Wagga Wagga City Council will be writing to every candidate contesting for the Riverina seat in the upcoming federal election, including MP Michael McCormack, in a bid to secure the lease of the Wagga Wagga Airport. Photo: File.
Wagga Wagga City Council (WWCC) has announced it will write to every candidate contesting for the seat of Riverina in the upcoming federal election and ask for their support for the development of Wagga Airport.
WWCC is hoping that if elected, a Coalition government will honour its 2022 election commitment to fund a new Wagga Airport and ensure it is not privatised by granting a 50 + 49-year lease to Wagga Wagga City Council at a nominal rental.
General manager of WWCC, Peter Thompson, said the people of Wagga Wagga deserved to have an airport of a standard in line with the city’s size and had waited too long.
“We’ve progressed no further with getting a terminal at the standard that this community deserves,” Mr Thompson said.
“We’re asking him [Michael McCormack] to reaffirm the commitment that the coalition made last election cycle, should they be re-elected. We’ll be asking each and every candidate for the Riverina in the election to make a similar commitment.
“We’re also in positive discussions at the moment with the Defence about a lease of the facility.
“What’s clear to us, in order for the upgrades and renewal to be done, a minister of the government needs to sign off on that lease.”
Mr Thompson said Wagga was one of the most vibrant and biggest regional communities in the state and deserved to have an airport that accounted for that.
“If you go to the other regional cities, they do have an airport terminal that’s of an extraordinarily high standard,” Mr Thompson said.
“We don’t, because we haven’t been funded like the other regional cities have. That’s due to our tenure of the airport.
“The council has pleaded with the government, the coalition government, when it was in power, for many years, to help us deliver that airport. At the moment, we haven’t had that support, and we’re hoping, in the next term of the Commonwealth Government that we will get that support.
“We have two detailed business plans for airport terminals. One is a refurbishment and enlargement of the existing terminal in its existing location. The second plan is for a different terminal at a greenfield site, so a site that’s not currently occupied by a building.
“The second of those plans is more expensive than the first, and we’re under some pressure to deliver an enlarged airport.”
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