Member for Lindsay, David Bradbury MP, should come clean with his constituents about his government’s plans for a second Sydney airport, according to western Sydney based Senator Marise Payne.

In Parliament on 11 February, Bradbury wrongly claimed that the Coalition has not abandoned plans for an airport at Badgerys Creek. Bradbury claims Coalition Transport Spokesman Warren Truss said, in a radio interview on December 17, that Badgerys Creek ‘was the only practical site’ for a second Sydney airport.

 “My colleague Warren Truss was in fact referring to the original recommendations of a study undertaken by the Hawke Labor Government in 1986. In the very same breath he said that an airport at Badgerys Creek was no longer practical due to extensive development that has taken place in the area in the ensuing decades.”

“On the basis of the comments Warren Truss made, no reasonable person could conclude that Mr Truss or the Coalition are in favour of an airport at Badgerys Creek, and David Bradbury know that,” Senator Payne said.

The Rudd Government released its Aviation White Paper last December. The document failed to identify a location for a second Sydney airport and did not rule out the future use of RAAF Richmond for commercial aviation.

“I call on Mr Bradbury to stop playing silly word games and face up to the people of Lindsay, who are rightfully concerned at the thought of a major commercial airport just down the road at Richmond,” Senator Payne said.

“Mr Bradbury, why won’t the Rudd Government rule out the prospect of a commercial airport at Richmond?”