Mr McCLELLAND(3.45 p.m.) —The fundamental mind-set of the government is still one of opposition. They are knockers, they are not doers. They are now entrusted with the task of getting on with the job.

The first delay in the construction of Badgerys Creek was the need to upgrade the airport from a regional runway of 1,800 metres to a fully international runway of 2,900 metres. The Labor government saw the need to do that to cope with the obvious demand that will come.

The second delay occurred because the then opposition knocked over the funding base for Badgerys Creek with the rejection of the airport privatisation legislation. Despite that, $150 million was spent by the Labor government in the acquisition of sites and the development of infrastructure. It is false in the extreme to say that the former government dragged the chain on those developments.

The present government's prevarication in building a second Sydney airport at Badgerys Creek is an excuse for doing just what big business want, namely, to expand the Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport. The government is finding every possible reason not to proceed with a second Sydney airport.

The government has interrupted the fast-tracking of Badgerys Creek, saying a more extensive environmental impact statement is required. The blatant hypocrisy stands out for all to see when the government has put planes over the homes and the schools of my electors in Barton and other electorates under the east-west flight path without giving them the opportunity to have an input in their own environmental impact statement.

Now the government has the audacity to speak of the sanctity of the environmental impact statement when saying it may interfere with Badgerys Creek. Certainly they can make one interfere with the construction of Badgerys Creek, and that is no doubt their hidden agenda.

The government wants to derail a second Sydney airport by speculating on a second alternative. That is all it is, it is no more than speculation. As I stand here today on 21 May 1996, I state: the government will never go ahead with Badgerys Creek and it will never go ahead with an airport at Holsworthy. They are just false promises. The second site has been examined up hill and down dale and rejected unequivocally. As sure as night follows day, the government's deliberate delaying tactics will blow out the noise curfew and capping on hourly flight movements that exist at Kingsford Smith.

This is more so given the government's arrogant and irrational decision to reopen the east-west runway at KSA which was referred to by the Minister for Transport and Regional Development (Mr Sharp) in the concluding parts of his speech. It is irrational because it significantly decreases the capacity of KSA. While the east-west runway is operational, the north-south runways are virtually closed. The north-south parallel runways have a capacity of between 70 and 80 movements an hour. The east-west runway has a safe capacity of approximately 20 movements an hour.

The figures speak for themselves. The reduction in capacity caused by the operation of the east-west runway is acknowledged by the fact that the government can only use the east-west runway during non-peak periods. That is, it is putting planes over the homes of school children when our kids are trying to learn. And, again, when the kids come home of an evening, when parents are trying to put them to bed, the government has planes flying over our homes.

Unfortunately, the government still has not silenced the complaints coming from the electorate of the member for Bennelong, the Prime Minister (Mr Howard). Even while the court case is taking place to challenge the government's decision on opening the east-west runway, the government has arrogantly increased its hours of use.

Simply to placate the Bennelong voters, the government is pumping planes out from the east-west runway to prove a point. There is no doubt that many of those planes would otherwise be going out over the fish in Botany Bay rather than our homes and schools.

At the same time, despite a clear and unequivocal election promise, the government has not allocated one cent—not one cent!—to insulating our homes and schools under the east-west flight path. And the government talks of election promises. They are putting planes over our homes, but where is the money?

Let there be no doubt as to the trauma the government has caused the residents of Barton. I will read from a letter from the President of the Kyeemagh Public School Council. This was a desperate plea to the minister:

The members of the School Council of Kyeemagh Infants School are concerned that with the reopening of the East-West Runway at Kingsford-Smith Airport, the noise from planes landing and taking off once again seriously disrupts the teaching/learning activities at Kyeemagh school.

The letter goes on to speak of the stresses, traumas and impediments to learning suffered as a result of the government's arrogant actions in opening the east-west runway without an environmental impact statement.

The government is not coming clean. All money for noise insulation has been allocated north of the airport and that has been tied up for three years. Unless there is a special allocation in this coming budget there will be no funds to insulate the homes under the east-west flight path. I am an optimist but, unfortunately, I am not prepared to put a bet on the government honouring its election promises. Yet they stand up here with sanctity and self-righteousness and say that what they are doing is honouring election commitments.

By the year 2000 there will be 20 million passengers coming into Sydney airport and it simply does not have the capacity to handle it. So the curfew will be broken and there will be an increase in aircraft movements and a return to the simultaneous operation of cross-runways. The simultaneous operation of cross-runways has been universally acknowledged as significantly less safe than parallel runways. Between 1991 and 1993 there were five serious incidents involving aircraft at Kings ford Smith airport. In August 1991 there was a near collision involving an Ansett aircraft and a Thai Airways aircraft.

That event resulted in the Ansett aircraft having to take evasive action, missing the Thai aircraft by metres. The air traffic controllers reported to the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation they were convinced a collision was about to occur. The firefighters had launched the alarm because they were convinced a collision was about to occur. If the government proceeds down this path it will compel all air travellers to face this risk.

The minister has given a direction to Airservices Australia to maximise the use of the east-west runway. We are starting to move very rapidly into a dangerous situation of cross-runway operations. We are looking at the risk of a significant disaster—and not for any rational economic benefit. As the minister indicated in his letter of 20 March to the Minister for the Environment (Senator Hill), his reasons for opening the east-west runway were essentially political in character.

So we are not even talking about `affordable safety'—some have been condemned for this—where aircraft safety is being compromised for economic reasons; we are talking about affordable safety for blatantly political purposes. The facts of the matter are that these events are going to continue. The pressures on Kingsford Smith airport are going to increase to an intolerable level, particularly as we are approaching the Olympics.

The minister has not acknowledged the fact that at Holsworthy there is a designated sacred Aboriginal site. Even if he does not acknowledge that fact—

Mrs Crosio —Twenty-three.

Mr McCLELLAND —I understand there are 23 designated sites. Even if he wants to ride roughshod over those, he is going to end up in a two-year High Court case—more delay and no action. That is what this government is about. I stand here and say that the government will do nothing about opening a second airport, an airport that is so desperately required to ease the trauma and suffering of people in my electorate and other electorates around Kingsford Smith airport.