CATHERINE KING (MINISTER): All right, everyone. Good to go. Terrific. Well, welcome everybody to Western Sydney International Airport, and what a morning. I think it also surprised me just how exciting that actually was to have the first 737 jet landing here at Western Sydney International Airport. Can I thank RFS New South Wales for the plane and for the activities that are about to happen here at the airport. This is here today, the first multi-agency scenario that is going to be run to really stress test the airport's emergency response. I really want to thank, we've got Airservices here. We've got RFS New South Wales. We've got over 300 volunteer and emergency services personnel, Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force. I think we've got the ambulance service as well. And of course, I want to thank Minister Jihad Dib, who's here with us today, for working so collaboratively with the airport to plan this activity. We're getting closer and closer and closer to the opening of the airport at the end of 2026 for passenger services. And in order for the airport to be certified, we've got to make sure everything is ready to go, and that is really what today is all about, providing that opportunity to stress test our emergency response with an emergency scenario that will make its plan its way throughout the course of the day. But also, as we saw last week, the flight paths being tested, the baggage services being tested, and this has been such an important project for the community out here. We've already had over 12,000 people working on the construction. We know that jobs are already starting here at the airport, but this is just really a terrific day. And I do as I say, want to thank RFS New South Wales and the pilot, whose family I understand is also here. What a great day to be able to be the first pilot to land a 737 on this new runway, so congratulations to them. I'm going to hand over to Simon Hickey, the CEO of Western Sydney International Airport, Jihad Dib, the Emergency Services Minister here in New South Wales, is going to say a little bit. Peter Curran, the Deputy CEO of Airservices Australia is also here with us, as is the New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner, Brett McFadden, and we'll all have a bit to say, and then we'll take some questions. Thanks everybody.

SIMON HICKEY (CEO WSI): Thank you, Minister. It's great to have everybody here for this exercise today, and it's terrific to see the 737, the largest aircraft that's landed here at Western Sydney International Airport. The countdown to opening is well and truly on, and this really demonstrates that this airport is getting closer and closer to opening. It's a terrific day for us. Today is also about multi agencies working together in a simulated exercise to make sure that we flex that muscle and know how to operate Emergency Operations here at the airport, it's really important that we understand how Western Sydney International Airport is actually going to function and how we're going to function together when there's a situation that calls on that. We have over 300 people that have been working here today on an emergency exercise, over 50 emergency vehicles, we've got our first firefighting equipment that is here ready to go in the exercise, and we've got volunteers from the community, so everyone working together to really pull the airport together and understand how we work in an emergency situation. I might hand over now to Minister Dib, the emergency services minister in New South Wales.

JIHAD DIB (NSW EMERGENCY SERVICES MINISTER) : Well, thanks. Thanks so much, Simon and good morning everyone. It's really wonderful to be here. And like you, I'm incredibly excited, probably a little bit more excited than I thought that I would be. Also want to acknowledge RFS Commissioner Trent Curtin, who's here. What an exciting moment. And thank you so much to Minister King. This is what happens when everyone works together in such a collaborative way, we get an unbelievable experience. And today is a really important occasion, and I too, want to echo the sentiments of Minister King about the excitement of being the pilot who lands the first large plane on this tarmac, and to tell you something about the plane that's just landed our large air tanker, was actually in use yesterday in Tenterfield, up in northern New South Wales, assisting with fires there, the crew then brought it back to Sydney, cleaned it up, and today they were able to land here. And I think that's just a really exceptional example of their dedication. And today is a lot more than just symbolism. Today is about making sure that we can get all of our emergency services working together, that sense of interoperability, we want to plan for a worst case scenario, and hopefully it never eventuates. We want to make sure that all of our systems are working, that all of our systems are integrated and all of our emergency services are working together. Western Sydney Airport is an exciting opportunity for all of New South Wales, and especially for Western Sydney. And today, whilst we see that the first plane has actually landed, it's really about Southwestern Sydney taking off, and that's a really important element for our local community. So, you know, as we count down and I saw the sign on the way in, 51 weeks until the take off, and next week, it'll be 50 weeks, and eventually we're going to get there. But today is just an exceptional day, and I thank every single person who was involved in it. I thank all of our emergency services for coming together and for spending some time together and making sure that they check the systems do all the practice, but more importantly, for making sure that we've got an incredibly safe environment, and I wish everyone all the very best. I'm going to hand over to Peter Curran now.

