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Keith Murdoch National Airport Project
Why do thousands have to die first before the
airport gets moved outside residential Sydney
There are 2 ways Sydney residents will get the airport moved and safety from a plane crash:
1) 100,000 people die, mostly children - "Terrorists" finally reply to Howard's "Us vs. Them" provocation and bring a plane down over Sydney - i.e. the standard "re-active" after the catastrophe way; or
2) We get together and make it happen by getting attention in election '07 - click here
Howard, a politician safely tucked away in Canberra, privatized our Sydney Airport. It is now headed up by his former Chief of Staff, Max Moore-Wilton. In the backrooms Howard has assured the new owners there will be no second airport. He informs us that Mascot has enough capacity for 20 years and that with new technology we will have bigger planes [read as: bigger flying bombs] - in fact Airbus A380 superjumbo double-deckers is now upon us - even less need for capacity... Just great John.
Ah yes... the amazing A380 Airbus - enough fuel to fly non-stop Sydney - London coming soon - spacious bar, gym, concert hall on board - isn't that wonderful ...for the rich, if they're not on the wrong flight - and what will one crash of an A380 do to the economy when no-one wants the A380 over their house and children anymore...)
How could that trick (another 99 years of these things flying overhead) by Howard, be twisted around as being obviously in the interest of the people of Sydney, NSW. How did our airport come to be still under Canberra-Federal jurisdiction in the first place. (In an astonishing contradiction they are relieved to tell us Melbourne's Airport is under State jurisdiction.) And what was then NSW Premier Bobbie Carr doing while all this was going on?
Every time a jumbo flies about 50m overhead think about how Keith Murdoch National Airport is about the only chance we and our children have.
It's just ridiculous that Sydney's 4 million plus residents still have huge planes flying over them with people like Howard and Bush in power.
If you haven't experienced just how low they fly, take a train from Town Hall to Sydenham station (10 mins south) get off the train and just take a seat on the platform - you can see them drinking champagne in first class.
Stop a minute and ask yourself the big question here - and actually say the answer out loud so someone can hear you - which is better?
a) madness - the constant risk of jumbos flying over Sydney
b) commonsense - move the airport - constant patrolling of Sydney's airspace perimeter by radar and jet fighters
What's the worse thing that could happen if we maintain a)
- one or more devastating crashes - thousands of lives and families destroyed.
What's the worse thing that could happen if we move the airport b)
- it will be a big problem for John Howard, he has to upset his buddies Max and cohorts;
- it will cost billions (though the selling off of Mascot land might bring in a pretty penny, and construction of KMNA will be a major public works program generating thousands of jobs);
- the effect on tourism re travelling an extra 50 minutes to the CBD - (but inconvenience could be offset by hotels and themes parks around the new airport).
The reality is that there is no valid argument against us - we must have a new airport located safely away from densely populated Sydney metropolitan areas, with a high speed rail and freeway connection to the CBD.
Other countries have done it e.g. both major cities in Japan, Osaka and Tokyo.
Money was not an obstacle for them, and should not be for us when it comes to our security.
We could always do it ourselves
We float a public company. Sydney residents become the major shareholders of a company that will build the airport we need. Then we boycott the old dangerous one at Mascot - refusing to use it.
The Ultimate Webcam
And to give politicians in Canberra an idea of what it's like to have these things flying overhead, sometimes starting at 6:00am in the morning, and still going at 11:00pm at night - we could set up webcams in strategic locations around Parliament House (something like the Aboriginal Embassy a few years back). These webcams would be synchronized to the schedule of planes flying over Sydenham, and the sound system would be just like being there. (If anyone knows anything about setting up this kind of webcam system, let us know. In the process you could make yourself famous.)
It's time to think outside the box, and try something different, otherwise Sydney families face inevitable catastrophe.
This has gotten way to hairy, we shouldn't have to live like this for another 20 plus years. Standing together we can become a force by the time the next election comes around, and force John Howard to take notice.
Keith Murdoch - who is he?
Though the name sounds familiar, he is not known by most Australians, and is ridiculed by others as an impostor. Mainly because they are jealous that his family built on his achievements.
It is time to give tangible recognition to the man who really did 'get our boys out of Gallipoli' - see documentary proof here. (And as a consequence allowed the Billjim to reunite with their horses in Egypt and achieve something themselves that is so epochal that it still reverberates in world affairs.)
By tangible we mean, "Keith Murdoch National Airport". (Just like the Americans did with Ronald Reagan National Airport to honour him.)
In naming a major landmark after Sir Keith Murdoch we as a thankful nation are giving recognition to the whole Murdoch family. In particular, look at the contribution of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch - all her philanthropic work, which continues tirelessly at age 96 - what an example she sets. And for all the knockers of Rupert, he is an Australian (at core) who mixes it with the best of them on the world stage - a true worldbeater.
You may strongly disagree with the politics of the Murdochs. But their positive deeds hold water. If you care about the importance of giving long overdue recognition to great Australians and a safer Sydney - become a founding member of Keith Murdoch National Airport Project (KMNAP).
Legacy
A word on legacy. By legacy we mean what the biographers and historians in the future make of all this. And they will look at it. Because of the high importance of the subject matter, and they will stumble on to it via the rest of Peter Hogan's oeuvre, part of which rides the coattails of time itself.
They will look at all the correspondence (see below) with the Murdoch family and politicians. They will conclude that Dame Elisabeth, Rupert, Lachlan and James, on the Murdoch family side, and John Howard, Steve Bracks and Bob Carr on the government, side were fully aware of the Keith Murdoch National Airport proposal - scapegoating subordinate staff won't wash.
