Locating the public interest in mega infrastructure planning: The case of Sydney’s WestConnex

In Western liberal democracies the planning of mega transport infrastructure projects is guided by public interest claims typically expressed through legislation and political mandates. But with the infrastructure boom being observed in many cities since the Global Financial Crisis, and the need to address unprecedented levels of urbanisation, the level of politicisation directed at infrastructure projects draws attention to how the public interest is treated in the planning and management of complex mega transport infrastructure projects in diverse local contexts. Looking to Sydney, an advanced neoliberal city building the largest transport infrastructure project in Australian history, we examine how public interest is asserted in a way that reinforces legitimacy of the process and consensus for the project. Under these conditions, planners fail or are unwilling to raise additional or new public interest issues. The vagaries of public interest mean that in being open to interpretation the public interest can be easily captured by the interests of capital and of ruling politicians. This raises important questions for urban studies about the role governments and, in particular, public-sector planners can play in advocating for actually existing public interest issues such as environmental sustainability without it amounting to just rhetoric with no follow through.