Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: Well thank you very much Paul and it's wonderful to be here on this very important day.
Can I also acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Darug people and their elders past, present and emerging. And thank you Melissa for your welcome to country here today. And thank you to the young Indigenous singers, singing in the voice and the language of the Eora people.
Down where I'm from down in the Shire [inaudible]. And for as long as I can remember our kids have been singing the national anthem in Dharawal and my children learned to do that at the local public school where they went and it's wonderful to hear the national anthem in Indigenous language. So it's been a tremendous I think, way I think to mark that respect for Indigenous people here today. Thank you very much for that opportunity.
We were singing “in history's page let every stage Advance Australia Fair”. Well that's what we're doing today. And I'm joined here for that very important occasion by the Deputy Prime Minister of course Michael McCormack, to my ministerial colleagues Mathias Cormann and of course Alan Tudge the Minister for congestion busting and many other things, and Stuart Ayres it's always great to be with you here. The New South Wales Government is a tremendous partnership but it's more important to be here with Stuart and Melissa McIntosh and Angus Taylor as Members for Western Sydney.
Every time I come out to this project which has been over a long period of time now it goes back to advocacy back in my tourism days. This project has been so important for Australia's future, for Sydney's future but most importantly Western Sydney's future. And to be here a year ago as we turn the first sod and to be here, not that long ago, earlier this year to name the airport the Nancy Bird-Walton, the Western Sydney Nancy-Bird Walton airport, earlier this year with the Premier, and to be here again today for the opening of this centre and the new works that are going ahead.
This has been a project of great passion for our government first under Tony Abbott and then I acknowledge here that Lucy Turnbull is here today and she's done tremendous work in Sydney more broadly but of course Malcolm was a keen advocate of this project and did a lot to make sure this project is happening here today and I've been pleased to be part of all of that work over the years. What we're talking about here is jobs, jobs and more jobs not just the jobs of the 11,000 that are here on what people are working on at the airport and this next massive phase of moving 25 million cubic meters of Earth. But the jobs that are being brought about by the aero-tropolis itself, this will be the gravity point for Sydney, into the future and the young kids, who raise the flag here today, they’re raising the flag on a [inaudible] here in Western Sydney. For cities to grow and cities to realise their potential.
It's these types of projects that are launching them in to a whole new sphere. And that's why this project has always been so exciting. That's why we have always understood as a government that we had to take the initiative to finally getting this happening. It had been talked about going back to the 60s. And for it to be realised now and through the great work that Paul O'Sullivan and his team have been doing at WSA to ensure we've been able to stay on track and let the contracts and to ensure that the works are proceeding to ensure that all could take place required a determination and a decision making that we have been steadfastly putting in place now for many years. And so the works we can see happening now. This isn't something that's about to happen. This is something that is already happening, and today it's about opening the experience centre which will enable people from all over the world who when they come out here to Western Sydney to see what's happening here. But most importantly for our school kids young children who can come out here and see what's happening in their city in their part of the city and to catch the excitement about what's happening.
I remember when I was younger, when projects were taking place you'd always want to see what was going on. When a little older, when the Sydney Olympics came to this wonderful city and the excitement that spread across the city and here we are seeing something at a whole new dimension happening here in Western Sydney. And this experience will enable a whole generation of young Australians of young people from western Sydney to see their future unveiling before their very eyes. It invites the community to come and watch the progress in real time. It invites people to press their faces to the glass and watch as the future unfolds there under this wide blue sky and it invites them to see that it is their future. They'll see a dozen years hence an airport twice the size of Kingsford Smith, plane journeys that crisscross the globe a bustling aero-tropolis hosting 10 million passengers every year and above all they'll see a landmark that brings jobs investment and dollars and lasting benefits to their city and connects them to the rest of the world. And that's the vision that inspires and propels this project, and has from day one.
So I want to thank everyone who's been involved. I want to thank all of those who will be involved. And we just look forward to what this project continues to offer not just all of us here in Western Sydney today or across this wonderful city of Sydney but right across the country. This is a project of great national significance. This is going to be a boon for the Australian economy not just the Western Sydney economy or the Sydney economy or the New South Wales economy. It is for the entire nation.
We're a government that is building things, will continue to build things because that's how you build the future of this great country so it gives me great pleasure to now officially open the Western Sydney International Nancy-Bird Walton airport experience centre and to thank all of those who have played such a huge role in ensuring that it's been such a great success. Thank you very much for your attention.