KEY POINTS:
Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey wants the question of a commercial airport for West Auckland to be an election issue.
He says Labour will lose support if it continues to delay a decision on the future of the Whenuapai air base.
"If it wants to be the next government,
it has to capture Auckland - and the west and south delivered it victory last time.
"It's up to Labour to give us our opportunity, because the research is clear that people want it."
Mr Harvey has fought for commercial use of the base since 2002, when the Defence Force announced plans to withdraw and consolidate air facilities at Ohakea in the Manawatu.
Waitakere City Council and infrastructure investor Infratil tried to buy the 311ha base and later to get an airport shared by military aircraft.
Although he is a former Labour Party president, Mr Harvey said he was disappointed that neither Prime Minister Helen Clark nor the Government shared his enthusiasm.
"They seem unwilling or unable to deliver. We haven't been able to dislodge the boulder."
Mr Harvey and Infratil have re-ignited a public relations campaign to win more support for their plan in North Shore communities which are on the base flight path.
In December, Defence Minister Phil Goff threw open the question of joint use by inviting interested parties to give their views on the base future.
He also asked the Defence Force to report to the Cabinet with an updated business case for consolidation and time frames for withdrawal between 2014 and 2018.
North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams took up Mr Goff's invitation and expressed his council's views, which favour the Air Force staying but oppose an airport.
National MP Paula Bennett said she had no indications that Whenuapai could be an election issue.
"It's not what people raise at public meetings or in my office in the electorate," she said.
National policy opposes a commercial airport.
Waitakere MP Lynne Pillay said she thought it strange that Mr Harvey should raise Whenuapai as an election issue when she understood that "everyone is happy" that work was under way on reviewing use of the base.
"I care about the local economy and if the business case stacks up, of course I'll support it."
