That yesterday morning the very first passenger jet departed Western Sydney international airport is something that we must celebrate as a country. It is the first major airport this country has built in over half a century.

Of course, the idea of Badgerys Creek as an airport isn't something terribly new. If we go back to the 1980s, it was in fact the Hawke Labor government that chose the site for the future airport that has become, today, Western Sydney international airport. By the early 1990s, it was the Keating government that promised Australians that flights would be departing from that airport by the middle of that decade. Unfortunately, that promise wasn't upheld, and so, year after year, report after report, that land sat empty. Governments studied it, debated it and, ultimately, shelved it. Western Sydney was told to wait, and to wait, and to wait. So, as they often do, we've seen Labor make big promises, but, when it's time to deliver for locals, it is the coalition that has to step up and take the initiative.

In April 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott made the call to commit the federal government to getting this done. So it was decided that Badgerys Creek would be Sydney's second airport, with no more excuses and no more delays, because that decision was enshrined in the Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan, which was the framework for delivering what we ultimately saw come to fruition just yesterday. Isn't that extraordinary to think about: that, over 30 years from when the site was chosen, construction finally began, and it began under a Liberal government.

Now, through the challenges of the global pandemic, the airport has been delivered on time and on budget. That is something truly outstanding and worth recognising for the project team. It's important to remind those in this place of one thing—and it's something that this government seems to have forgotten in the last 4½ years. Infrastructure backed by government belongs to the people who pay for it and those who use it. Every dollar spent is a dollar taken off working Australians. That's why it's so important that, when the government commits funding to a project, they follow through, on time and on budget, as has been done here—a truly remarkable achievement.

The families of Western Sydney will no longer have to endure the disconnect between regional and metropolitan travel. As a regional MP myself, I celebrate that. Producers now have the opportunity of an international airport terminal on their doorstep. I know their local member, the member for Hume, the Leader of the Opposition, is so pleased to see that economic opportunity for his constituents.

On the other side of the country, in my own electorate, the South West is perfectly placed to be the site of Australia's next international airport. The Busselton Margaret River Airport is in desperate need of an upgrade, and the many hundreds of locals who have signed my petition also want to see it happen. The current shed—and I say 'shed' because it is one—that is labelled a terminal is not sufficient for the thousands of locals who fly in and fly out for work each week, and they deserve better, because they're travelling to the mines in Western Australia that generate the billions and billions of dollars in royalties and taxes that underpin our national prosperity here and in every other state and territory across the country.

I'm very lucky to be the representative for my special part of Australia, which has got so much on offer, and it's time that we shared that with the world. Local producers are already doing it on their own where they can. The premier Margaret River wine region is one of the best in Australia and is also internationally regarded as producing some of the world's finest wine. As much as I'd like to keep it all for myself, I think we owe it to the world to share it with them. We've heard about what this opportunity for Western Sydney airport brings to Western Sydney and its communities, and the same can be done with a little vision and a little heavy lifting from a government committed to infrastructure for the good people of Forrest.