PETER CURRAN (AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA): Thank you Minister and thank you Minister King. It's a real pleasure to be here today for this important milestone in the operationalisation of Western Sydney International Airport. Airservices Australia is making a really significant contribution in our staff technology and infrastructure at Western Sydney International Airport to make sure that we've got the right emergency services capabilities here when Western Sydney goes live next year. Our aviation rescue firefighting capability will ensure that we can respond to any incident anywhere in the airfield within three minutes from notification, and a big part of that is our new Striker Volterra firefighting vehicle. It's the first of its kind in Australia, a hybrid electric diesel capability that has particular technologies on board, including a high reach extendable turret and the ability to pierce the hull of airframes to be able to put out fires more rapidly and keep passengers safe as well as keeping our crews safe. Thank you. I'll hand over to Brett McFadden.

BRETT MCFADDEN (NSW POLICE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER): Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for your attention. The New South Wales Police are excited to be here. We have the responsibility under the State Emergency Plan in relation to aviation incidents, and it's really important that this exercise that takes place today gives us a real assessment of where our planning and preparation is up to. I'm very confident that those planning and preparation steps are well advanced, and this exercise should really bring it to the fore and sort of really evaluate how we're going. It may take a few minor tweaks along the way, as we learn from the experience, what we're doing is we're preparing and planning for something that we hope actually never takes place. It's exciting to be here. There's over 300 participants here, but it's the multiagency, the control and coordination of the energy and capability experience from all agencies to support Western Sydney International Airport in dealing with any emergency that, again, we hope that never takes place. I'll take any questions at this stage, if you have any.

JOURNALIST: What can we know about the exercise that's taking place today? What emergency service workers will be involved?

BRETT MCFADDEN: All I can tell you at this stage is that there's going to be an aircraft in distress, and then we're going to have to respond to that. It's part of the exercise is keeping the information, the specifics of the size and the scale of the issue, to be kept away from those responding, so that they're responding as in real circumstances, and allowing their decision making capabilities to be really evaluated. 

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]

BRETT MCFADDEN: Again, I don't want to be giving it away. There's a large crowd here, but let's just say there's an aircraft under distress, and there's a whole range of things that could take place. And again, it's really important for an exercise to be effective, to really put people in an unplanned environment so they can really assess their own decision making capability. But moreover, from the control and coordination aspect, how do we bring really experienced people together from both state and federal agencies together to actually bring the best out of each other and work to for the resolution of that emergency,

JOURNALIST: But what will be the actual full time agency capability around here? How many staff? How many people actually watching and preparing and being ready for an emergency that happens?

BRETT MCFADDEN: I said, as the airport unfolds, from a New South Wales Police perspective, the Liverpool City Police area command will have the lead responsibility for policing services, I can't speak on their behalf. For the other agencies, but we can, we can address that with that with other agencies, but I'm very comfortable that our response times will be able to deal with any situation that arises.

JOURNALIST: While agencies here, AFP are on site, obviously, but they play no role in…?

BRETT MCFADDEN: So the AFP, for the initial, AFP and Airservices are on site. So in terms of the policing response or the other agencies. It's our coordination response will be coming here in a timely manner. So it all depends on the scale of the emergency and where the resources are at any particular point in time. 

MINISTER DIB: Can I just add just, just in terms of fire, for example? So on site will be Airservices Australia, which Peter has spoken about, that actually be on site. And we've also, state government committed, and you would have seen, as you're driving in Badgerys Creek airport is literally, like, you know, a kilometre or two away. There's also all of the other agencies. We've also got RFS in and around this area. So together, we will all work to ensure that whatever the situation is, there's a quick response, but in terms of specifically on the ground, in the building, so to speak, Airservices, Australia and literally down a road, Fire Rescue, New South Wales, further up the road is also RFS, so all of that support and in case of an emergency, we hope it never happens. It's the police that coordinate all of that. 

JOURNALIST: How long will the drills take today and how many [indistinct]

MINISTER DIB: You’re trying to ask me the same question of Brett but another way around!

BRETT MCFADDEN: So there's an exercise that takes place today, which looks at our first response capability and how we interface with each other. And then tomorrow we have a second phase of that looking at the next steps in that that emergency. So there's a lot of effort going over the next two days, but today's the primary purpose looking at that initial response. 

JOURNALIST: Today the plane’s empty, but in a year's time, of course, the first passenger planes start to come in, ambitions of 10 million passengers a year through here, talk us through the excitement levels there, and just how ready this airport is going to be for that next major phase.

