Dr NELSON —My question is directed to the Minister for Transport and Regional Development. What further steps has the government taken to ease the burden of aircraft noise associated with the Sydney airport and, in particular, how will measures proposed by the government benefit suburbs north of the airport?

Mr SHARP —I thank the honourable member for Bradfield who has taken—along with his constituency, of course—a great deal of interest in this issue ever since he was elected to the parliament some six months ago.

Members will recall that when in opposition the coalition had a policy of a more equitable distribution of the noise caused by aircraft over Sydney. This was based on trying to share the noise more fairly. You will also recall that we had a policy of trying to direct more flights over water or non-residential areas in order to try to minimise the total aircraft noise problem in Sydney. To that extent, we have announced a number of initiatives.

The government reopened the east-west runway within 10 working days of being sworn into office; in fact, it was within eight. On 15 June we announced another initiative which was designed to put more aircraft into Sydney and out of Sydney over water. Then, just recently, we received a report from Airservices Australia, recommending that the new third runway have aircraft taking off to the north and making an immediate right-hand turn and joining the east-west runway flight paths. This is an initiative that we asked Airservices to look at some months ago.

Mr Beazley —Fly a F18 on that route. That would be really wonderful!

Mr SHARP —Indeed, as the Leader of the Opposition laughs, he should be reminded of the disaster and distress that was imposed on the people of Sydney. That was because of your mismanagement of Sydney's Mascot airport and the enormous angst you created whilst you were in government. This government has inherited that problem, and we are now resolving it.

The decision to allow take-offs to the north on the new third runway was announced yesterday, and it will considerably relieve those people living to the north of the runway from aircraft noise. What it will effectively mean is that about half of the total number of take-offs to the north will now be able to occur on the new third runway, making that immediate right-hand turn.

The beneficiaries of this are, in particular, those people living in the Labor strongholds of Grayndler and Sydney. Those are the Labor seats to which you could have provided substantial reduction in aircraft noise had you been bothered to take up this initiative. Indeed, your failure to take up that initiative is a betrayal of those people who live in suburbs like Petersham and Sydenham and Leichhardt and Marrickville and Drummoyne—all of them in those Labor areas. Indeed, it will not only provide relief from aircraft noise for them but also provide relief through North Sydney right up to places like Pymble, which are in the area that the honourable member for Bradfield represents. That was the first of the announcements yesterday.

The second and a very important announcement yesterday about Sydney's airport to reduce the noise is that we will now be operating aircraft in the early hours of the morning over the water rather than over suburbs. This again will provide considerable relief for people living to the north of the airport in seats like Grayndler and Sydney, right up to seats around Pymble. This is an initiative that again could have been undertaken by the previous Labor government. It is only being undertaken by this government because we are trying to fix the problem of aircraft noise in Sydney caused by those people sitting opposite us.

Mr Tim Fischer —Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper .