Hints of airport ambush out at Badgerys Creek
Opposition to a second Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek has collapsed. Which party will be first to seize this opportunity to save or gain seats in the 7 September election?
A poll related story about a 2nd Sydney Airport
Until now there has been an unofficial yet obvious truce between Labor and the Coalition over declaring support for the building of a second Sydney Airport in the western half of its metropolitan sprawl at Badgerys Creek.
But could that end in an ambush, and one that would obliterate Labor’s chances of retaining vital key seats in the surrounding suburbs in the 7 September poll?
Reports like this one in
The Telegraph of powerful
community support for the new airport capture a sentiment that has been obvious on the ground in western Sydney for some time.
The airport’s time has arrived. People want the jobs, and travellers in the Sydney west want the convenience, of a major airport that will also compete for business with the much criticised existing airport in Sydney’s east.
The state of play so far has been that of a truce brokered by Labor’s deputy PM and Minister for almost everything including airports, Anthony Albanese, a long time supporter of a Badgerys Creek airport who toes the party line that the airport has to be somewhere else, based on bipartisan fears that making it an election issue might cause either side of politics to declare it will never, as in truly
Never, be built.
Labor’s determined stance against bringing the benefits of a new airport to western Sydney has lead to widespread suspicion that it is sheltering interests that would be harmed by an airport, and want to profit from the release of the 1700 hectares of prime real estate for other developmental purposes.
Labor is trapped in the ludicrous position of insisting that there has to be a site for a second Sydney Airport at Wilton. Anyone who lives in the western electorates and is aware of the topography and environmental factors at Wilton would know that this is absurd.
The situation today is that if sitting Liberals and those challenging seats currently held by Labor in the area were to ambush Labor with a clear committment to going ahead with the airport it would deliver three, four or even five Labor held western Sydney seats to the Coalition.
Any declaration by Labor that it would never build an airport at Badgery’s Creek would backfire, and probably confirm the losses opinion polling indicates that the government will suffer in the 7 September election, when the omens are that it will be swept from office.
Which is another way of posing the question, what would Labor have to lose if it got behind community demands for an airport lead economic revival in western Sydney?