Mr HATTON (12:19 PM) —by leave—I return to the question of the master plan for Bankstown Airport and some of the critical things that are not being done. The very first thing that has not been done by the Minister for Transport and Regional Services, the Prime Minister or anyone else in this government is ruling out, now and into the future, the use of Bankstown Airport by 717s, 737s, 747s or any of those aircraft that are in category 4C and larger. The people in Bankstown know about this issue, and 6,000 turned up to Bankstown Paceway on one day to protest against the decision taken by the federal coalition government on 13 December 2000 to load up Bankstown Airport as the second airport for Sydney, to make it the overflow airport for Sydney, to make it the regional transport airport for Sydney. That was their decision of 13 December 2000.

At the time, I said that they were completely and utterly crazy. They obviously did not understand the interoperability between Bankstown Airport and Kingsford Smith airport. The east-west runway at Kingsford Smith airport operates in such a manner that you cannot run jet or prop-jet activity out of Bankstown Airport at any greater level than 12 per hour. There is a provision—increased in 1998 by the minister for transport—that, where there is a conflict between Kingsford Smith airport and Bankstown Airport, Richmond Airport or any other airport in the Sydney basin, Kingsford Smith airport has priority. They spent months trying to work out a way to turn Bankstown Airport into effectively Sydney's second airport. Although they put Badgerys Creek on the backburner, they wanted a way in which to elevate Bankstown Airport so as to get regional traffic placed there and to run more jets in and out of Kingsford Smith airport, thereby letting Sydney Airport Corporation earn a lot more money. Since Max Moore-Wilton has gone from the Prime Minister's office to running Sydney Airport Corporation, the vested interest of that corporation in trying to maintain and expand their activities has been extended.

The people who have taken up the lease on Bankstown Airport say that one of their planning priorities is for Bankstown Airport not to become Sydney's second airport. If that is the case, that should be not just a suggestion; it should be written into this master plan. If that is the case, they should not just say in the master plan, `We're not making any planning decisions in relation to code 4C aircraft'—that is, 717s, 737s and above—`or doing any analysis of that, because we don't think we'll ever use it.' They have said that the three runways at Bankstown Airport are important. However, they put the argument that they need to extend the principal runway by 220 metres and to strengthen the runway and the associated taxiways so that, instead of taking the 20-tonne loads that they currently take, they would be able to take 50-tonne loads. Where in these provisions do they say that they want to run regular passenger transport in and out of Bankstown Airport?

They say that there would only be 12 flights a day on that 50-tonne limit. When they say that, they know as well as I do that you can run 12 an hour, not 12 a day. They also know that they can apply to the Minister for Transport and Regional Services once they have established those kinds of operations to say, `We have a runway here which has the capacity to take larger aircraft. We have established usage, because we pinched a whole lot of activity from Kingsford Smith airport. We think we should be able to do more than this. We think we have a problem in the protection that is currently around Bankstown Airport.' Because of the general aviation operations and the ceiling levels involved, you do not run the same kinds of operations that you do at Kingsford Smith airport. So they can apply to the minister to seek permission to run more than 12 jet and prop-jet flights a day in and out of Bankstown Airport.

This master plan should have been open, above board, direct and transparent. It should not have hidden clauses that would dud the people of Bankstown, but it does. That is why I totally reject the fundamental propositions in the master plan. I reject the notion that regular passenger transport services should be incorporated into Bankstown Airport operations. The minister needs to reject this when it gets to him, and the people of Bankstown need to reject it in the 90-day period. (Time expired)