The former chief of the Federal Airports Corporation believes an extra 1200ha must to be acquired around Badgerys Creek to ensure the project is financially successful.
Barry Murphy, regarded as one of Sydney’s most knowledgeable airport specialists, called on the government to follow up its decisive handling of the second Sydney airport issue by quickly establishing a Western Sydney Airports Corporation.
“The risk is that a dangerous vacuum emerges in which people without the facts try to build up opposition,’’ Mr Murphy said.
Former NSW premier Nick Greiner also warned private investors would not be as willing to sink the required $2.5 billion into the project if the airport was prevented from operating 24 hours a day.
“It’s like being asked to invest in a widget factory that’s only able to make widgets 16 hours a day, when the one down the road in Melbourne can make them 24 hours a day,’’ said Mr Greiner, former Infrastructure NSW chief.
Mr Murphy experienced first-hand how political momentum for Badgerys stalled in the mid-1990s, at a time when he was running the-then FAC, the government airport operator.
He said the new airport corporation would be responsible for building community support in Western Sydney as key decisions about Badgerys Creek were being made.
One of its first tasks should be assessing how much extra land needed to be compulsorily acquired around the existing government-owned parcel of 1700ha.
Mr Murphy said he believed the site should be expanded by about 1200ha to ensure the project is able to attract private investment.
Only about 40 per cent of an airport’s revenue is made landing planes, with additional money generated by leasing airport-controlled land to retailers, hoteliers, freight forwarders and other aviation-related businesses.
Several Western Sydney MPs, including Labor’s Ed Husic, Jason Clare, Michelle Rowland and Chris Bowen, have called for a curfew.
Business leaders have said a curfew would significantly limit how many new jobs would be generated.
As many as 380,000 jobs need to be created in Western Sydney over 20 years to keep pace with population growth.
“If we don’t create these jobs we’re going to have a youth unemployment nightmare,’’ Sydney Business Chamber Western Sydney director David Borger said.
Source: The Telegraph by John Lehmann. Original article.
