Media event – Released: 8 June 2023
- Minister Catherine King rejected meeting with Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance
- Ms King appeared at National Press Club in March 2023 and told community they must protest to get action
- Protest will take place with 700+ RSVPs on 10 June 2023 9am at Brisbane Airport Corporation headquarters
- The goal of the protest is to have a curfew from 10pm – 6am instituted at Brisbane Airport, as well as a flight cap limiting the total number of flights (this is the same as Australia’s busiest and wealthiest airport, Sydney).
More than 700 Brisbane residents will protest excessive aircraft noise at Brisbane Airport Corporation headquarters this Saturday 10 June 2023.
The gathering comes after Minister for Transport, Catherine King MP, refused to meet with Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance (BFPCA) and told communities they would have to protest to get action on the issue at her recent National Press Club appearance.
“This Minister has forced this protest from the Brisbane community,” BFPCA Chairperson, Prof. Marcus Foth, said. “We wrote to Ms King in 2022 asking for a meeting, which she rejected in February 2023, and then directly told the community they must protest at her Press Club appearance in March — so here we are,” he said.
Following the election of the Albanese government, BFPCA wrote to Minister King in November 2022 requesting a meeting. BFPCA Chairperson, Prof. Marcus Foth, said the organisation had received a reply only on 8 February 2023 rejecting the request for a meeting despite Minister King’s visit to Brisbane to tour Brisbane’s Cross River Rail construction sites earlier this year.
“Our community is not unreasonable. We understand that aviation is key to the economic future of Brisbane, Queensland and Australia. However, we also know some of the world’s busiest airports remain lucrative with curfews and flight caps in place — principally our southern neighbours in Sydney,” he said.
Many airports across Australia operate profitably and efficiently with curfews and flight caps, including Adelaide, Essendon, Gold Coast and Sydney. Sydney Airport, even without returning to pre-COVID flight traffic posted a profit of $148.46m in the 2020-21 financial year.
“Queenslanders should be outraged that our New South Wales neighbours get preferential treatment and we Maroons are hung out to dry,” Prof. Foth said.
“We continue to be ready to work constructively with all levels of government and parties of all colours to address the injustice we’ve had inflicted on us in Brisbane from aircraft noise,” he said.
“As we wrote in our letter to Minister King inviting her to meet with us, we’re also happy to come to her if she’ll have us,” he said.
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Protest event
| What | Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance Flight Path Noise Protest |
| Where | 11 The Cct, Brisbane Airport QLD 4008 |
| When | 9am – 11.30am Saturday 10 June 2023 |
| Description | A rally with speeches then a QPS-approved march of community members negatively impacted by excessive aircraft noise. 700+ people have RSVP’ed to attend. There will be placards, banners, and speeches. Program and details: https://bfpca.org.au/protest/ |
| Speakers | Professor Marcus Foth, BFPCA Chairperson Elizabeth Watson-Brown MP, Member for Ryan and Greens Spokesperson for Infrastructure, Transport and Sustainable Cities Impacted communities members from Upper Brookfield, Samford, Cleveland, Taringa (x 4) |
| March route |
Background
With the launch of Brisbane Airport’s New Parallel Runway on 12 July 2020 came a new airspace design and flight paths that concentrate aircraft noise over densely populated residential areas.
Brisbane Airport and Airservices Australia sold this project to Brisbane communities suggesting the New Parallel Runway will enable them to prioritise “over water” operations. The CEO Gert-Jan de Graaff is on the record saying, “the net effect of aircraft flying over the city will decrease.”
Brisbane families and communities are suffering from excessive noise pollution and associated health and related impacts from Brisbane Airport’s new flight paths launched in July 2020. The Aircraft Noise Ombudsman report, the Brisbane Airport PIR Advisory Forum (BAPAF) and flight path design consultants TRAX International have now confirmed that Brisbane communities were misled using flawed noise modelling, deceiving community engagement, and offered inadequate noise abatements.
Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance (BFPCA) came together in 2020 to fight back on behalf of all Brisbane families and communities experiencing this noise pollution.
For more information about BFPCA and why the community is protesting, visit: https://bfpca.org.au/60reasons/
Contact: Professor Marcus Foth, BFPCA Chair and Spokesperson
