Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to add my voice to the ongoing calls for this government to come clean on its plans for a second airport at Badgerys Creek. As usual, we are seeing the government at its tricky best, dancing around the issue and trying to delay any decision until after the next election. The last minister to speak on this issue in this place was the member for North Sydney who, as minister for tourism, said:

Existing government policy is to commit to a second airport in Sydney at Badgerys Creek ...

Since that speech, no senior government minister—indeed, no minister at all—has stood up in this place and ruled out Badgerys Creek as their first, second or even last option for a second airport in Sydney.

The Minister for Transport and Regional Services in response to a question in writing only last year said:

The Government has previously made it clear that it does not believe that a second Sydney airport will be needed in the foreseeable future.

It was not even a never-ever promise. It was a foreseeable future promise. Then he went on to say that they will be keeping the land and protecting it from development incompatible with the building of an airport. Why would you need to protect a site you do not intend to use? Now we know: the government just might use it but they will not tell us until after the next election.

The Deputy Prime Minister has written to councils in Western Sydney confirming that there will be another review of the need for a Badgerys Creek airport in 2009 and, until then, land at Badgerys Creek will be held in reserve. Let me make this clear: a second airport at Badgerys Creek will not work and there will not be one under a Labor government. It would only inflict aircraft noise, air pollution, health problems and social problems on hundreds of thousands of extra people in the fastest-growing region in Australia.

The EIS could not tell us how westerly winds from the Blue Mountains would affect the operation of the airport or how associated runway and approach lighting would affect the surrounding area. It did point out that some 38 endangered species of flora and 22 species of fauna, plus the additional 70 significant species of fauna that have been recorded in the area as transitory visitors, would be put further at risk, including a number of nationally significant species. It also pointed out that such an airport would mean an extra 24,000 articulated fuel tankers on the M4 and Great Western Highway between Clyde and Badgerys Creek, with an estimated five tanker accidents each year. That is just not acceptable. The government must come clean on its plans, rule out Badgerys Creek once and for all, and before the next election free up the site and move on to more sensible alternatives for Sydney’s growing transport needs.