Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Energy and Resources) Share this | Hansard source

The changes to flight paths to and from the Perth Airport last year as a result of the Western Australian Air Route Review are wreaking havoc on thousands of my Canning constituents and residents of other surrounding electorates. Residents are frustrated and fed up with the noise disruption but are mainly annoyed with being shut out of the process. The bottom line is that Airservices Australia and other agencies involved went about these changes by stealth. It is the largest restructure of air traffic in Perth for 30 years, and no-one got to know about it.

Airservices Australia cannot seem to make up its mind about the consultation process involved in implementing the changes. In a farcical July meeting with ASA government relations manager David Moore, Perth Airport executives and my colleagues Steve Irons and Judi Moylan, we were assured there was consultation. But unsurprisingly ASA failed to verify dates and attendees. The only conclusion to be drawn is that the consultation was a figment of Airservices’ imagination. In fact, it is a law unto itself. Airservices’ own website claims it consulted the Perth Airport Noise Management Committee about the changes. It is true that committee members knew the review had commenced but they were taken aback when the route changes were made unbeknown to them.

Equally surprised were Canning residents in Roleystone, Bedfordale, Mt Nasura and Mt Richon and suburbs along the Darling Range when planes started bearing down on them. What were relatively peaceful neighbourhoods are now drowned out by northern arrival aircraft and runways 03 and 06 departures as planes fly so low my constituents tell me they can see people sitting in their seats through their kitchen windows. ‘Residents of the Hills areas paid premium prices for peace and tranquillity which it appears is about to be taken away without any discussion with the local community,’ one Roleystone resident emailed me recently. Almost certainly, a one-page press release in November 2008 boldly announcing the changes did not make it into the local Canning newspapers that affected constituents read. In another sidestep, a letter to the member for Pearce on 4 August said details of consultation could not be released without the minister’s approval and such information was so ‘highly technical in nature and not readily understood by non-aviation personnel’. These games are patronising and absurd. We are not looking for the launch codes; we just want a simple list of dates, times and attendees. It is perfectly clear that Airservices are trying to play affected residents and those representing them for fools.

If these changes genuinely are for air safety purposes as recommended by ASA, people would have likely understood when a proper and detailed case was presented to them. Perth air traffic has increased by 60 per cent in the last five years and has already exceeded 2015 projections, so some re-routing could have been expected. But rightly what has people hot under the collar is that they were not given an opportunity to be heard, and now it seems those decision makers have washed their hands of the issue essentially telling the affected residents to like it or lump it. Perhaps unaware of Airservices’ line, I noted with interest the local newspaper The Armadale Examiner reported on 8 October that a spokesman for the transport minister, Mr Albanese, said consultation had been undertaken. I am still waiting for answers to questions on notice from the minister about this mysterious consultation process.

My constituents want answers. They want the minister to show them the same respect and consideration he showed his constituents in Grayndler when they were not notified about runway changes in 2007. My colleague the member for Swan has called for a noise insulation program for Perth, similar to the one operated in Sydney and Adelaide. Minister Albanese led the charge on this scheme around Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport and it is only fair that Perth residents get the same treatment.

ASA maintains that there has been a marginal increase in flights over the local Canning area and, believe it or not, the member for Armadale, in a bizarre comment, labelled the degree of the problem only ‘small’ and that there were ‘limited alternatives’. Perhaps they need to actually take on board what residents are saying. They should listen to Mr McEachram from Bedfordale who has constant interruption from low-flying aircraft. He says:

They have done this without consulting anybody at all. This is simply outrageous. Our Commonwealth aviation regulations should not permit an airport operator to behave in such an arrogant and high-handed manner.

Or listen to a Roleystone resident who said:

No consultation, no advertisement—apparently there was something in the paper but I wouldn’t have thought to going hunting for that type of information. To hear that we were consulted is appalling—it did not happen!

People near the Perth Airport buy their homes in good faith. As the Roleystone constituents were not consulted, in my limited time I would just like to say that the people of Perth deserved better. They deserved a better consultation process and Airservices Australia needs to come clean and tell the truth about their consultation process. (Time expired)

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