Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week we learned that the Badgerys Creek airport project is still on hold. The minister for transport advised councils in Western Sydney that, while a second major airport seems unnecessary for at least two decades, the site will remain in reserve in case there is a change. We were promised a review in 2005 and we are still waiting for that. But now, according to the minister, a further inquiry into air traffic will be held in 2009.

But not if this government is thrown out in this year’s election. A Labor government will scrap plans for an airport at Badgerys Creek once and for all. The people of Western Sydney who are affected by the government’s dithering will have a clear choice: stick with representatives like the members for Lindsay and Macarthur and face another 20 years or more of uncertainty, or support Labor and remove the unreasonable restrictions that this government has placed on their lives and their homes. When it comes to Badgerys Creek airport, who can the people of Western Sydney trust? In March 2001 the member for Lindsay declared:

Badgerys Creek is dead, hooray—

The member went on to say:

I am proud to have led the fight against Badgerys Creek airport. In December last year John Howard formally adopted the view that Sydney does not need extra airport capacity for a decade.

But the member for Lindsay should realise that, under the Liberals, Badgerys Creek airport is like the parrot in the Monty Python sketch: it is not dead; it is just resting! Perhaps the member for Lindsay does not plan on being around for another decade. At her gala dinner last year the program listed her achievements:

While in parliament I have been involved in a number of ground breaking changes for Lindsay and Australia. Some of my most memorable local achievements have been—

And she includes in the short list:

... no airport at Badgerys Creek!

She is right about one thing: there is no airport at Badgerys Creek. But there is a 1,700-hectare site which is quarantined from development for the next 20 years and thousands more hectares affected by imaginary flight paths and noise contours—all of that smack in the middle of Western Sydney.

The New South Wales government cannot plan transport links or residential development in the region because all the maps have ‘Airport Site’ stamped on them. Yet we heard the member for Mitchell saying on Monday that New South Wales had the greatest shortfall of broad-hectare land available for residential development in Australia—no wonder, when the federal government has tied up thousands of hectares just in case it thinks it will need an airport in 20 years time.

While the rest of Australia is progressing, this government is locking Western Sydney in a time warp. State and local governments cannot make planning decisions because the federal government will not lift its quarantine of the site and surrounding areas. The development of Western Sydney as a whole is now affected by this government’s dithering on Badgerys Creek. But the cruellest blow is to the landholders and residents in the area. They cannot afford to just hang around for 20 years waiting for the government to make up its mind about Badgerys Creek airport. They face unreasonable planning requirements for the most basic changes to their homes. A big part of that problem is the government’s failure to review the site needs in 2005, as it promised. A review might at least have refined the plans and made a selection of runway alignments, which would greatly reduce the area currently quarantined. The people of Western Sydney have lived under the cloud of Badgerys Creek airport plans for more than 20 years. They should not be made to suffer for another 20 years or more.

We need a government with the guts to make a decision here and now about Badgerys Creek. We need a government that knows that enough is enough. We are sick and tired of the weasel words of the member for Lindsay. We need a Labor government to release Western Sydney from the constraints imposed by the airport designation of land at Badgerys Creek. I know that the new Labor member for Lindsay who will be there after the 2007 election supports our stance 100 per cent.