Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's an achievement of the last coalition government that it decided to proceed with a new Western Sydney airport at Badgerys Creek. For 50 years, it had been on the drawing board and political leaders had been too frightened to start work on this vital infrastructure. Labor's last infrastructure minister, Anthony Albanese, was in the portfolio for six years and did nothing. To the credit of Tony Abbott and Warren Truss, the coalition acted and the Western Sydney International Airport will be open within three years, with transport, road and rail, going right to the door. Western Sydney airport has already created thousands of jobs, and it will create many more when it opens in 2026.

Currently, an environmental impact study is underway, with the new airport releasing draft flight plans and the Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport releasing its updated plans. However, the government has been sloppy with this process. In my own electorate, there are proposed changes to narrow the flight path to concentrate it to Kenthurst, Dural, Glenhaven and Asquith. However, there are no noise maps. They didn't do them for Kingsford Smith. I've written to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. The community needs to see the noise maps so we can rightly assess these flight paths. The minister needs to put a call through to Sydney Airport today to get the noise maps undertaken and published immediately.