By Jennifer Long
SYDNEY — The aroma of one of the federal election's neglected issues is seeping through the cracks of the Liberal and Labor campaign bunkers: the continuing saga of the Sydney airport.
Residents in Sydney's inner-west and eastern suburbs have noticed a change in the flight patterns of aircraft landing and taking off from Kingsford-Smith Airport (KSA). There seem to be many more thundering over their houses than before the election date was announced.
Chairperson of the Sydney Airport Community Forum and Liberal MP for North Sydney, Joe Hockey, denied there were decreased aircraft movements over the marginal seat of Lowe. Figures published in the September 23 Sydney Morning Herald show this to be the case.
Lowe was won in 1996 by Liberal Paul Zammit. Zammit resigned from the Liberal Party over the aircraft noise issue and is re-contesting the seat, this time as an independent.
Zammit said the reduction in movements over the electorate — to the lowest levels since the opening of the third runway — was an election stunt. Aircraft movements would return to normal after October 3, he predicted.
Sylvia Hale, the Common Cause/No Aircraft Noise candidate for Grayndler in Sydney's inner south-west, accused both Labor and Liberal of failing to inform the electorate about their plans for Sydney airport. Both parties support the privatisation of the airport and plan to expand the international terminal.
Labor Party policy — as displayed on its election web page — supports the continued operation of KSA, albeit with lots of qualifications about "sharing" and "minimising" the noise.
Labor also supports the construction of a second airport in Sydney. As an angry letter to the September 17 Telegraph pointed out, this means supporting the discredited airport at Badgerys Creek. The writer condemned the plan as an environmental, social and economic disaster.
A Badgerys Creek airport would be disastrous for the western suburbs, Michael Karadjis, the Democratic Socialists' Grayndler candidate and anti-Badgerys campaigner, told Green Left Weekly. It will also be disastrous for the inner-city because it will never be able to replace Sydney airport.
"What we need is to move the airport right out of Sydney. But neither major party will do it because they care more about the profits of the airlines and the interests of potential buyers of Sydney airport than they do about millions of Sydney residents", Karadjis said.