():  I thank the member for Macarthur for his generous bipartisanship and certainly acknowledge the Prime Minister in his words yesterday at the opening of Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport. What a red-letter day it was. It was great to be there with former prime minister Morrison. He and I turned the first sod, officially kicking off construction on the $5.3 billion project back in September 2018. Of course, there was a lot of work done—a lot of cubic metres of dirt moved—to bring about what is a marvellous piece of nation-building infrastructure we opened yesterday.

I do recall, during the process—and the member for Macarthur just mentioned the word then; it was the first time I've actually heard it used since—Leppington! I recall being absolutely pilloried in the media for the $30 million that the then government spent on 12.3 hectares of land which is sited at the end of the second runway for the airport. I have to say that money, in time—I will be vindicated—will be looked upon as one of the best investments that this nation has ever made. At the time, yes, it was overpriced—no question—but I had to wear the criticism. I defended it stoutly and I defended it earnestly, as you would expect.

I have to say that, when you look at the figures, even in the Western Sydney international airport's own official documents, it says:

We know that. It says:

That is bringing the focus onto Western Sydney.

As the Prime Minister noted, Western Sydney is a massive, massive, populated area but a huge growth area. What I'm excited about as a regional member is the fact that there will be many cargo holds of planes taking the world's best produce out of Farrer, Riverina and all those wonderful food bowl electorates, out of WSI and to international destinations. That is also, apart from just the passengers, one of the exciting things about WSI.

We are in a situation at the moment where people are just trying to tear down everything that is great about Australia. We have people just trying to rubbish everything about politics and about the nation. What we saw yesterday with Western Sydney airport was what you get when the major parties work together, bipartisanship, not just over years but over decades—working together and bringing about a common goal. That is building the infrastructure that this nation expects and deserves and yesterday received in spades.

I also have to thank Warren Truss, the former deputy prime minister. I phoned him last night. He's not well at the moment. The work that he did, with the member for Grayndler, was second to none. I pay tribute to the former member for Wide Bay. He loves aviation. He absolutely loves infrastructure. Western Sydney airport is one of his great legacies. But it's also the legacy of bipartisanship. It's the legacy of what the Liberal, National and Labor parties do when we work together for the common good. Everybody else can besmirch us. Everybody else can rubbish us. Everybody else can try and tear this nation down. But when we work together over decades for the common good, this is the result. We can build a better future, and that is indeed what we saw yesterday.

Western Sydney airport is for a better future. It's not Sydney's second airport; it's Western Sydney's first airport. It was so exciting to be there yesterday. I thank everybody for the acknowledgements for the part I played, but I do thank Warren Truss for the huge part he also played.