Labor MP Ed Husic has supported the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) in its attempts to get a seat on the Forum on Western Sydney Airport (FOWSA).
Husic, the Member for Chifley in Sydney's west, raised the issue in the House of Representatives last week, strongly condemning the Federal Government for overlooking AOPA.
"The Turnbull government continues with its con job consultation around Badgerys Creek airport," Husic stated. "Here is the latest instalment of this fake consultation, with the added twist that it might actually kill off general aviation in the Sydney Basin.
"The protagonists are all of the aviation businesses running out of Bankstown and Camden airports whose future is threatened by the plans for an airport at Badgerys Creek. Our antagonists are the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and the Minister for Urban Infrastructure, who have locked out those stakeholders from important deliberations over the future of aviation in Sydney.
"Stunningly, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia was not given a seat on the Forum on Western Sydney Airport—or, as I like to call it, the Friends of Western Sydney Airport. It [FOWSA] is populated largely with cheerleaders and only a few people who will actually treat this process seriously, including my friend and colleague the member for Werriwa [Anne Stanley ].
" ... you cannot lock out an association like that; you only lock out an association with 3000 members if you do not want to hear what they have to say. Any new airport will greatly impact on the livelihoods of many general aviation businesses operating out of Bankstown and Camden.
"Of the three flight models provided in the EIS [Environmental Impact Statement] for Badgerys Creek airport, AOPA believes two of them would effectively end all instrument flights from Bankstown Airport—finished, over. That would almost certainly spell the end of pilot training out of Bankstown Airport, yet this association is not given a spot on FOWSA."
Husic went on to accuse the Turnbull government of fake consultation and the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Developlment of frustrating requests for information on flightpath plans.