Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance committee members yesterday, 31 May 2021, had the opportunity to meet with The Hon Kevin Rudd AC and his associates at the offices of Grace Grace, Queensland State MP for McConnel. Also in attendance was Madonna Jarrett, Labor candidate for the federal seat of Brisbane. Madonna will challenge Trevor Evans MP (LNP) for his seat at the next federal election.
As we all know, Kevin has a long history of fighting Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) on the New Parallel Runway, which culminated in him taking BAC to court in the early 2000’s – first through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and then the Federal Court. He won the first and second rounds defeating BAC, but lost the third and final court battle on a technicality surrounding “his standing to bring about the case.” The final approval for the parallel runway was rushed through by the Howard Government in 2007, prior to Kevin being elected Prime Minister.
This was a very productive meeting for BFPCA as we tapped into Kevin’s wealth of insider knowledge on this issue. We discussed a range of strategies and processes available to BFPCA in our ongoing battle to protect Brisbane communities from the greed and profiteering of BAC. We were very pleased to hear that Madonna Jarrett is supportive of BFPCA, our cause and our demands, and is meeting with Labor Senators and her Seat of Griffith counterpart Terri Butler MP to further discuss how to tackle this issue as part of Labor’s federal campaign strategy.
Don’t be surprised if you see Kevin Rudd at future BFPCA events. Welcome back, Kevin!