MINISTER KING: Well, how amazing. We've already got four airlines from Qantas, Jetstar, Singapore, Air New Zealand, who've already said that they will be here for passenger services at the end of 2026 of course, freight with a non-curfewed airport, freight, you can see the cargo precinct taking shape behind us there as well. That will be a significant part of this airport as well. But this is a huge catchment area. You know, so many people live in Western Sydney, and they want to see the world, and they want to see the rest of Australia, and the rest of Australia and the rest of the world wants to see Western Sydney. It's a huge economic hive of activity here. And the airport has, over 5 million people who potentially want to use this airport, and so really, it's a great opportunity. A shout out, I know Simon and Paul O'Sullivan have been talking more to further international and domestic airlines. We're keen to get more here, but it is going to be a huge opportunity for people, not only to be able to fly in and out of here, but also to work here. The jobs that are in airports are huge. They're from management, they're from logistics, they're from catering, in hospitality. The business precinct also, which is taking shape, this will be a really significant economic driver for Western Sydney, and that alongside the investments we've made in the Moorebank intermodal terminal, I think Woolworths is about to open there as well. Really, it's a huge investment in the future of Western Sydney and the economy of this region.

JOURNALIST: Are you concerned that only few airlines have signed on to operate?

MINISTER KING: No, not at all. I think that's exactly where we expected to be at this point in the cycle, the airport will continue to talk to further airlines. But you know, really Qantas and Jetstar being first movers, that's really good from a domestic point of view. And now that we've got two international in as well, you'll start to see more and more of that, that coming on board. And particularly then you'll also see some of the freight operators really looking at what they're what they're planning to do, and as I said, the advantage this airport has obviously, it’s without a curfew, so that that creates that opportunity for freight as well.

JOURNALIST: Do you anticipate more airlines will be on board in the first year of opening? And is Virgin expected to sign up?

MINISTER KING: Well, we would certainly hope so. But that's going to be a matter for the airport to continue to talk to those operators, to come in. You know, it's a big airport. It's got a lot of capacity, and the more, the better.

JOURNALIST: Do you expect the completion of the Metro might be a main driver of more interest.

MINISTER KING: The Metro is a really important investment, and we've always expected that, you know, it's a big, big, big project. It's doing. It's going great guns. Really, it's doing well, it'll be important over time in terms of the connectivity to the airport, but really, from day one, the connectivity to this airport will be significant. You'll have, obviously, you can see there's plenty of car parking spaces. We've invested hugely in the road infrastructure, rideshare as well as the bus network that the state government is currently working on as well. Plenty of connectivity, and as I've said before, my home state, we've had an airport for a long time, haven't been able to get a rail line out to that yet. How amazing that we're building a greenfields airport that is also going to have the Metro connected, and then all the connections that that comes from there. So should be pretty proud of yourselves, New South Wales, for doing that. 

JOURNALIST: Minister do you believe that the connectivity in the Metro opening will also be important to attracting other airlines?

MINISTER KING: There'll be plenty of connectivity. But of course, you know the connectivity is about two things, not necessarily the airlines. It's really about both passengers, but also the workforce. Getting the workforce here is really important. So that's why having that connectivity from day one, whether it's busses, rideshare, the cars, and then when the Metro comes online, that will be really important. It's not so much an issue for the airlines themselves.

JOURNALIST: What is the sense of when the new Metro might open? 

MINISTER KING: That's really a question for the New South Wales Government, but certainly, you know, we've been pleased with the progress they've been making. I've been down in the station boxes. It's a big, complex project, as you know, to build Metro. I had the opportunity to, you know, I turned the first sort on it with the then Minister, and that work is work is progressing. But really that's a question for the New South Wales Government who are doing the construction.

JOURNALIST: We know that QantasLink and Jetstar will be operating from the airport. Is there any news on Qantas domestic yet?

MINISTER KING: I'll hand over to Simon in terms of that question. I think you can answer that.

SIMON HICKEY: So yeah, QantasLink, which is representing Qantas, will be operating out of here. So actually, that is the same for most people, it'll be the same brand. And obviously we've got a great fleet of airlines already signed up. We don't want to open full. We want to grow over time. So, this is a brand new greenfield airport, so I'm comfortable with where we are. And as the Minister said, more airlines will join as we go forward, but we're really focused on making sure that we're operationally ready, and we can't wait to welcome the first passengers that come through the airport. 

JOURNALIST: And Simon, can you give us actual specifics? How many numbers total now have we gotten confirmed, signed up flights that will be landing here each year?

SIMON HICKEY: So we're still working through that with the airlines, and their schedule will be, you know, up to the airlines to announce and to publish, but we're really happy with where we are, and that's not that far away from when they start talking about what those schedules start to look like.

