Tension is building in the Liberal Party
TENSIONS between NSW and federal Coalition MPs over the construction of a second Sydney airport spilled over yesterday as one state member declared it would be built ''over my dead body''.
The NSW Liberal MP for Wollondilly, Jai Rowell, was responding to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald that 12 federal Coalition colleagues would lobby the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, to drop his opposition to a second airport.
Mr Rowell's electorate, in Sydney's south-west, takes in the federal government's preferred second airport site at Wilton. And at least three federal Liberal MPs, Alby Schultz, whose electorate includes the Wilton site, Russell Matheson, in an adjoining seat and the MP for Mitchell, Alex Hawke, have backed Mr O'Farrell's stance.
The federal Minister for Transport, Anthony Albanese, claimed the lobbying campaign by the federal MPs was a sign of bipartisan support for another airport.
Mr Rowell said he would reject any approaches from his federal Coalition colleagues to change his mind.
''I don't care who it is, over my dead body will I be supporting anything at Wilton,'' he said.
Mr Albanese said the government was considering funding a scoping study of the Wilton option.