By Lenore Taylor
Over his dead body ... Joe Hockey opposes a call to end the hourly aircraft cap at Sydney Airport.Credit: Jim Rice
FEDERAL frontbenchers from both major parties have categorically rejected a call for an end to the hourly cap on aircraft movements at Sydney Airport.
The shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, said it would be repealed only over his ''dead body''.
The Sydney Business Chamber called for the repeal as a stop-gap measure, after the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, rejected the finding of a recent report, endorsed by his own senior bureaucrats, calling for urgent action on a second Sydney airport.
The federal Transport Minister, Anthony Albanese, said lifting the cap, which is enshrined in federal legislation, would absorb only one year's growth in airport traffic but lead to a much greater concentration of airport noise.
Mr Hockey said it would mean a return to disastrous 1990s aircraft noise levels.
''Abolishing the cap would be an absolute disaster … any repeal of the cap would have to be over my dead body because it would take us straight back to the noise levels of the 1990s,'' said Mr Hockey, whose North Sydney electorate would be one of several hit by the increased noise levels.
''Straight back to the notorious 'Bennelong Funnel' and the reaction of the community would be like pouring petrol on a fire.
''The truth is there are no more temporary solutions, there can be no more procrastination, there can be no more delays, we have to start work planning for a second airport now.''
But his frontbench colleague, the opposition transport spokesman, Warren Truss, insisted the situation was not urgent at all.
''Kingsford Smith airport will be suitable for the foreseeable future, it doesn't meet its capacity for 20 years or more … that report had a much higher degree of urgency about it than many of us expected … this is not something we need to deal with imminently,'' Mr Truss told the Herald.
Mr Hockey said the second Sydney airport ''cannot be built at Canberra, Canberra is a fog-bound airport 300 kilometres away''.
But Canberra, which the report found not to be a viable alternative, remains the only option countenanced by Mr O'Farrell.
According to the report, the only two viable options for the airport are Badgerys Creek or Wilton, south-west of Campbelltown.
Mr Albanese accused Mr O'Farrell of putting his head in the sand and of getting his proposed Canberra option ''out of a Coco Pops packet''.
Mr Albanese is considering pressing ahead with a scoping study of the Wilton site despite the opposition of the state government.
Mr O'Farrell accused Mr Albanese of pushing a second airport to overcome noise problems in his own electorate and insisted he would keep his election promise not to ''dump'' aircraft noise on the people of western Sydney.
But federal Coalition MPs also have deep concerns about aircraft noise, including Mr Hockey, Paul Fletcher, the member of the northern Sydney seat of Bradfield, and the member for Cook, Scott Morrison.
As revealed in the Herald, about a dozen federal Coalition MPs have met to discuss how to persuade Mr O'Farrell to change his mind on the issue.
Mr Truss was also sceptical about Mr O'Farrell's ''Canberra option''.
''No site as far away as Canberra is viable as Sydney's second airport … although Canberra and other airports can take more flights to relieve some pressure,'' he said.
Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU
Sign up for the Traveller newsletter
The latest travel news, tips and inspiration delivered to your inbox. Sign up now.