Mr HATTON (7:46 PM) —On 5 May, at about 3.30 in the afternoon, four members of one family tragically lost their lives when their plane crashed, landing in Violet Street in Revesby. This accident, which occurred in the electorate of the member for Banks, was a result of that plane and another plane—a single-engine Tobago with a student and instructor on board—attempting to land at Bankstown Airport. Both the member for Banks and I are concerned about this. Although Bankstown Airport is in my electorate and the training flights carried out from Bankstown Airport operate within my electorate, one of the swings goes through the electorate of the member for Banks.

I wish to extend my condolences to the members of that family for those who have now been laid to rest. I also want to indicate a few things to the Minister for Transport and Regional Services. I call on him to review his decision on 13 December 2000 with regard to the second airport for Sydney and the future of Bankstown and associated airports. Despite Bankstown Airport having a good safety record over the period of its use—it started during World War II—this tragic accident underlines the need for the minister for transport to make a decision now to halt the sale process of Bankstown Airport, Camden Airport and Hoxton Park Airport. Just as the minister delayed the sale of the Kingsford Smith airport, the sale of these airports in the second half of 2002 also needs to be stopped now.

The reason that it needs to be stopped and the reason that the minister needs to institute an immediate review of his decision of 13 December 2000 is that not enough is yet known about what the impact of a changed airspace configuration would be with regard to Bankstown Airport. I and other members have expressed serious concern and alarm at the fact that, whereas it is a general aviation airport now, the government's proposal is to roll into that regular passenger services and regular passenger jet services, up to 737 jets out of Bankstown Airport. The government's proposal is to have three different layers of airport usage: general aviation, regular passenger services such as Dash 8s, and 737 jets. It does not take too much imagination to figure out that it is pretty hard to run those three different types of operations when, in a general aviation context, you can have crashes such as we have had.

Further, the specific point of view that such a review needs to start from is from an air safety perspective, particularly in terms of the flight paths between Bankstown Airport and Kingsford Smith Airport. Nothing in the decision of 13 December attempted to grapple with the general approach to general aviation policy for Sydney as a whole. Before any further steps are taken in relation to the sale of those airports, I believe that the minister should, firstly, stop the sale; secondly, initiate the review; and, thirdly, have the government actually take ownership of this issue. Sydney is different to other capitals which, prior to the sale of their airports, have had their airport problems sorted out. The government should finalise the master plan for Bankstown Airport, Camden Airport and Hoxton Park Airport and should not leave that process in the hands of a private owner. The airspace review that has been undertaken by the minister's department should be brought forward so that we get some indication of what that airspace review has found. There is an obvious problem in terms of separation of flight paths between Kingsford Smith and Bankstown. There would be a much greater problem if we had the three modes of use at Bankstown Airport. That is why I and my colleagues have rejected the notion of an expansion of Bankstown beyond its current provision for general aviation.

We also need to look at future uses throughout Sydney of the three airports, with Hoxton Park taking about 100,000 movements, Camden taking many movements and there being pressure on Bankstown in terms of its being the busiest airport. It is not the time to hand this over to private interests. The government needs to take charge of aircraft policy in terms of general aviation and these airports. These airports should not be sold. The whole master planning process, which will probably take two or three years, should be undergone before we take further steps. (Time expired)