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Up in the air: We’re in suspense over a second Sydney airport while Melbourne races ahead.
Last week, I spoke at a forum on the future of western Sydney. I spoke in the first session before morning tea, after a demographer and a politician. Both talked of the pressing need for that long-awaited second airport in Sydney. The boost to the region in terms of jobs, training and business would be huge. Sydney couldn’t call itself a truly global city without one.
It seems that when it comes to building a really workable big city, Melbourne is racing ahead of Sydney yet again with the announcement that Avalon is about to become that city’s second international airport. The Australian and Philippines governments have cleared the way for direct flights in and out of there. Sure, it’s 55 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD, a good hour’s drive depending on the time of day, but international travellers expect an airport to be way out of the city centre. Mascot is an anomaly in so many ways.
I’ve written before about how travel-crazy Australians have become since the GFC. They seem especially keen for cheap flights to Asian destinations to enjoy luxury experiences with a modest price tag plus retail therapy. If you are saving heaps on flights and accommodation, you don’t care much if it takes an expensive taxi ride to get to the airport. New South Wales-based travellers are waiting for that second airport. It can’t come soon enough. Australians know too, that our tourism industry is struggling and that attracting the all important middle-class dollar from visitors from India, China, Japan, Malaysia and so forth is crucial. A second airport will help with that,
But Australians are cynical about the ability of governments, state and federal, to plan for the future, particularly when it comes to infrastructure. They are doubtful that major projects like new airports or highways or train links will ever be delivered given the short-term thinking of politicians.
- “Why doesn’t the government ever think about the future? Probably they do think of it, but won’t do it. Too scared of the next election.”
- “Governments know much of what we need but lack the implementation. They’ll argue about it for years but nothing will happen”.
- “If you look at the decision made by government, there doesn’t seem to be any forward planning. It’s a Band-Aid fix. Management by crisis.”
They are equally concerned about public-private partnerships for large infrastructure projects: is the private part of the partnership getting more than they should from government and will the taxpayers be screwed in process?
The forthcoming report from the federal government about potential sites for Sydney’s second airport will undoubtedly spark another round of political argument about where to put this much needed piece of the infrastructure puzzle.
But all the rest of us may well hear is so much more aircraft noise.
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