Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Work on Western Sydney Airport, now named the Nancy-Bird Walton Airport, has commenced. The earthworks have commenced and are proceeding apace. It will be a wonderful thing for Western Sydney, and in particular south-western Sydney, if we get it right. Unfortunately, this government has not committed to a rail link to Western Sydney Airport from south-western Sydney. This government and the Liberal state government are prepared to fund rail links only in Liberal-held and conservative-held seats, not from those in south-western Sydney.

Infrastructure Australia has described a rail link from south-western Sydney to the airport and into Sydney as vital if the airport is to be successful. It is disgraceful that this federal government and the New South Wales Liberal government will not fund the rail link from south-western Sydney—through Leppington and through the newly developed suburbs around Leppington to Western Sydney Airport—when all the experts agree that this is vital for the functioning of the airport. South-western Sydney is sick of being treated as a dumping ground by this federal Liberal government and by the state Liberal government. It is disgraceful the way they fund infrastructure. They are really denying south-western Sydney a link to the Western Sydney Airport, and it's a disgrace.