It's a failure of the system. Any party at any given point in time is going to lose votes if they build a new airport in Sydney.
However at the same time it is the duty of the government to govern and provide for such thing as airports/roads etc.
So as a result they just procrastinate looking like they are doing something whilst doing nothing as it is a lose/lose scenario for any government.
Meanwhile Sydney starts falling apart due to no decisive action being taken.
In reality Sandilands article is probably right on the money. Let Sydney fail miserably then start again from scratch.