver jobs for the region. It's the biggest selling point used by those in the east to push the project. Numerous job figures are thrown around, but here's one job figure that you'll never hear from a Turnbull government minister: the guaranteed number of jobs that will actually go to Western Sydney residents from this development. The government doesn't have one. It's not a key performance indicator. So far, none of the key decision-making jobs associated with this project have gone to a single Western Sydney resident.

We recently saw the Turnbull government decide that the official community consultation mechanism about the airport, FOWSA, will be headed up by a person who does not even live in the region: Peter Shergold. Imagine if a Western Sydney resident headed up the Sydney Airport Community Forum. The east would convulse itself into the Tasman. Peter Shergold might work in Western Sydney, but he doesn't live here. He's not accountable to neighbours or fellow residents for the quality of the job he performs on that forum. The Turnbull government's backed this up in the last 24 hours, naming former Optus boss and former boss of the urban infrastructure minister, Paul O'Sullivan, as the head of the government body developing the airport. I have the greatest regard for Paul O'Sullivan, enormous respect for him, but, again, he's not a Western Sydney resident. Look at the rest of the board. There are no Western Sydney residents: Fiona Balfour, noted executive not noted for living in the region; Tim Eddy from Melbourne; Christine Spring from New Zealand.

Are you telling me there is absolutely no-one with the talent and skill to be involved in this project from Western Sydney, a region of nearly two million people? What a joke. The reality is, this development is being driven in a typical Sydney way: the clubby east—that mix of politicians, business people and media drawn from eastern and northern Sydney calling all the shots on the development, with no regard for the impact of their decisions on us. They don't trust that Western Sydney has the talent to get this right. They don't believe in delivering a fair deal for Western Sydney. It's the club from the east telling residents in the west what they'll get and how they'll get it. It is the same club that tells us it's important to have a curfew and resident protections if you live near Sydney airport, but Western Sydney residents deserve no protection, no curfew and no flight caps.

The appointment of a person, no matter how qualified, without roots in Western Sydney means crucial decisions will be made without properly respecting local perspectives. They are not accountable for the quality of the decisions. This is wrong, and Western Sydney does not deserve this.