E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2GB RAY HADLEY MORNING SHOW
27 JUNE 2023

SUBJECTS: Western Sydney International Airport Flight Paths

JOHN STANLEY (HOST): One of my radio colleagues was Susan Templeman, who 40 years on is the Member for Macquarie, in the Federal Parliament, the Labor member for Macquarie, who's had concerns about this (the Western Sydney International Airport) for quite a while. She joins me now Susan, good morning.

SUSAN TEMPLEMAN: Morning John.

STANLEY: Probably don't want to be reminded about how long ago it was. But it's been a long, long saga, this and now, of course, it's been stopping and starting it. It's now going to open in less than three years now. So, you've been looking at all of this, what do you make of it?

TEMPLEMAN: Well, all along, I've thought that this was a bad idea, and I think what the flight paths show people today is that there are many, many, many concerns about how the noise is going to affect people's lives. Obviously, I'm very concerned about the Blue Mountains and World Heritage, and the quiet area we live in, but also the Hawkesbury and right across Western Sydney, people are working out just how noisy these flight paths will be. And remember, we're talking 24 hours a day 7 days a week. So I know people are going to be shocked and angry but this is exactly what we said was going to happen when Tony Abbott decided that that Badgerys Creek site should be our next airport.

STANLEY: Yeah. Well, I mean was it was originally decided by as you and I know, by the Hawke Government and then I think a couple of years later, they put money into the budget Laurie Brereton, to get to start work. There it was then put on hold, when the third runway was put in there at Mascot. It was revived by the Abbott Government. But now your party is in government, presiding over this. So, what are you planning to do?

TEMPLEMAN: I'm sure my colleagues and certainly the Mayor of the Blue Mountains and I have met already early this morning with the Minister's office, because we intend to fight for whatever protections we can get for our region. You know, obviously the airport is being built. Obviously the planes have to fly somewhere and it's going to take us all a while to work out where the very worst impacts are. And we need to then look at what can we do to minimise those impacts - and make sure that this doesn't destroy the quality of life, not just in the Blue Mountains, but across that whole breadth of Western Sydney, that people currently have.

STANLEY: Okay, I've got a text from Paul, I can ask this question anyway, because if you go back when, for instance, the third runway was put into Mascot, there were a lot of complaints. They introduced a noise-sharing policy to diffuse the noise across the city, they brought back the East-West runway, that was when I think at that stage there may have still been 727's operating, there were 747's, planes are much quieter today, aren't they?

TEMPLEMAN: Well, I really hope they're going to continue to get quieter. And, you know, we might see electric stuff coming in the future - but in three years time, we're going to have noisy planes flying in and out of this airport, and it will affect people. So, I just really urge people to go and look at the information. You can put your address in and see how direct the effect is. And I'm certainly urging my constituents across the Hawkesbury, across the Mountains, to tell me what they can see. There are multiple flight paths, multiple places where the planes will fly. One of the big changes from what was proposed in 2015 is that the noise is much more shared than it was. What happened in 2015, was 100 per cent of incoming, flights were going to come over Blaxland in the Lower Blue Mountains. Now, we mounted a big campaign, we fought that and that plan was thrown out. What we have now, this is first chance we've had to see it remembering the previous government had kept all this secret for years and years. I demanded that there be excellent information; all these noise tools, the ability to see what the sound would be. That's because I said, we have to be honest with people about what this will look like and not wait until the planes fly for people to realise what having an airport actually means

STANLEY: It originally identified in 1986. So really for 40 years years, people have known in that area that this is in prospect and may well happen haven't they?

TEMPLEMAN: Well, I disagree John, because I think in the 90s we thought we'd beaten it. We thought that sense had prevailed and that for all the multitude of reasons that were given then, that it wouldn't be in the Sydney Basin. That was not where you would put a second airport that you use high speed, rail to get it to an outer area, and I won't even start going through all the bad reasons why it really shouldn't be there.

STANLEY: I know, but the land was there - it was always in prospect though, wasn't it? You say it was beaten but the land was there, it was still identified as an airport so that you were always if you're in that area in 40 years that this was going to be in prospect.

TEMPLEMAN: Well, look, we could argue about that one. But, you know, it was beaten in the 90s and there was a political decision taken and not to do it. And that was welcomed by all sides. So, you know, I think the reality is we've got to look at where we are now. Where we are is that the airport is under construction, the impacts on the Blue, Mountains are quite profound, and we are a World Heritage area. Not just special because there's a few gum trees but special because the world sees there is no place on earth like ours and where residents who live within that area sparsely populated. So the noise is really profound for the mountains but the Hawkesbury will also be surprised I think, to see that they're going to have planes flying quite low through the day. So I just urge people jump online and have a look, earlier this morning, I heard that about 8,000 people already had been on their early this morning that number has, no doubt risen, but there is terrific information so people can make their own assessment of the impact. And I'd urge them to tell their local member, because we're the ones who need to now go: right, how do we make this the least horrible that it can be.

STANLEY: I've got Anthony who says; planes will be at cruising altitude, by the time they get to Katoomba you won't hear it in the Blue Mountains.

TEMPLEMAN: Well, the Blue Mountain starts at Lapstone, for a start. And when there are various flight paths, what I can see is that at night, there will be the proposed flights have them flying at night at fairly low altitudes over the Mid Mountains, and the Lower Mountains are heavily impacted, as is Penrith. So there is a lot of work to be done and the government, you know what's different is that we've got a government that genuinely wants the feedback from people. This is how you get it, you put out the flight paths, you provide detailed information and you say to people, please tell us how you feel.

STANLEY: But in the end it's not going to change anything, is it? Because you've talked about the noise being diffused, so it is what it is, isn't it?

TEMPLEMAN: There's always room for improvements John. I have absolutely no doubt that there are things that can be done to either mitigate or vary things so that - you know, these are called preliminary - they're coming out several months before the environmental impact statement. So there's a lot of time for people to absorb it and think about how could the impact be alleviated. And that's everything from insulation in a whole range of things that we can do.

STANLEY: Maybe there are people who are thinking of maybe it's going to be great to be able to nip down to the airport and fly rather than have to make the long trip to Mascot. That's most of Sydney, is going to be closer to this airport aren't they?

TEMPLEMAN: Yeah, look at and I've heard that argument and I think the people who are not under a flight part, will probably be really happy about that argument. But I'll be interested to see whether the people who are the ones who are going to hear those planes, take off at 3:00 in the morning, or land at 3:00 in the morning, feel like that's a good trade-off. So that is the thing, we've got to look at what the benefits are, what the downsides are and make sure that that there is a fair outcome here for everybody involved.

STANLEY: David tells me: as a pilot, the aircraft fly over Katoomba every day, departing Kingsford Smith given it's a navigation way-point, he says: they're already there.

TEMPLEMAN: Absolutely, we already get aircraft over the Blue Mountains but not at 5,000 feet. So it's the height, I'd suggest people really closely look at what height the aircraft are going to fly over your particular area. And this tool gives you really good information about that, the height, the likely noise, whether it's above 70, decibels, which is considered to be noisy. So there's great information for people to draw their own conclusions - and I'm really keen from people in my community to let me know.

STANLEY: I thank you for your time. I'm sure this is going to keep going for a while but it is going to open in 2026 so we'll see that. I guess that's when th