Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We've had lots of announcements about Western Sydney airport. We've seen the announcements about the terminal and rail line. We've seen politicians with hard hats and high-vis, and bulldozers at the ready. But do you notice the one thing that's missing? The flight paths. The Morrison government seems to be ignoring the obvious, that the planes might start on the ground but they don't go far without becoming airborne. For residents of the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury and Western Sydney, it's long overdue to find out where the flights will go. Perhaps the government's reluctance is that when they did release a sneak peek in 2015 all hell broke loose in the Blue Mountains as people realised the impact, because these will not be planes that sleep when we try to. These are 24/7, all day, all night. These are not planes that have any of the restrictions that the North Shore and eastern suburbs enjoy, with limits on numbers each hour or curfews. These are not planes that are going to improve the quality of our lives, even if the trip to the airport might be a bit shorter. We get it. We get that you're building an airport in our part of the world on the edge of World Heritage wilderness, in an area already beset by high air pollution, and whether we love it or hate the idea—and I'm in the second category—either way it is time to fess up and tell us where these flight paths will be. We're the ones who have to live underneath them, and we deserve to know.