JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, the airport suggestion this morning from the New South Wales Government out at the Southern Highlands, is that pie in the sky or are we...
PRIME MINISTER:
Sydney, on all our advice, all of our advice says that Sydney does not need a second airport in the foreseeable future. Mr Latham must today tell the people of Sutton Forest and surrounding areas - is he or is he not proposing, if elected, to build an airport there? Obviously the New South Wales Government wouldn't have spent all this time sussing out the site and passing the information on to the Federal Opposition unless they were seriously contemplating it. Well, Mr Latham is always talking about candour in public life. Let's have a bit of airport candour.
JOURNALIST:
Was that site ever canvassed by the Coalition?
PRIME MINISTER:
Not to my knowledge, no.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) 100 kms out of Sydney...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we don't need another site in the foreseeable future, and the only reason why the Labor Party is shopping around for another site and is apparently, if this report is to be believed, lighted on this one is that there is pressure within its own party over the longer term to do something about Kingsford Smith. I mean that's ridiculous. We have a very good airport. There has been a lot of sharing around in relation to the noise burden, and all the information we have says that you don't need a second airport in the foreseeable future. So it can only be that there are still people in the Labor Party who are trying in the long run to phase out Kingsford Smith, which is ridiculous.
JOURNALIST:
Isn't there an issue of safety at finding a major airport (inaudible) opportunity to move it out?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's a very safe airport because apart from anything else, it's very close to the sea. And in those terms, it's one of the safest major airports in the world. Thank you.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, do you think Senator Hill lied to parliament about (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
[ends]