For a so called truce between both sides of politics over a second Sydney Airport, a fierce disagreement between the chair of Sydney Airport, Max Moore-Wilton and the Deputy PM and many other things, Anthony Albanese is getting fiercer.

This is what Albanese said a short while ago, and in some detail.

Today there is a Daily Telegraph front page story with the headline, ‘Minister accused of helping MPs break curfew.’

This is a story about something that didn’t happen, planes that didn’t exist and unnamed politicians that are a figment of Max Moore-Wilton’s imagination.

In this rather hysterical attack yesterday by Max Moore-Wilton, he seems to believe that he has a right to direct policy when it comes to Sydney Airport’s monopoly interests, rather than the Government acting in the national interest.

He clearly wants a government that will answer to him as did people in the former Howard Government, of which he was of course Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Yesterday Mr Moore-Wilton asserted that ten flights were given permission to land or leave Sydney Airport after 11PM. Now Mr Moore-Wilton in this same speech had an assertion that I acted against, or act against the interests of Sydney Airport.

This allegation that I had intervened to allow flights outside of the normal flying period didn’t suit his narrative. He had to come up with a motive, so he came up with this extraordinary assertion that on these ten flights, how many politicians were on these flights as a motive for why these alleged flights outside of normal flying hours were permitted.

This allegation has occurred in this campaign a few times. You get out there, you make an allegation, it’s reported in the paper and then it’s repeated as if it is fact.

The fact is, the fact is that there were no flights after 11PM on the Tuesday evening in question. Not only that, there were no, obviously, politicians on these non-flights that did not exist after 11PM. Not only that another fact for Mr Moore-Wilton, he has suggested somehow that I personally decide what occurs. The way that the curfew and dispensations work – which Mr Moore-Wilton as the operator of Sydney Airport knows full well – is that the delegate is Mike Mrdak the Secretary of my department. Mr Mrdak has a number of senior people who then make the decision who he has delegated. So it is at two steps away from myself being the decision maker.

Mr Moore-Wilton knows that and he has gone out there and made these assertions.

The dispensations for the curfew of course should occur at times when there is common sense. So for example, on the 28th of February when there were severe weather conditions here in Sydney, there was also a potential dispensation granted to airlines to fly in or out of Sydney Airport between the hours of 11 and 11:30. Similarly to Tuesday night none of these were actually taken up.

There is a second area in which Mr Moore-Wilton’s comments have been reported in the Daily Telegraph today as well; Mr Moore-Wilton has also asserted that I had advised Qatar Airways not to fly to Sydney.

The fact that was provided in writing to the Daily Telegraph yesterday – which they chose to exclude from their story for reasons that are beyond my explanation but perhaps they could explain, that Qatar are indeed entitled to fly to Sydney seven times a week right now and they have chosen not to use Sydney but use Melbourne and Perth.

They are the facts of the matter. Qatar are allowed under the air services agreement between Australia and Qatar to fly 14 times a week – two essentially daily flights – to any of the gateway airports. That’s the way the system works. Max Moore-Wilton knows that level of detail.

Qatar have chosen to fly to Melbourne and to Perth rather than Sydney and they gave their explanation – and the reporter who wrote the story today knows this because he reported it as an exclusive some months ago. Qatar Airways’ comments first notification to me of their view that they didn’t want to fly into Sydney because of the curfew was actually reported in the Daily Telegraph.

Now the way that the airline system works is that you have agreements for the four gateway airports – Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth – but there are unlimited flights to other airports in order to encourage the growth in those other airports.

The third statement that Max Moore-Wilton has made in today’s paper, which is not commented on but I think does deserve some comment, is of his view for the first time that general aviation should be pushed out of Sydney Airport. This is an extraordinary position and the general aviation industry should understand that this is his position and wonder what the alternative government’s position is with regard to general aviation.

We know that Mr Moore-Wilton wants regional airlines to not continue to have access to Sydney Airport. I’ve made sure that that has occurred.

Mr Moore-Wilton has made a number of statements about the so-called constraints at Sydney Airport, so let’s examine them because there is three of them.

Firstly regarding the curfew, the curfew at Sydney Airport arose from a private members’ bill moved by the then Member for Bennelong John Howard. That is how it began at this airport. The cap at Sydney Airport was legislated by the Howard Government. Mr Moore-Wilton should know this. And regional airlines’ access to Sydney is also a bipartisan view, and I recently extended guaranteeing that access.

The curfew, the cap and regional access to Sydney Airport are all bipartisan positions. If that is not the case, then Mr Abbott needs to make clear that he has walked away from those commitments and Mr Truss, as the Leader of the National Party, needs to make that clear as well.

All of these constraints of course were built in to the sale price for Sydney Airport. Max Moore-Wilton should know that because Max Moore-Wilton in the Howard Government was of course the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

He now is of course the head of Sydney Airport, he is also on the Infrastructure New South Wales board, and he made some comments yesterday about representations in terms of New South Wales infrastructure that I’ll leave people to consider for themselves.

But he also said in terms of funding at Sydney Airport in this article, he criticised me for not putting one dollar into Sydney Airport. Sydney Airport is a private corporation. It runs at a profit. It renumerates its board very well indeed, as well as its CEO and other officials.

It is a privately leased airport, was privatised during the period of the Howard Government.