Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I am presenting, on behalf of constituents, a petition that was considered by the Petitions Committee and is in order. This is a petition that relates to a proposed new flight path on the Gold Coast. I have the privilege of representing what I consider to be the best parts of the Gold Coast, basically from Southport down to North Burleigh. Recently it was indicated by the Gold Coast Airport that there was an intention to implement a new proposed flight path that would also align with the installation of what is called an ILS, an instrument landing system. A consequence of this proposal is that there is a proposed new flight path that will see aircraft barrelling down over a number of my suburbs—suburbs that have previously never had aircraft noise before. That is, in fact, some 60,000 people, who have never had aircraft noise and who will now be subjected to aircraft noise on an almost daily basis.

I have had discussions with Gold Coast Airport, the Deputy Prime Minister, the airlines and community groups and I have looked very closely at why this proposal has been put forward. The argument that is put forward from Gold Coast Airport is that it is necessary to have the instrument landing system in place to make the airport more reliable and to make sure that more aircraft can land on the Gold Coast in poor weather. But when you look at what it actually involves, you realise that this is going to be an imposition of aircraft noise on some 50,000 or 60,000 residents who have never had aircraft noise before—my constituents—and who are going to be subjected to this almost daily aircraft noise purely and simply so that somewhere between 10 and 20 extra aircraft a year are able to land at Gold Coast Airport.

On that straightforward basis, on a very basic evaluation of cost-benefit, the simple impact is that the cost far exceeds the benefit that will flow. To subject 50,000 or 60,000 people to almost daily aircraft noise, just so an extra 10 or 20 aircraft a year are able to land at Gold Coast Airport, simply does not make sense. I commend those that were involved in putting together this petition. Many people signed it—nearly 7,000 people—and this was done over just a number of hours, by volunteers on the Gold Coast. It represents a very strong grassroots response in opposition to this proposed new flight path. Everybody wants to see Gold Coast Airport go from strength to strength and everybody wants to see the tourism industry go from strength to strength, but to suggest that, because an extra 10 or 20 aircraft a year get diverted, it is in some way going to impact on the tourism future of our city, is simply not correct. I present the petition.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable The Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives

This petition of concerned citizens draws to the attention of the House the proposal by Gold Coast Airport Pty Ltd (GCA) to create a new flight path over the homes of 60,000 Gold Coast residents by installing an Instrument Landing System (ILS) at Gold Coast Airport (the proposal).

We therefore ask the House: to call on the responsible Minister to reject the proposal. We request this because the proposal would create disproportionate negative impacts and is not supported by Government policy, namely:

1. Significant increases in visual, audible and environmental pollution causing a loss of amenity for Gold Coast residents and tourists.

2. It fails to adequately assess health risks identified with living under flight paths.

3. Diminished property values.

4.It's stated objectives of increasing reliability from 99.98% to over 99.99% will not necessarily be achieved.

5. Adverse economic impact of new building height restrictions over the Gold Coast's principle high rise area.

6. The associated costs outweigh its benefits.

7. Information from the GCA during the consultation period lacked independence and transparency.

8. GCA's commercial objectives should not create disproportionate disadvantage to the Gold Coast community.

9. ILS is old technology and is inconsistent with Government policy to deploy modern aviation technology to boost safety and service delivery, e.g. GCA's recently installed RNP system.

We therefore ask the House to do all in its power to reject the proposed new flight path at Gold Coast Airport

from 5,515 citizens

Petition received.

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