Second Sydney airport site to be identified within months, Deputy PM Warren Truss says

Updated

A decision on the location of Sydney's second airport will be made within months, with the Federal Government giving the strongest indication yet that Badgery's Creek is the preferred option.

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said this morning that the planning process is well advanced.

"We committed during the election campaign to identify a site for Sydney's second airport in our first term and it's likely to be early in our first term," he told the ABC.

"We'll identify a preferred site either late this year or early next year.

"On the basis of the Sydney master plan that's being developed and the other information that's been put together through a series of government inquiries and examinations now that have been going on for more than a decade, I'd expect a decision within months."

Mr Truss says the final master plan from Sydney Airport Corporation is due in December, and it will guide the construction timeline for a second airport.

Badgery's Creek 'remains a strong contender'

Mr Truss flatly rejected reports that he favours the Richmond Air Force base, north-west of Sydney, as the new site.

"It's simply too small to be a credible second airport, it couldn't cater for larger aircraft," he said.

Mr Truss says the base has been considered previously and each time has been rejected as an option.

He has given a strong indication that he prefers the site at Badgery's Creek, in Sydney's west.

"Badgery's Creek was chosen as the best site decades ago, it's Government-owned and it remains a strong contender," he said.

Both sides of politics agree that time is running out to build a second airport in Sydney, but the location is likely to remain a sticking point.

The site at Badgery's Creek was purchased by the Hawke government in the 1980s but its proximity to western Sydney, and a swag of marginal electorates, have worked against it.

Topics: air-transport, industry, government-and-politics, federal-government, sydney-2000

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