No-fly zone would cripple Badgerys Creek airport: Tony Shepherd

A Labor plan to restrict night landings at a Sydney airport would economically cripple it, a businessman says.

A Labor plan to restrict night landings at Sydney’s Badgerys Creek airport would economically cripple the first major new airport built in decades, according to one of Australia’s leading businessmen.

Bill Shorten yesterday said that the opposition would create a night-time “no-fly zone” over the northeast of the proposed ­airport, in Labor’s first major ­election announcement in western Sydney.

Tony Shepherd, who chaired the federal government’s Commission of Audit and, until last year, the WestConnex Delivery Authority, said he was disappointed with the plan.

“One of the major purposes of this airport is to create a truly international airport which can operate without restrictions, seven days a week, 24 hours a day,’’ he said. “We are in a globally competitive market and this is vital for the economy of Australia, not just for western Sydney. Tourism and global business are big drivers of the Australian economy. This just puts hobbles on us.”

Major Projects Minister Paul Fletcher said Labor’s policy would have safety implications when the wind blew in the wrong direction because there were strict regulations on aircraft taking off or landing downwind. He said Labor’s plan appeared to have been hastily cobbled together

Mr Shorten said Labor had tried to get the balance between the economic boost the airport would provide and community concerns.

The opposition’s spokesman on ­infrastructure and transport, Anthony Albanese, said the proposed no-fly zone was the same that governed after-hours flights at Sydney Airport in Mascot.

But the difference is that, unlike Sydney Airport, airlines will be able to schedule passenger flights 24 hours a da­y.

The draft environmental ­impact statement estimated that restricting planes to landing or taking off to the southwest — over the Blue Mountains — would mean that by 2030 about 4000 people would be exposed to five events per night above 60 dBA, which is conversation level.

By requiring aircraft to take off and land to the southwest, the EIS said, movements would be restricted to 20 an hour.

The main beneficiary of Labor’s policy will be the electorate of ­McMahon, held by Chris Bowen by a margin of 4.6 per cent, ­although most of the land in his seat that is under the approaches to the proposed runway has been reserved for decades for industrial development.

However, aircraft noise is likely to be a hot election topic in several seats, including Lindsay, Macquarie, Macarthur and Chifley.

Labor’s announcement appeared to be a compromise between its western Sydney MPs who want an outright curfew and maintaining its 24-hour operation, considered to be vital to its economic viability.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott had avoided committing to any curfew.

Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue chairman Chris Brown, a member of the government-­appointed committee that studied aviation capacity in the Sydney ­region, called for a unity ticket ­between the major parties to ­oppose a curfew at Badgerys.

“If a no-fly zone is a requirement to ensure no curfew then I’m comfortable with it as a reasonable compromise,’’ he said. “The airport is the game changer for western Sydney. The reality is that the rest of the world is asleep when we are awake and vice versa.”

Mr Brown, the son of Hawke government tourism minister John Brown, said one advantage of waiting so long for the airport was that it could be the smartest, ­quietest airport in the world.

David Borger, the western Sydney director of the Sydney Business Chamber, said if the no-fly zone was confirmation there wouldn’t be a curfew “then it’s probably a good thing”.

He said that although night- time flights would be only a small percentage of all aircraft movements, they were still important.