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Badgerys Creek airport will go ahead, Tony Abbott confirms Badgerys Creek airport will go ahead, Tony Abbott confirms
(about 1 hour later)
Sydney's second airport will be built at Badgerys Creek, Tony Abbott has confirmed. Badgerys Creek will be the site for a second airport in Sydney, with work expected to begin in 2016, the prime minister has announced.
Speaking after federal cabinet approved the long-gestating plan at a meeting in Canberra, the prime minister said it would be "an airport for western Sydney". The airport, to be funded largely by the private sector, is expected to be fully operational by 2024.
Abbott said planning and design work will begin immediately and he expected construction to start by 2016. Tony Abbott confirmed the construction would come with a major infrastructure package, in answer to critics who fear the airport will create greater noise, pollution and gridlock in surrounding areas of western Sydney.
"It's a long overdue decision which, to be honest, has been shirked and squibbed by successive governments for far too long," he said. The prime minister committed to consult with the local community “to ensure that local voices are heard”, though he refused to say whether the new airport would have a curfew in place.
Abbott said the vast bulk of the $2.5bn cost would come from the private sector. He said road infrastructure would come first and the airport second. Abbott promised he would announce details of the infrastructure around the airport, expected to cost $2.5bn, along with the NSW government this week.
Further announcements on road funding would be made in "coming days". “It will be roads first, airport second,” he said.
The transport minister, Warren Truss, said the next stage would be to engage Southern Cross Airports Corporation, which runs Kingsford-Smith airport and had the right of first refusal to build the new airport. That would take 12 months. Abbott was joined by the deputy prime minister and infrastructure minister, Warren Truss, to announce the decision on the airport, which Abbott said had been considered for more than 40 years – “since we were in school”.
Successive governments have refused to make a decision because of the political sensitivities around the issue regarding noise, infrastructure and amenities. Western Sydney is always a key battleground in the fight for marginal seats and effective “no airport” campaigns have been run against both sides of politics. Construction is now scheduled to begin the year the next federal election is due.
The government estimates the initial construction phase will generate about 4,000 jobs, while the airport development will create 35,000 jobs by 2035, increasing to 60,000 jobs over time.
Abbott claimed that by 2060 the new airport had the potential to drive an increase in Australian gross domestic product (GDP) of almost $24bn.
“Without a new airport we run the risk of the existing Kingsford-Smith airport reaching capacity,” Abbott said.
“Sydney’s airport is the gateway to Australia’s largest city and accounts for 40% of international arrivals and 50% of international air freight each year. If no action is taken on a second airport Australia will lose out on 80,000 additional jobs and $34bn in economic activity by 2060.”
Asked about the effect of noise on the local population, Abbott said the “noise footprint” around Badgerys Creek contained a population of 4,000, compared with 130,000 around Kingsford Smith airport.
Southern Cross Airports Corporation, which runs Kingsford Smith airport, has right of first refusal on the project and the government will begin consultations with SCA chairman Max Moore-Wilton.
Sydney’s second airport has been stuck in a mire of politics for 40 years. Badgerys Creek was first recommended in 1979 but it was not until the mid-80s that the Hawke government began acquiring land at the site. However, the political appetite waned and then both parties ruled it out.
A second site at Wilton was considered but it was further from the Sydney central business district and required greater development.
A joint federal-state report released in 2012 found the result of doing nothing about a second airport was lost jobs, lost economic growth, traffic gridlock, nationwide aviation delays and increased aircraft noise.
The report concluded: “If action is not taken quickly the chance to secure the future of aviation for the Sydney region may be lost altogether … the option of doing nothing is no longer available and the costs of deferring action are unacceptable.”
The report found Kingsford Smith airport would run out of space by 2027, with peak times in the morning and late afternoon filled by 2020. The authors said by 2060 the lack of capacity would result in almost $60bn in forgone expenditure and 57,000 jobs forgone in that year alone.
Federal MP Ed Husic accused the government of blackmailing the people of western Sydney and said the government should provide the area with much-needed infrastructure, whether the airport was built or not.
“It's just simply been a case of blackmailing Sydney's west, and by that I mean they say 'if you want better infrastructure you've got to support the airport and by virtue of blocking the airport you won't get better infrastructure',” Husic told ABC radio.