Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure. Will the minister update the House on how the Morrison government's strong financial position has enabled us to build once-in-a-generation infrastructure projects like the Western Sydney international airport? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lindsay for her question and her incredible advocacy for the Western Sydney Airport as well as her incredible advocacy for having local jobs for local people, because she knows that hundreds of thousands of people have to leave Western Sydney each day to get jobs elsewhere. She wants to see that changed.

I can confirm that the Western Sydney international airport is on track for take-off in 2026. This huge undertaking is underway because of our $5.3 billion commitment. It is literally transforming the landscape in Western Sydney today. When it's first opened in 2026 this airport will be the size of Adelaide's airport, with full discount airlines and premium airlines going. By 2060 we forecast that this airport will be the size that the Los Angeles airport is today. We're also committed to ensure that there is rail infrastructure and freeway infrastructure in place when it opens. We are rolling out the Western Sydney City Deal around it to take advantage of the economic opportunities it presents.

Also, critically, this project is about jobs, as the member for Lindsay knows. In the construction phase alone 11,000 jobs are being created. In the operational phase, 28,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created from the development of the Western Sydney Airport. What's more, these jobs are local jobs. We set ourselves a target of having 30 per cent of the jobs going to local people. In fact, over half of the jobs are going to local people already, and we hope that will continue.

You can only do these massive nation-building projects if you manage your finances well. The fact is that Labor could not do this, because they didn't have the money. The Leader of the Opposition, as people know, was the infrastructure minister for six long years of the Labor government. In 2009, in the middle of that Labor government, he said in relation to the Western Sydney Airport, 'It is vital that we commence work now.' That was in 2009. What happened? Absolutely nothing. Why did nothing happen? Because they stuffed the budget. They ran out of money. They were spending money on pink batts, overpriced school halls and Green Loans and were giving cash to dead people and farm animals. That is what the Labor Party were doing, whereas we on this side of the House know that to build nation-building infrastructure you have to manage your finances, and that's exactly what we're doing. (Time expired)