#27: The flawed airport consultation groups

60 Reasons to Protest: Reason #27 – The flawed airport consultation groups

All major airports in Australia were told by the then Commonwealth Government in 2011 that they had to establish so-called “Community Aviation Consultation Groups” (CACGs).

The idea was to pretend to be listening to community concerns but in fact let the airports entirely control and run these groups as they see fit. This gives the government something akin to plausible deniability: You have an issue with the airport? Off you go and talk to your CACG! More engagement theatre…

Federal MPs were asked to nominate usually loyal pro-aviation representatives who are joined by a number of aviation industry representatives from the airport, airlines, Airservices Australia, and CASA.

CACGs were proudly announced by then Transport and Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese as a way for local communities to have a voice in airport planning and operations. However, the federal government’s push towards deregulation and industry self-regulation has meant that the CACGs are chaired by the private airport corporations themselves, without any proper independent oversight. For example, in the case of the Brisbane Airport CACG (BACACG), the “independent” chair is Nigel Chamier who also sat on BAPAF and recently retired after 5 years as a director of Queensland Airports Limited. Yes, very independent indeed…

Membership of CACGs is by invitation only, and airport operators have sought to closely liaise with federal MPs in order to select vetted community representatives who are supportive of the airport’s operations. As a result, many local communities and community advocacy groups such as BFPCA argue that the CACGs are ineffective in genuinely representing community concerns and interests, and that the lack of transparency and accountability makes it difficult to ensure that airport developments and operations take into account the voices and concerns of families and communities affected by airports and their flight paths.

BFPCA disrupted this cushy arrangement following the federal election 2022. With the kind agreement and support by the three new MPs of Brisbane, Griffith and Ryan, expressions of interest for genuine community-aligned representatives were called for and nominated to join BACACG. While we welcome this move, it is only but a small win.

Hear the experience report from one of the BFPCA-aligned BACACG members after the 29 Nov 2022 meeting:

Yesterday I attended the BACACG meeting as one of eight community members representing Brisbane electorates. I feel that as a conduit between the community, BAC and Airservices it is a dismal failure. Apart from the three representatives who are also on BFPCA there was little of import said by the other members. To an observer listening to them it would have appeared there were few or no problems with aircraft noise. I had the feeling that most of these other members were representing personal limited views. Without any organisation such as BFPCA behind them to gauge their community’s feelings, hardly surprising. I have expressed my feeling to the Chair of BACACG that in its present form it gives a distorted view of the massive problems we face and should be disbanded.

One of BFPCA’s eight key demands is to discontinue BACACG chaired by Brisbane Airport, and instead establish a strong, independent, permanent, and fully funded Brisbane Airport Community Forum that will:

• Deal with aircraft noise abatement and related environmental issues and have access to all necessary data, performance targets and technical expertise;
• Have broad representation of all areas affected by airport operations;
• Be chaired independently with terms of reference designed to avoid any perception of or susceptibility to industry capture, including by regulators, aviation companies, or the airport operator;
• Receive secretariat support from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications – same as the Sydney Airport Community Forum.