Opposition Leader John Howard could not resist capitalising on the anger of Sydney residents over aircraft noise. But any gains he has made in Sydney with a specific promise on the runway will have to be weighed against losses elsewhere caused by the Government painting it as blatant cynicism and inconsistency. Mr Howard says that the east-west runway should be reopened to share the noise around and that, until it is, he will block the Government’s plan to privatise Sydney Airport.
The Government seized on the comments. It is one of very few Opposition policies that the Government has been able to get its hands on. It dragged out comments by Mr Howard from previous years urging the construction of the third runway because the east-west runway was unsafe. It pointed to the inconsistency in Mr Howard … a noted proponent of privatisation … being willing to forsake privatisation for the sake of some votes in Sydney. In Mr Howard’s defence, it is one thing to say it is unsafe to have a two-runway airport where one runway is essentially cross-wind and large jets use both and quite another to assert that it is unsafe to open a third cross-wind runway for smaller aircraft in an essentially two-parallel-runway airport. Further, the coalition not said privatisation at any cost. It has usually put its privatisation push in a public-interest context … something Mr Howard is attempting here.
The political fall-out has been that the Government and Prime Minister Paul Keating have been buoyed by having an attacking point. Mr Keating is far better on attack than defence. He is far better attacking individual Opposition policies and the individuals who put them up than in selling his own. In short, though he professes to paint big pictures, Mr Keating is a better tactician than strategist. When Mr Keating does well in a street-fight over some short-term or issue it inspires the rest of his team to perform better.
Further, Mr Howard, while being applauded by the sectional interest over the flight path, will loss some credibility in the eyes of some others outside Sydney. He will be seen as just another politician out for some votes wherever he can get them. Mr Howard’s mistake is the worse for the fact that he need not have weighed into the airport issue at all. There was enough latent anger against the Federal Government, in particular Transport Minister Laurie Brereton, to hand votes to the Coalition without any words from Mr Howard.
Even though Mr Howard may have handed Mr Keating some opportunities on the issue, it has to be put into perspective. The Federal election will not be decided on the airport issue alone; nor will it be decided on Sydney seats alone. But the airport fracas does give one clear pointer about what the election will be fought over … the personal performance of the two leaders. Mr Keating will endeavour to portray Mr Howard as not suitable to be Prime Minister, using his record as Treasurer under the Fraser Government … a record of no moment to more than half the electorate who had not reached voting age at the time. Mr Howard will portray Mr Keating as the author of an economic decline in Australia that has led to greater inequality and a harder time for Australian families.
As the election gets closer … and realistically it can only be around March next year … we can expect the invective to get louder.