They will further conclude that in the end Keith Murdoch was snubbed by all of them. They will in turn offer up suggestions as to why this was the case. In particular, prima facie at least, it is puzzling why the younger generation of Murdochs, who have benefited so much from the media empire he founded, don't do anything tangible about the discrediting of their family patriarch.
For instance, just look at the bashing he is taking from people like Patrick Carlyon with a successful book directed at children.
If Keith Murdoch is to ever get his rightful tangible recognition it will be thanks to the little people. And that Sydney needed to relocate the airport anyway.
And looking back on what Keith Murdoch was like, one thing is clear - he cared about Australians and their security - and personal recognition aside, he would gladly have lent his name to a cause if it would help achieve this objective.
Links
* How Keith Murdoch got our boys out of Gallipoli
Here's some of our correspondence so far:
* Dame Elisabeth Murdoch
* Prime Minister John Howard - snubs the Murdochs. Very cocky considering Rupert controls 70% of Australia's press.
MELBOURNE SNUBS FAVOURITE SON
Initially the strategy was to try to get Keith Murdoch tangible recognition in his home city of Melbourne. Then when Melboune snubbed its favourite son, it was a natural progression to go Federal and to Sydney and the need to move the airport, which would in effect be a truly National Airport.
* Keith Murdoch is being snubbed by the Victorian government - Premier Steve Bracks and Melbourne Lord Mayor John So. But get this for an amazing coincidence - within weeks of my confirming the snub of her husband to Dame Elisabeth Murdoch at Cruden Farm, and at the age of 96, after decades, more than half a century of philanthropic work in Melbourne, she is suddenly awarded "Victorian of the Year". And you will have noticed the shared empathy with the Billjim / Australian Light Horse - 'they' even dug up someone connected to the Light Horse, a Sgt Gary Chandler, and awarded him Local Achiever of the Year. Of course it has nothing to with the efforts of your fellow pleb, Peter Hogan (who, though grew up in Sydney, was born in Geelong!) to get proper recognition for the Murdoch family for their contribution to Australian society.
* and even by the newspaper Keith Murdoch built - here's an email from Peter Blunden, editor of the Herald Sun. Blunden dodges this issue. His excuse is that Melbourne's No 1 paper can't give its defacto founder support because it might be seen as bias.
What's the big deal, you just say at the top of the article "of course we are owned by Rupert Murdoch, but the historical facts are there - Keith Murdoch has the same rights to the Herald Sun's tangible support as every other Australian who performs such epochal deeds".
The readers are not stupid they know there are lots of stories that are in line with the Murdoch ideology, they still get printed - it's whether or not the reader thinks there is merit.
So there's the rub. A non-Murdoch newspaper won't support this great Australian because they hate the Murdochs. A Murdoch newspaper won't support a great Australian (who made their pay packets possible) because it might upset the people who hate the Murdochs.
End result - this is one of those rare stories which cannot be reported in any newspaper!
As much as we might be critical of the replies above, we have to admit that they leave for dead the group of fence-sitters below who didn't even have the guts to respond, at least not for several months, and then probably only because they saw this webpage:
- Opposition Leader Kim Beazley;
- Then NSW Premier Bob Carr, who later came back from a trip to London in the aftermath of the bombings of their subway system, and promptly resigned - he wanted to go out on top, he didn't want to be premier and have his career ruined because Sydney lacked preparedness and emergency systems to handle the catastrophe...;
- some local (we live near Mascot Airport) members of Parliament who are doing nothing about the planes / bombs fying overhead - Robert McClelland (Federal Member for Barton, and get this, he was "Shadow Minister for Homeland Security"!) and Cherie Burton (State Member for Kogarah and Bob Carr's parliamentary secretary);
- and Victoria Opposition Leader Robert Doyle.
All snubbed Keith Murdoch.
The bottomline - this is a very very serious issue
Sydney now has a huge population, thousands of families, thousands of little toddlers who rely on their parents to do whatever is necessary to keep them safe.
We know planes can crash, just with mechanical malfunction.
We know terrorists can cause a plane crash.
We know the world is getting more dangerous, not safer, because of 'us versus them' politics and big business, as in oil (they invade Iraq but not Nth Korea).
Sydney commuters travel around knowing there are no longer garbage bins on train stations because a bombing is expected.
It's just total madness to still have Sydney's airport in the middle of the metropolitan area. Why do we have to take the chance, day in day out, year in and year out, for decades more, hoping a crash won't happen. (Just so Kerry Packer, after a long first class flight back to Australia from New York or London, doesn't have an extra 50 minutes travel time from the new airport to the mansion.)
We don't want to see our precious little loved one laying dead at the crash site... laying there, so young, pride and joy, such dreams for the future, all gone forever, how many of the family are missing, doesn't matter, those that survived will not survive this, the whole family is finished... needless tragedy, why were families exposed like this...
...and then Prime Minister Gung Ho (but not his children) Winston Howard gets on the TV and in his best emotional voice expresses his deep sadness at the loss. Of course it has nothing to do with his policies, and...
And oh, noowww its suddenly become possible to move the airport, anything to still win re-election...
Let's not be too busy with our busy little lives any longer.
Let's just move the bloody airport, NOW!
When some of us get the politicians to finally take the Keith Murdoch National Airport project seriously, will your kid proudly know that you actually helped make it happen, or will you be feeling guilty that you just read this and clicked on the next site, didn't care enough about your kid.
If you read this far, like it or not, the KMNAP meme is impregnated in your brain, so now it's bad karma if you do nothing.
Tara & Peter Hogan
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