Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prime Minister, Western Sydney airport was promised as a gateway for our community, delivering jobs and opportunities. Instead, it looks more like a freight hub dressed up as an airport. Without a metro rail link, we face more trucks on the roads, gridlocked motorways or freeways and a missed chance to build more affordable housing near where people live and work. You promised that under your government no-one would be left behind, so will we finally see a metro for Western Sydney and real connectivity and not just a cargo airport?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to get a question about the Western Sydney airport and why it will deliver and is already delivering jobs in Western Sydney, particularly jobs in south Western Sydney, including literally hundreds and hundreds of apprenticeships, which are taking place as part of the construction there. Part of the arrangements that were put in place for the Western Sydney airport construction is about local employment. Local contractors—over 50 per cent of people live in that local community. Local contractors are prioritised for the work that's taking place there.

I've had the opportunity to visit the airport with the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. When it opens, you will have what will be undoubtably be the most modern airport in Australia by a long way, with the best facilities in terms of the entries into the best experience for passengers going through. As to the deals that have been signed, the latest one when I was there was a deal signed with Air New Zealand. We know there is a great New Zealand Kiwi diaspora that lives in Western Sydney as well, and that will be a very successful arrangement between New Zealand and Australia, coming on top of the deals that have already been signed with the Qantas Group and, in addition to that, Singapore Airlines.

The airport, when it is operating there, will provide a massive boost for passenger aircraft, but we make no apologies for the fact that there will be a lot of freight through that airport as well. What that will do isn't just provide for higher productivity and more efficiency; it will take trucks off the Western Sydney roads, which currently go right through Sydney to get to Mascot. That makes no sense whatsoever. Together with the other major piece of infrastructure in south Western Sydney, the Moorebank Intermodal, those two things combined will transform Western Sydney. In addition to that, the Aerotropolis area will see a range of high-value industries created, creating high-value jobs there for locals in south Western Sydney. For the first time, instead of Sydney always turning towards the harbour and the CBD, this is about Sydney looking towards where most people live—Western Sydney—and will provide significant benefit. In addition to that, the public transport links to Western Sydney airport, as well as the road upgrades, are creating jobs in the short term but creating economic activity and efficiency in the medium term as well.