John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I congratulate the member for Kingsford Smith for raising the issue of Sydney airport here today. I too want to raise this issue. I am outraged at a report in last Thursday’s Sydney Morning Herald, which reported Mr Max Moore-Wilton as follows:

He also said the curfew, which prohibited most aircraft using the airport between 11pm and 6am, caused planes to bank up early in the morning, “but we’re talking to the Federal Government about that … if I had my druthers, we’d like to have no curfew at all”.

We are talking about the former Secretary to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, who glided into the job of general manager of Sydney Airport Corporation Ltd and presided over the massive expansion of Sydney airport under his master plan. Now he has slid into the bosom of the Macquarie Bank as the director of a subsidiary of that bank. There could not be a conflict of interest more obvious in relation to Mr Max Moore-Wilton. He should be flogged for promoting the expansion of Sydney airport, because, as an airport, it is operating very well as a shopping centre and a car park.

Clearly, this government has abandoned the people that I represent, in terms of the massive expansion of Sydney airport, the impact of noise and the other environmental risks of big jets flying over the inner west of Sydney. Mr Max Moore-Wilton is nothing more than a venal agent of the Howard government. Honestly and truly, he should be flogged, flogged, flogged. (Time expired)