Aviation White Paper

Update #2: 09/03/2023

BFPCA has written a detailed submission in response to the draft Terms of Reference for the Aviation White Paper.

We encourage everyone to also make their own submissions by 10 March 2023, which can be sent via email. Instructions are provided here. Feel free to use the BFPCA submission as a guide and/or endorse our submission in your own. As always we encourage everyone to personalise your submission as that will have more impact. We recommend that you raise the following key points:

1. The need for legislative and regulatory overhaul of the Air Services Act 1995 to achieve true regulatory independence, eliminate actual, possible or perceived regulatory / state capture, a broader scope for consideration of contemporary factors (e.g., climate change, social licence to operate) that will affect future airport and flight path design and operations, rather than the current limited focus on safety, efficiency and private industry profits.
2. The need for standard criteria across all capital and regional airports regarding the specification and adoption of curfews, flight movement caps, and airport capacity declarations as provided for under the Airports Act 1996, Section 195.
3. International best practice and genuine community engagement processes and impact reporting by qualified, independent experts across all jurisdictions regarding planned and ongoing airport operations.
4. Stronger and evidence-based consideration of all issues of the impacts of aircraft noise and other pollution on mental and physical health, and the role of strong regulation to achieve net aircraft noise pollution reductions.

Update #1: 14/02/2023

One of the few Labor election promises in response to the BFPCA scorecard 2022 was to update the old 2009 Aviation Policy “White Paper” from the Rudd / Gillard era. From the latest round of Senate Estimates hearings we learnt that the Labor Government has allocated $7 million to this exercise, but the Department had to take on notice a breakdown of how these funds will be allocated. The Minister does not want the final White Paper to be released until mid 2024 (!) so they worked backwards from there, and the timeline has been dragged out over a 12-18 months period as a result. We already had to wait 9 months just to get the draft Terms of Reference released with consultation closing 10 March 2023. Then mid 2023 there will be a draft “Green Paper” and more consultation and submissions, so we don’t expect the draft White Paper until early/mid 2024.

By the way, the original Rudd/Gillard era Aviation White Paper from 2009 (available in the BFPCA Library) is not worth the paper it’s printed on: Recommendations were watered down or ignored, such as the call for “regular reviews of the need for a curfew at Brisbane Airport.”