Western Sydney Airport

In coming weeks, people across the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury and Nepean will learn the final plan for Western Sydney airport flight paths. Along with many people in my community, I'm not looking forward to it. It will have a finality about it.

When Tony Abbott chose Badgerys Creek, in 2014, as the site for a 24/7 second Sydney airport and the direction of runway was decided, in 2016, there was a looming deadline for an end to the silence that descends on our community at night. After a decade of fighting off some of the worst of the proposals, such as the merge point that would have seen 100 per cent of incoming flights over Warrimoo, Blaxland, Mount Riverview and Glenbrook, I think we will still be disappointed in the outcome. While designers have listened to our feedback, the response is that aircraft noise is shared more widely, which impacts even more people. But the aircraft noise, especially at night, still won't be fairly shared across all of Sydney, east and west.

I want to thank everyone in my community who has engaged in the lengthy consultation process. Your voices were heard. I want to warn you though that our fight is not over and may take many, many more years. I'll continue this fight for greater protections for our sensitive World Heritage environment and for everyone who lives within that region, because we deserve the best possible outcome from these flight paths.