#15: Kevin Rudd’s broken promises

60 Reasons to Protest: Reason #15 – Kevin Rudd’s broken promises

BFPCA is grateful and thanks the community action groups that came before us. Most noteable and commendable is BARB – Ban Aircraft over Residential Brisbane. Part of the Rivermouth Action Group, BARB was active in the fight against Airservices and Brisbane Airport Corporation in the nineties and noughties. Check out their original website here.

Way before the Kevin07 landslide election, BARB organised an anti-aircraft noise community rally on 25 Feb 1996 at Kalinga Park near Toombul Shopping Centre where both Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan spoke at. Note that Kevin Rudd was a candidate for Griffith at the time. He did not enter parliament as the MP for Griffith until 3 Oct 1998.

What did Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan promise to do about aircraft noise on 25 February 1996? Watch and listen to these two short videos of their speeches to concerned community members.

A 2013 article in The Conversation offers a summary of what happened since then:

“Rudd first ran for federal election in 1996, campaigning hard about airport noise affecting the inner-southside Brisbane suburbs of his electorate, Griffith, should a proposed new parallel runway go ahead. Although he failed to win the seat in that election, Rudd succeeded in giving prominence to the issue.

In 1998, Rudd ran again and continued to campaign against the construction of the new runway. He was elected as the member for Griffith on the back of a strong grassroots campaign that has seen him permanently associated with Brisbane’s runway debate.

Hansard records show that between his first speech to parliament in 1998 and 2006, Rudd continued his campaign. He eventually succeeded in gaining the assistance of Labor party senators to set up a Senate inquiry into the Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) master plan 2000.

In 2000, Rudd told parliament the Senate inquiry had identified “a number of adverse observations in relation to the manner and method through which… the master plan was approved by the Minister.” He subsequently appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal against the minister’s approval of the airport master plan.

In November 2006 in a statement to Parliament, Rudd effectively conceded the runway decision had gone against him:

“Since [the Brisbane Airport Corporation] first put forward this proposal for a new parallel runway, on four separate occasions I have been in court either with the federal government or with the Brisbane Airport Corporation, through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and then the Federal Court, in an attempt to stop this runway proceeding. In fact the substantive matter that I put to the Brisbane Airport Corporation is that they should not proceed with the construction of that runway until they had conducted a proper cost-benefit analysis of all alternative runway options.”

(Source)

Rudd also noted that court costs awarded against him were $32,000, a substantial amount of which was raised on his behalf by Brisbane’s southside community. He added:

“I have stated repeatedly on the public record that I do not believe that I can now stop this thing from proceeding, because I have been defeated in the courts on this question. Once the federal Minister for Transport and Regional Services approves this major development plan and the EIS, the last regulatory approval will be in place for the Brisbane Airport Corporation to proceed with construction of this new runway.

The key challenge therefore for me, as the representative of the people in Brisbane’s southside community, is developing an effective noise management plan for this new proposed runway. It will have a significant effect on the residents in my community. It will have an effect on schools and people’s houses. It will have an effect on people’s quality of life. I am deeply concerned about that and I have stated my concern in this chamber on many occasions over the last seven or eight years. The challenge is to manage the impact of this, and therefore my request to the federal government will be to work with me and other representatives to develop an effective noise management plan for this new major imposition on Brisbane’s southside residents.”

(Source)

What happened since then?

On 18 Sep 2007, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services, Mark Vaile, announced approval for the construction of the New Parallel Runway at Brisbane Airport. This approval occured only 29 days before the Australian Government went into caretaker mode with the issue of electoral writs on 17/10/2007 for the Australian federal election held on 24/11/2007.

The 2007 Australian federal election was held on 24 Nov 2007. The Australian Labor Party, led by Kevin Rudd and deputy leader Julia Gillard, defeated the incumbent Coalition government, led by Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister, John Howard, and Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile, by a landslide. Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister of Australia on 3 Dec 2007.

Since then, Rudd has said little about the Brisbane Airport noise issue. What happened? While Kevin Rudd was defeated in the courts, he won the Kevin07 election with a landslide. Why is it that arguably one of the most senior and powerful officers in this country – Prime Minister from 3 Dec 2007 to 24 Jun 2010 and again from 27 Jun to 18 Sep 2013 (and with Anthony Albanese at his side as Minister for Infrastructure and Transport from 2007 to 2013) – was unable to keep his promise “to develop an effective noise management plan for this new major imposition on Brisbane’s southside residents.”

BFPCA thanks Barry Wilson, chairperson of the Rivermouth Action Group, for leading this fight way before any of us as well as maintaining the website and archives and continuing to be an active member of the community. Thank you 🙏