JOURNALIST: And how have discussions been? 

SIMON HICKEY: So we're talking to a lot of airlines. We're talking to airlines around the world, and there's a lot of interest in what we're doing, and there's ultimately a lot of interest in growth, particularly for Australia and the Sydney market. We're seeing aviation continue to grow around the world, and this is a really important part of aviation attraction for Australia and aviation attraction in the Sydney market.  

JOURNALIST: Minister, there’s been a lot of discussion about those international passenger cards that we all have to fill. The word in the newspaper this morning was that it’s going to take five years to get rid of them. Can we have a commitment we get rid of them by the time this airport opens next year?

MINISTER KING: Well that's a question for the Minister for Home Affairs, not for not for me. So certainly, not quite buck passing, but it is, is a Home Affairs security, border security issue. Certainly, I think anyone who's travelled would like to see less paper involved in the arrivals process. But of course, we also have to make sure that, as a country, we keep our biosecurity safe, really important to do that, and our people safe, and that's really the job of the Australian Border Services and the Home Affairs Minister. But certainly, I know many of the traveling public would like to see less paper on arrivals. 

JOURNALIST: A question for Minister Dib. When can we expect the new Metro to be ready?

MINISTER DIB: Well, so as Minister King said, There's work that's underway at the moment. We can get some more specific details, but there is a lot of complexity. The really key issue here is that there are other multiple ways that people can get here. Obviously, the state government is working really hard on making sure that we get our metro services. You know, we see that there's Metro southwest, that's also, you know, well underway as well. But the government's doing everything it possibly can to make sure that we get the connection services as best as we can. And you know, as the airport, continues to grow, and the services continue to grow, all of these things will come together. And I join with the sentiment of Simon that, you know, we start, and we keep improving, and as things continue to grow and more services come on board, but eventually that Metro will be here. But we've got a commitment from the government that it’s going to be there. 

JOURNALIST: What would be the simplest way for people to get intoSydney? 

MINISTER DIB: Well, there's going to be bus links, you mean, into this airport? There's going to be bus links, and, of course roadways, and you know, we're working on that rail link as well, through the Metro. So, you know, we're seeing that the intention is to open the airport, of course, in 51 weeks, as the sign says, you know, and it will be via road, via bus, and we will get to the Metro.

JOURNALIST: Just a question for the assistant police commissioner, what can you say about the operation at Parramatta overnight, and will speed be a factor in that investigation?

BRETT MCFADDEN: Look just to the background of that story is it's about 7:15pm last night, police responded to an urgent job at Parramatta, by the intersection of Parramatta Road and Church Street near the M4 there, the police vehicle’s lost control and impacted with a railing. The railing has penetrated the police vehicle, and the 23 year old male constable in the passenger seat was impaled through that incident. He's got serious injuries to his left arm. He's in a serious condition at Westmead Hospital, but he will be undergoing further surgery today, and my thoughts are with him and his family at this stage. As a result of those serious injuries, I've declared a critical incident investigation that's being led by the Fairfield city police area command. The full circumstances, exactly what's taken place will be subject to that investigation. They'll work in partnership with the crash investigation unit from the traffic and Highway Patrol command, the investigation will be reviewed by the professional standards command and overseen by the law enforcement conduct commission. As you would appreciate, it's early at this stage to understand exactly what's happened, and that will form part of the investigation, but primarily my thoughts are with the young officer and his family. 

JOURNALIST: I was going to ask, even this is going to be a 24 hour airport, does that create any additional challenges from an emergency planning perspective?

BRETT MCFADDEN: No, not at all the we got really well advanced local and regional emergency management committees that are accustomed to dealing with emergencies on a 24/7 basis. So this merely adds another layer to the Southwest for us to consider. But we've got really good experience coming out of Mascot and South Sydney police area command and how they respond to issues at that airport, and we brought that experience across to our responses here, but we also got a wealth of experience that I'm seeing at the Western Sydney international team, and it's up to us to support them through the emergency that takes place. And I'm very comfortable that we have the requisite experience and capability to do anything that is thrown at us, and again, something that I hope that never takes place. 

JOURNALIST: Will there be more drills like this? 

BRETT MCFADDEN: Into the future, there's a whole range of activities that we can plan for. But I think today is a really good first step exercise looking at the whole of government, both the state and federal governments, coming together to look at a coordinated emergency response to something that plays at this airport, and I look forward to seeing how it all plays out today.

MINISTER KING: Thanks very much everyone.