Acontentious decision to build a third runway at Sydney Airport did more than pour fuel on simmering anger about noise from flights over the city’s inner suburbs.
asserted
decision → build → suburbs
Three years after selecting a site at Badgerys Creek for a second airport in Sydney and starting the purchase of 1780 hectares of land for it, the Hawke government decision in 1989 for a third runway at Mascot arguably gave future governments political cover to delay committing to a new aviation hub.
asserted
decision → select → hub
“The Hawke decision was a blessing and a curse,” recalls John Morandini, a policy adviser in the Wran government who was involved in considering options for a second airport in the late 1970s and ’80s.
asserted
who → recall → 1970s
“It cemented the Badgerys Creek site enough because it led to the acquisition of land, but the building of the third runway killed the prospect of construction for decades.
asserted
building → cement → decades
“It is a small miracle, if not a big miracle, after the third runway was built, that Badgerys Creek ever got up and running again.
asserted
Creek → build → ?
In any case, it wouldn’t have happened if the land was not acquired at that time.”
asserted
land → happen → time
Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating rejects the suggestion that it was the third runway that delayed a second airport, instead laying blame on a lack of “political courage” by governments that followed his.
asserted
that → reject → his
Not only had he secured the land at Badgerys Creek for the second airport when he was federal treasurer, he argues, but in 1995 his government budgeted $762 million to construct it.
asserted
government → secure → it
That was undone a year later when the incoming Howard government scrapped the funding, leaving Keating to lobby repeatedly in the years that followed against any sale of the land.
asserted
that → undo → land
It was another twist in the politics of airports in Sydney which stretched back to 1946 when the Chifley Labor government became the first to seriously consider building a second one.
asserted
government → stretch → one
While site options over the following decades ranged from Towra Point in the Sutherland Shire to Wilton in the outer south-west, the focus repeatedly returned to the rolling hills of Badgerys Creek.
asserted
focus → follow → Creek
On Sunday, eight decades after the journey towards Western Sydney International Airport began, passengers will board the first commercial flight at the new gateway officially named after pioneering aviator Nancy-Bird Walton, known as the “Angel of the Outback”.
asserted
passengers → begin → Outback
Growing up on a dairy farm at Luddenham near what became the airport site, Wayne Willmington never thought it would be built.
asserted
it → grow → Luddenham
“My Dad used to say, ‘There’s no way they’ll flatten the hills,’ ” he recalls.
asserted
he → use → hills
In the mid-1970s, the Fraser Coalition government formed the Major Airport Needs of Sydney group to study all possible sites and report back on whether to build a second airport or a third runway at Kingsford Smith Airport.
asserted
government → form → Airport
The so-called MANS study laid the groundwork for what was to happen decades later.
asserted
what → call → groundwork
It recommended the need for a third runway at Sydney Airport, and that Badgerys Creek be the preferred site for a second airport.
asserted
Creek → recommend → airport
Having lived in Luddenham his entire life, Willmington says his family did not seriously think about an airport until the MANS study sparked his involvement in an anti-airport group.
asserted
study → live → group
That ended in 1986 when he performed an about-turn to favour the airport after the Commonwealth started acquiring land.
asserted
Commonwealth → end → land
“I knew we weren’t going to stop it,” the Luddenham Progress Association president says.
asserted
president → know → it
“Once they started to buy the land, I thought it was inevitable.
asserted
it → start → land
If we hadn’t got the airport, we would have just been swallowed up with housing like Oran Park and Glenmore Park.
asserted
we → get → Park
Now it’s going to be a special destination area.
asserted
it → go → ?
In the decades after the Hawke government selected Badgerys Creek as the site, and the decision later to build a third runway at Sydney Airport, both the Coalition and Labor walked away from policies to build the new airport.
asserted
Coalition → select → airport
“Yet some 20 years after the third runway opened, the realities of rapid growth and limited airport capacity in Sydney hit home again,” recalls Morandini, a policy adviser to deputy premier Jack Ferguson.
asserted
Morandini → open → Ferguson
“The Badgerys Creek site had survived its exile, only just.”
asserted
site → survive → exile
In 2009, then-federal transport minister Anthony Albanese commissioned a joint federal-state study into aviation capacity in the Sydney Basin, despite Labor’s policy at the time to not build an airport.
asserted
Albanese → commission → airport
He recalls “meetings after meetings” in which Badgerys Creek kept coming up as a site.
asserted
Creek → recall → site
Towards the end of their work, Haddad recounts one meeting that stood out.
asserted
that → recount → meeting
“It was when we said, ‘This is it,’ ” he says.
asserted
he → say → ?
The committee concluded in 2012 “beyond doubt” that Badgerys Creek was the best site.
asserted
Creek → conclude → doubt
“It was a clear-cut, strong position,” Haddad says.
asserted
Haddad → cut → ?
“I was almost certain that it would be very difficult for any government not to tick it because essentially the evidence was very strong.
asserted
evidence → tick → it
It’s either this one or nothing.”
asserted
It → ’ → ?
The report’s release in March 2012 failed to immediately spur politicians into backing Badgerys Creek.
asserted
release → fail → Creek
In releasing the study’s findings, Albanese ruled out Badgerys Creek and instead said he would investigate Wilton, which was the report’s second-best option.
asserted
which → release → Wilton
At the state level, the O’Farrell government reiterated its opposition to another airport in the Sydney Basin.
asserted
government → reiterate → Basin
Despite the pushback, the two-year study paved the way.
asserted
study → pave → way
A year later, Albanese promised during the election campaign that he was “absolutely determined” to start building an airport if Labor won another term.
asserted
Labor → promise → term
It failed to do so, but just over six months after winning the 2013 election, the Abbott government confirmed Badgerys Creek as the location of Sydney’s second airport, and that construction was expected to start in 2016.
asserted
construction → fail → 2016
…and 61 more, not listed.
The Aporia
