It is such a pleasure to be here with you to talk about this new chapter in the story of Western Sydney - all of it driven by the airport that bears the name of a great Australian.
Nancy-Bird Walton was a woman of curiosity and extraordinary courage. What she saw in flight was the power to connect people and communities across this vast continent.
She looked to a bigger, bolder future - and she blazed her own trail right into it.
This is such a fitting way to honour her.
As the beating heart of an entire economic ecosystem in the fastest growing part of New South Wales, Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport represents so much of what A Future Made in Australia is about.
It is about ambition for our nation, and optimism for all that we can achieve when we work together.
It is about the confidence to take that vision of the future and build it into reality.
It is about creating jobs and creating opportunities, building the skills that let us stand more firmly on our own feet as a nation in an uncertain world and strengthening and connecting the communities that are the backbone of our country.
Thanks to our nation's long record of achievement - the result of generations of Australians working together - we can look ahead to the better future within our reach, confident we have what it takes to grasp it.
For the community here, and communities right across Australia, it is a future in which a forward-thinking and ambitious government has an important role.
Which is why we have so proudly played our part here.
We are a Government with a vision for the future - and a plan for how to build it.
I stand before you proudly as a long-term advocate for Western Sydney Airport. In my very first speech to Parliament in 1996, I described the prevarication over building this airport as "a sad example of decision making on a short-term accounting basis without due regard for the long-term economic and social impact on people."
As I have learned, patience is every bit as important as passion - but that doesn't mean waiting forever.
That is why the Australian Government has committed $5.3 billion to fully fund the development of Western Sydney International.
WSI is a transformational infrastructure project that will drive economic activity for decades to come.
It has injected over $500 million into the region through contracts awarded to Western Sydney businesses.
It is supporting domestic manufacturers. The terminal roof alone - completed last year - is bolstered by more than 40 kilometres of Australian-made steel purlins and more than 3500 tonnes of steelwork.
It will provide long-term employment opportunities closer to home for people in the Western Sydney region.
The construction of the airport has so far supported more than 11,000 direct jobs, unlocking opportunities for locals including apprentices and trainees.
Within five years of the airport opening next year, the airport will support almost 28,000 jobs.
Take a moment to consider that number.
Every one of those jobs will make a difference to an individual, to a family, to a community and the businesses within it.
And by creating job opportunities closer to home, it will spare many Western Sydneysiders long daily commutes, giving them back all those hours that can be so much better spent with their families.
Western Sydney International doesn't just befit Sydney's status as a global city, it enhances it.
It will meet Sydney's growing aviation needs with an initial capacity for up to 10 million annual passengers and a boost to cargo.
And it is a catalyst for the further urbanisation of Western Sydney, fulfilling the vision of Greater Sydney as a metropolis of three connected cities.
As part of this catalyst, the Western Sydney Aerotropolis will drive innovation and jobs growth in Western Sydney.
At the heart of it, Bradfield City Centre will house an Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility that will support manufacturing businesses in the region to thrive.
Manufacturing is central to my Governments agenda because it isn't just about making things - it's about making our economy more resilient and making our nation more self-reliant.
However, I see more. A region growing as fast as this demands nothing less than an ambition to match.
And in southwest Sydney - in suburbs like Bringelly, Oran Park, Leppington, Narellan and Macarthur where the population is growing rapidly - that ambition has to include ensuring people can access the new employment opportunities.
Just as I have long been an advocate for a major airport in Western Sydney, I am also a long-term supporter of extending the South West Rail Line past Bradfield.
That's why my Government put additional funding into the South West Sydney Rail Planning Business Case to include extending the line to the Macarthur region.
I am pleased to announce that a re-elected Albanese Government will build on this work, investing $1 billion to preserve land corridors to facilitate the building of future rail extensions from Bradfield to Leppington and Macarthur.
This is the next practical step in safeguarding the future and ensuring we are well-positioned to deliver the infrastructure communities across southwest Sydney need.
To connect people with the jobs of the future, and with each other.
And connectivity is at the centre of it all.
The other missing piece of the network is connecting St Marys and Tallawong, via Schofields and Marsden Park in the north.
This is the bridge between the northwest and the southwest - two of the largest, growing and unconnected parts of the city.
Completing the project would allow connections with local job opportunities in the Blacktown area and further afield to Norwest and Macquarie Park.
These connections are critical to Western Sydney's economic and employment growth, and work is now underway on a business case for the Tallawong to St Mary's link, which the New South Wales Government is funding.
This comes in addition to our joint commitment with the New South Wales Government to deliver $1 billion for Fifteenth Avenue to create a critical transit corridor from Liverpool to the new Western Sydney International Airport.
My Government is also investing in the new Sydney Metro that will connect to Western Sydney Airport, and in the new M12 Motorway to connect the airport to the motorway network.
