#35: Barnaby’s “Community” Forum

60 Reasons to Protest: Reason #35 – Barnaby’s “Community” Forum

Do you remember BAPAF – the Brisbane Airport Post-Implementation Review Advisory Forum? In response to community pressure and advocacy from BFPCA, then Deputy PM and Minister for Infrastructure & Transport Barnaby Joyce (Nationals) announced BAPAF on 24 Sep 2021 in a joint media release with then MP for Brisbane Trevor Evans. The grand headline at the time was: “Community voices to be heard on Brisbane Airport noise issues.”

So let’s see whether community voices were heard.

Community Membership?

Barnaby Joyce appointed:

1. Ross Musgrove as the forum’s chair, previously CEO of the Western Downs Regional Council;
2. Robert Borbidge AO, Queensland Premier (Nationals) from 1996 to 1998;
3. Claire Moore, a former Labor Senator for Queensland;
4. Nigel Chamier AM, Chair of the Brisbane Airport Community Aviation Consultation Group (BACACG) and a former Director of Queensland Airports Ltd (2014 – 2019);
5. Professor Douglas Baker, School of Architecture and Built Environment at Queensland University of Technology, and lead chief investigator of the project “The Airport Metropolis: Managing the Interfaces,” which received $931,436 in public funding from the Australian Research Council Linkage scheme between 2007 and 2011 in addition to co-contributions from a number of industry partners including Brisbane Airport Corporation. It is also noteable that John Kasarda, the “inventor” of the Aerotropolis concept was a partner investigator on Prof. Baker’s project.

Were there any community representatives on this community forum? – No.

Community Engagement?

BAPAF commenced their work by inviting written submissions on Airservices’ Post Implementation Review (PIR) outlining what people would like to see as outcomes of the PIR. You can read BFPCA’s submission here.

This call was advertised with a small ad in the Courier Mail on 16 Oct 2021 and closed 5 Nov 2021.

While BFPCA had an opportunity to meet with the Forum on 12 Nov 2021, this was a rare treat. BAPAF had a total of 15 formal meetings plus a sightseeing tour of Brisbane Airport’s runway infrastructure on 9 February 2022. The BAPAF minutes show that meetings were taken up by briefings from:

• the Department’s Aviation branch (who also provided secretariat support)
• Airservices Australia
• Brisbane Airport Corporation
• Qantas
• Virgin Australia
• Emirates (who proudly declared that their use of the A380s into Brisbane mitigates noise impacts)
• Australian Airline Pilots’ Association
• Civil Aviation Safety Authority
• Trax International

So were community voices on Brisbane Airport noise issues heard as promised by Barnaby Joyce? – Yes and no. It was welcome to see BAPAF agree with:

• Concerns about a lack of adequate engagement and/or inaccurate information provided by Brisbane Airport Corporation and/or Airservices Australia about changes to flight paths as a result of the new parallel runway.
• Concerns that the Brisbane Airport Flight Path Tool website contains information that indicates the number of noise events expected on any given day is lower than actually experienced.
• Concerns about the volume of flights landing or departing over the city, particularly during peak air travel periods (6-8am weekdays and early evenings), particularly from but not limited to residents of suburbs under flight paths utilising the new runway.
• Concerns about a lack of cooperation and ownership of issuesbetween Government agencies responsible for aviation, and BAC.
• Concern that the remit of the Airservices Australia Post Implementation Review is too restrictive.

However, for most of 2022, BAPAF continued to be bedazzled by presentations from the aviation industry as documents released under FOI-22-161 confirm.

For example, BAC stated in their presentation that they are:

“committed to honest, inclusive and comprehensive community and stakeholder communication that goes above and beyond the legislative requirements imposed through the approval process. […] TRUTH – providing accurate information to the public about the aircraft noise that will result from the new runway.”

FOI-22-161, page 59

🤯

So it is no surprise that BAPAF’s final report was largely meaningless and had no real impact as it was written by the industry itself who has captured the state. BAPAF did not support any of the key community demands such as ministerial directions, a night-time curfew, demand management, a movement cap, noise levies, and a Long-Term Operating Plan.

As Minister Catherine King suggested, the community must protest if it wants action and justice. Let’s do just that!