Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to follow the member for Grayndler on the Airports Amendment Bill 2016. I would like to congratulate him on his recent manifesto, where he said that it is not our job to sow discontent. That is so true. Class warfare, identity politics and sowing discontent in our nation are shameful practices which should be condemned and called out at every opportunity. I congratulate the member for Grayndler for that statement.

I also congratulate him for his other statement—I hope I'm quoting correctly from his manifesto; he may like to interject in case I get it wrong—in which he said, 'we do have to engage constructively with business, large and small'. Absolutely; again, I agree with that 100 per cent. The idea that one side of this parliament wants to come and rip the tax cuts away and add an extra burden on small business is something that everyone in this parliament should stand up and condemn. I congratulate the member for Grayndler on that as he leaves the chamber.

Back on 15 April 2014, the coalition government announced that the site of Sydney's new Western Sydney Airport would be at Badgerys Creek. I can remember being at Peakhurst High School in the 1970s, and our economics teacher, Mr Simpson, who was a fantastic economics teacher, said to the class—I can still recall today: 'There will never be another airport built in Sydney. In the lifetime of anyone in this classroom, there will never be another airport built in Sydney.' Well, it looks as though this is one of the rare occasions on which my high school economics teacher will be proven wrong, because the coalition is going ahead with the construction of this airport in Western Sydney.

It will be a boost for the local economy. I hear the member for Penrith over there yawning, when she should be absolutely proud and be 100 per cent behind this.

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