Badgerys Creek flight path will silence the critics
THE biggest private landholder in southwestern Sydney has warned he will bankroll a community revolt against Badgerys.
THE biggest private landholder in southwestern Sydney, billionaire dairy farmer Tony Perich, has warned he will bankroll a community revolt against the new airport unless “logical” flight paths are finalised.
Mr Perich, whose family is developing more than 20,000 homes in areas like Oran Park, presented a detailed flight path map to Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss after a private meeting about a month ago.
The preferred flight path would only affect about 300 homes with noise similar to that now experienced in Marrickville. This type of runway configuration was outlined as “Option A” in an environmental impact assessment completed in 1999.
“There will be community uproar if this flight path isn’t adopted and I’ll be right behind them financially,” Mr Perich said.
The Perich family, believed to be worth more than $850 million, runs one of Australia’s biggest dairy operations under the flight path.
The map given to Mr Truss, reproduced exclusively by The Daily Telegraph (right), shows how two parallel runways would run in northeast and southwest directions.
Surrounding the airport are the employment lands, where aviation-related industries will create an “aerotropolis” employing tens of thousands of people.
The southwest growth centre, where more than 30,000 homes will be developed, would not be affected by aircraft noise if this flight path is adopted. Mr Perich said his family had fought aggressively against a Badgerys Creek airport for seven years after the Hawke government compulsorily acquired 38ha of their dairy land from 1986.
He said he had conducted a global investigation to determine if fuel vapour from aircraft would affect dairy pastures and milk quality but found no evidence.
“We’ve come to accept the airport now and I actually think it will be very good for the southwest as long as it is done properly to create the jobs we need and the infrastructure,’’ he said.
The issue of whether the airport should operate free of a curfew has already become a political issue with at least six MPs calling for the airport’s operations to be restricted like Kingsford Smith.
Labor’s Chris Bowen, Jason Clare, Ed Husic, Chris Hayes and Richard Amery are demanding the new airport’s operations be restricted, along with the Liberals’ Fiona Scott.
Federal Labor Opposition leader Bill Shorten and NSW Labor leader John Robertson offered bipartisan support subject to curfew restrictions. Prime Minister Tony Abbott appeared to support the need for a flexible operating plan.
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“We are certainly not saying there will be a curfew,’’ he said. “We are saying we want this to be a jobs generator.”
Planning specialist Bob Meyer, a director at Cox Richardson architects, said only 328 homes at Badgerys would be in a noise zone similar to that experienced by 29,457 houses near Kingsford Smith.
He said only 2913 homes at Badgerys would have similar noise to that experienced at Leichhardt. Some 86,000 homes put up with this noise level around Sydney Airport.
Sydney Business Chamber Western Sydney director David Borger, a former state Labor MP, backed Mr Abbott, saying there was no need for a curfew. “Let’s not get cornered into a scare campaign and cripple the airport before it gets off its knees,’’ he said.
State Labor MP Luke Foley, a Badgerys supporter, said he was influenced by American academic Dr John Kasarda, and his concept of the “aerotropolis”.
Dr Kasarda has said that “airports will shape business location and urban development in the 21st century as much as highways did in the 20th century, railroads in the 19th and seaports in the 18th”.
MAX THE AXE FALLS INTO LINE ON AIRPORT John Lehmann
ONE of the biggest opponents of a second Sydney airport, Max Moore-Wilton, appears to have reluctantly thrown in the towel.
Mr Moore-Wilton, the outspoken Sydney Airport chairman responsible for the Kingsford Smith facility, has run a vocal campaign to hold off development of a competing airport.
But he said last night Sydney Airport would work closely with the Abbott government to progress planning at Badgerys Creek.
“The government has made a decision — we are business people and we will follow the law,’’ he said.
Sydney Airport, which was granted a 99-year lease of Sydney Airport when it was privatised in 2002, has first right of refusal for ownership of any airport built within 100km of the existing airport, a deal which expires in 2032.
The government is expec-ted to establish a Western Sydney Airport Corporation to handle the planning.
Former state premiers Nick Greiner and John Fahey are among those tipped to be leading contenders to run such an organisation. Other names floated include former Qantas chief Geoff Dixon and former senior federal bureaucrat Peter Shergold.
Supporters of Badgerys Creek believe Mr Moore-Wilton may try to adopt a “go-slow” approach to any negotiations.
A statement issued yesterday by Sydney Airport said the airport would engage in “constructive discussions” but “apply appropriate commercial and financial discipline throughout any process”
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