Monday morning, 29 March 2021, BFPCA committee members Karen and Chris handed over a petition signed by over 1,600 supporters to Trevor Evans, the MP for the Seat of Brisbane. Petitioners are calling on Mr Evans to use his federal influence to call on the current federal government to instruct Airservices and BAC to reduce airplane noise from Brisbane Airport’s flight paths using international best practice noise abatement strategies, many of which have not been applied to Brisbane’s airspace management regime.
The magnitude of the noise pollution, the frequency of planes arriving and departing over the same residential areas, the geographic scale of the issue across Brisbane, and the calibre of the discrepancy between what we were told and what we are now experiencing warrants a response from our elected representatives that’s more than just meddling at the margins.
BFPCA also presented BFPCA’s recent Community Survey and its damning results and impact statements by local residents. We stressed to Mr Evans the need to not only address the noise pollution experienced as a result of a flawed and misleading Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that BAC presented in 2006 for approval to government, but also the failures of Airservices Australia to properly follow up and investigate the steep increase in noise complaints submitted to their Noise Complaints and Information Service (NCIS) team. Sending boilerplate replies to people’s numerous complaints and stonewalling and grinding down everyday citizens is not good enough to rectify this mess. Mr Evans agreed this is a serious issue for our community and Airservices needs to take a lead in addressing the fundamental and underlying issues for impacted residents.
The corporatisation of Airservices from a former government regulator to now a government-owned business we believe has contributed to BAC getting away with what is in essence a value transfer from ordinary Australians to a foreign corporation leasing federal land for commercial profit. BFPCA are calling on Mr Evans and this government to either resurrect Airservices as an independent regulatory authority with teeth, or to create one that is able to look after everyday Australians. The issues we are facing in Brisbane are being replicated throughout all Australian airports.
BFPCA welcomes Mr Evans’ endorsement of the community advocacy work that BFPCA are doing. We will post further updates as more information comes to hand.