Once upon a time it seemed like every man and his dog were opposed to a Badgerys Creek international airport.
Well the times have changed and now it’s harder to find one of these opponents than a moon landing conspiracy theory believer.
Now and again airport critics come out of the woodwork, but sightings of these people are almost as rare as the Loch Ness monster. Or hen’s teeth, for that matter.
But when they do stick their head above the water, it is hard to make head or tail of what they are saying.
It happened over the weekend, in a rather strange story that appeared in a Sydney metropolitan newspaper.
I’m still trying to get my head around it but I think it was mostly about that bureaucratic organ, the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC), making an ambit claim for more public transport to and from the new airport – rail, in particular, I think.
But underneath WSROC claims that an independent review it commissioned of the airport Environment Impact Statement found lots of flaws, is a subtle hint that there may be a fight over making Badgerys Creek a 24 hour airport.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]But as I said earlier, I couldn’t swear on a stack of Bibles that was the agenda being wheeled out.[/social_quote]
The old saying, “it was as clear as mud’’ comes readily to mind.
The EIS review was commissioned by WSROC and the Macarthur Regional Organisation of Councils (MACROC) which includes Camden and Campbelltown.
WSROC and MACROC are entitled to have a view about the airport and any other major western suburbs issue.
But I don’t know if whingeing about an EIS comes under that jurisdiction.
If WSROC, and any other critic of the airport at Badgerys Creek for that matter, have some suggestions that will help the government produce a better result at Badgerys Creek, by all means pick up the phone and tell them. Or email them even or SMS them. There are no shortages in the ways we can communicate these days.
If not, get out of the way and let them get on with the biggest project ever undertaken in the western suburbs.
But back to the substantive issue of a 24 hour airport, and the truth is that anything other than that would hand us a mickey mouse Western Sydney airport.
In other words a joke.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]But we can’t have our cake and eat it too – a western suburbs game changer airport linked to billion dollar roads and railway tracks but with an 11pm curfew.[/social_quote]
The truth is it would be ridiculously easy to find holes in a project like this, environmental, social, economic, take your pick.
And then there’s the need for bureaucracies like WSROC and MACROC to find ways to stay relevant in the age of the internet. Not to mention ways to spend our ratepayers’ dollars – there, that’s how easy it is to be negative.
Are we going to accept the government view that the south west is of less value than the south.
Why do the south deseve a curfew and south west can live without.
I am all for the airport but I expect to be treated equal to my fellow citizens.