Federal government ‘should milk new airport’s potential’

The SAC snubbing a deal to build the next major airport in the city’s west should be welcomed by the government.

Mark Perich yesterday. Picture: James Croucher

Sydney Airport Corporation’s snubbing of a deal to build the nat­ion’s next major airport in the city’s west is a boon for competition and should be welcomed by the federal government, says western Sydney milk and property tycoons the Perich family.

Mark Perich owns large tracts of land at Badgerys Creek where the airport is to be built, said it would be a “shame” if the SAC were to build and operate its only competitor in the Harbour City.

“Airports are like any other business, and they make money by charging landing fees, parking fees and fees on passenger movements,” he said yesterday. “If you have one monopoly player in an area like Sydney, how does the competition happen and how do airlines push for better rates?

“Competition is a good thing and it would be a shame if the Sydney Airport Corporation does get in there.”

Under the privatisation of ­Sydney Airport in 2002, the SAC has first dibs on building the new $5 billion-plus airport at Badgerys Creek, a project that has been in gestation for three decades. After two years of consultation, the federal government on Tuesday provided the SAC with a 1000-page notice of intention, that detailed the government tipping less into the project than expected.

The corporation said it wanted more favourable terms to make the project “commercially viable”, while the government said it was quite willing to go it alone.

Mr Perich welcomed the federal government taking responsibility for building the new airport, but only if it had “thought far enough ahead” and planned well.

“The federal government could take it on like all the other airports around Australia since day one, get it to operating feasibly and then look at selling it like other assets,” Mr Perich said.

He said tendering out the project to operators internationally could “waste a lot of time” in delivering the Badgerys Creek project, which the Hawke government formally announced in 1986.

While the government has said it was willing to take on the project, broader concerns have been raised over its ability to do so, with many critics pointing to the cost blowouts and major delays of its National Broadband Network.

The Perich family, headed by rich-lister Tony Perich, Mark’s father, has a major interest in the progress of the airport as it stands to make major windfalls when nearby rural land it owns is ­rezoned for urban development.

In the 1980s, Tony Perich fought the federal government’s forced acquisition of chunks of his dairy farm land at Badgerys Creek, but on losing that battle ­decided to move into property ­development.