Senate Inquiry Fails to Deliver Justice for Noise Affected Communities in Brisbane

BFPCA Media Release, 27 November 2024

Key Highlights

• The Senate Inquiry into aircraft noise has this evening released its report, confirming the problems and extensive harms to Brisbane communities and the shortcomings in authorities’ consultation and regulation.
• Brisbane is used as a ‘cautionary learning experience’ in the Report, failing to recommend robust interventions to help community members get some sleep.
• The Senate Inquiry has failed to recommend a flight cap and curfew for Brisbane despite legislated curfews being enjoyed by Sydney, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Essendon communities.
• BFPCA welcomes the first mentions of financial compensation and a possible aircraft noise levy but criticises the lack of real action to deliver immediate noise relief.

BFPCA Responds to the Senate Inquiry Report

Following several weeks of delay, the Senate Inquiry on aircraft noise in Australia today handed down its report to a lukewarm reception from communities across the country suffering from the problem.

Despite acknowledging the extent of the problem, the Senate’s 21 recommendations fall short of delivering meaningful action and fail to extend the benefits of a Sydney-style curfew to any new communities.

The Senate Report highlights how Brisbane communities have been disproportionately impacted and harmed by aircraft noise pollution, citing inadequate consultation and mitigation measures for Queensland’s capital.

Long campaigning on the issue and providing crucial community support to secure the Inquiry, Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance (BFPCA) said the report vindicates what they have been saying since Brisbane’s controversial second runway opened in 2020.

However, BFPCA highlights how many of the proposals simply reiterate existing initiatives, such as potential tailwind relaxations to be considered by CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority), which have been called unsafe by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots, and minor weather-dependent operational adjustments already underway.

Only three of 21 recommendations address the Brisbane case directly.

Financial compensation for noise affected communities (Recommendation 8) and the prospect of declaring Brisbane Airport leviable under the existing Aircraft Noise Levy Act 1995 (Recommendation 9) should be considered by the Australian Government, according to the report. But BFPCA says communities are more interested in being able to sleep in their homes than a small cheque in the mail.

The Report comes as Brisbane Airport Corporation is preparing its regular Master Plan update for 2025, focusing public scrutiny on the harms its business practices cause to Brisbane communities ahead of the 2025 federal election.

The report uses Brisbane’s second runway and aircraft noise shock as a cautionary tale and to learn lessons to help protect communities about to be newly affected by aircraft noise, such as those exposed to Western Sydney Airport or Melbourne’s proposed third runway.

These recommendations aimed at future developments fail to alleviate the suffering of affected communities in more than 220 suburbs across Greater Brisbane who continue to be woken up three times a night, and face detrimental health impacts and reduced quality of life due to noise pollution.

Quotes from Prof. Marcus Foth, Chairperson of BFPCA

“The Senate Report is great in that it highlights the depth of the problem and again proves what BFPCA and many other communities across the country have told our elected representatives about aircraft noise pollution all along. We were lied to and the consequences are truly damaging.”

“But while the injustices faced by Brisbane communities have now been corroborated by the Senate, they have not been righted with the Inquiry’s recommendations which are half-measured at best.”

“Because the Senate inquiry committee has failed to recommend a curfew, flight cap and Long-Term Operating Plan (LTOP) for Brisbane Airport, ultimately, the noise pollution will continue unabated. Communities want to be able to sleep in their homes without being woken up three times a night by aircraft.”

“As it stands, the Senate Inquiry’s report makes clear the position of the Senate is that only the privileged few, like Sydney-city folk, deserve a curfew and bugger the rest of us.”

“It’s time for our elected representatives to have the courage to forget their Chairman’s Lounge perks and stand up to the aviation industry’s state capture. It’s time to properly protect communities from noise pollution using the same instruments that are already in place in Sydney, Adelaide, at the Gold Coast and many other cities overseas.”

“BFPCA’s only remaining avenue to be heard and to achieve the demands that communities deserve fair and square is to protest. And that is what we will do.”

About BFPCA

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 that direct planes away from residential areas. 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 all 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 background information, visit: https://bfpca.org.au/