Since the 2022 election, my Government has also invested in other transport infrastructure projects across Western Sydney including:
- The Mamre Road Stage 2 upgrade;
- The Elizabeth Drive upgrade; and
- The Townson Road and Burdekin Road upgrade.
We also have our ongoing investment in the Moorebank Intermodal Interstate Rail Terminal, which is saving 3000 truck journeys a day, especially on the M5.
And as we keep working to keep people moving, we are also making the investments to make it easier for them to put down roots.
Across Western Sydney, that includes carefully targeted support for projects including affordable housing.
Put it all together and what it represents is a reimagining of Sydney - a great city with its gaze no longer fixed on its harbour and Sydney CBD, but turning west to where the opportunities are there to be seized.
As much as we've achieved as a country, this is not the time to down tools and look back with admiration.
This is a crucial time to keep working, to keep looking ahead and building a future worthy of Australia.
We are working to deliver nationally significant infrastructure projects that increase productivity and resilience, improve liveability and enhance sustainability.
My Government is doing the serious work of shaping the future rather than let it shape us. Working with care, clarity and deliberation. Listening to experts.
And always ready to work productively in partnership with local councils, state governments, and with the private sector.
That is an instinct that has done so much to define our approach to government.
You can see it across Australia in so many ways.
Last month in Melbourne, I committed the Government to partner with Victoria to fund and build the much-needed rail link to Melbourne Airport.
We're keeping Rex airborne and keeping regional Australia connected with a loan to keep Rex's vital regional routes operating until the end of June.
We are working with the administrators and shortlisted bidders on what support the Government can give to maximise the prospect of a second sale.
And if that sale doesn't eventuate, we will - in consultation with relevant state governments - work on contingency options, which includes the possibility of Commonwealth acquisition.
We do all this because my Government believes regional and remote communities deserve reliable, affordable and accessible air travel.
That is why we have made historic investments in regional airports.
This is on top of investments in airports around the country through the Growing Regions and the Priority Community Infrastructure Program.
In December 2024, we announced that we are putting money towards upgrading Whyalla Airport to ensure the community remains connected.
We're also investing in the upgrade of the runway at Hobart Airport, and the international terminal facilities at Newcastle Airport.
Just as we're keeping things going in the air, we're keeping them going on the ground - and, indeed, under the ground.
We're finishing the NBN with fibre, not copper, delivering high speed access and keeping it in public hands.
We're Rewiring the Nation with the investments needed to upgrade and extend our transmission capacity and give Australia a grid fit for the 21st Century and our future as a renewable energy superpower.
We're boosting the ability of households to take control of their own energy with rooftop solar and household batteries.
We're investing in batteries, wind, and solar generation at grid scale - and we're doing it now and with co-investment from the private sector.
And with steel central to our self-reliance as a nation, we're supporting Australian steelmakers - not least in Whyalla where we're working in partnership with the South Australian Government.
At this stage, the US Government has not granted Australia - or any other nation - an exemption from their global tariffs on steel and aluminium.
As I said yesterday, we consider that decision entirely unjustified. We will keep working hard for a better outcome.
But our Government is prepared. We've been engaging directly with the Australian steel and aluminium industry, and we will continue to work through this with them.
We have great confidence in the quality of what Australia produces and we will continue to diversify markets for our products which are in demand across the globe.
Our Government will always stand up for Australian jobs and Australian industries. All Australians can join this effort and support our industries by taking the opportunity to buy Australian.
The world has thrown a lot of challenges at Australia over the past three years.
Because of the hard work Australians have done together, our economy is turning the corner.
Inflation is down.
Wages are up.
Interest rates are coming down.
And 1.1 million new jobs have been created.
Under our Government, Australia has maintained a faster rate of employment growth than any G7 nation.
And unlike other advanced economies, we've avoided any negative quarters of growth.
None of this is the happy accident of good luck.
It is powered by the choice we made to invest in Australia.
Responsible economic management is about looking after people while managing the books.
It's about boosting wages and job security and funding the services families count on.
And just as much as economic management is about taking care of the present, it is about meeting your responsibility to the future.
This is the instinct that guides us every day - and it's why we can now look to the future with growing optimism.
Australians have been through testing times - but we're beginning to see the rewards, and we are growing ever more confident about dealing with the challenges that remain.
This is not a time to cut or wreck or aim low.
It is a time to keep building.
Because building Australia's future is about all of us.
We must seize the opportunities that this decade holds.
We must actively plan for the future, anticipating it, shaping it piece by piece.
This is the momentum we have.
This the momentum we cannot risk.
It's a momentum that is so powerfully embodied by Western Sydney.
What we see in Western Sydney International - and all that it is already driving - is the very power of aspiration that drives Australia.
It is the ambition we must all have for Australia.
There is a better future that we are building together right now - and Western Sydney is showing the way.
