Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to acknowledge and welcome last week’s announcement that Defence will halve the planned use of the Joint Strike Fighter at the Salt Ash Air Weapons Range. Defence’s decision to alter the proposed ANEF 2025 noise contour maps to exclude the village of Oyster Cove has been a welcome decision for residents.

An increasingly large number of local residents have contacted me about the proposed JSF noise contours, which reflects the growing number of residents that would have been adversely affected by aircraft noise once the JSF is introduced into service at RAAF Williamtown. The issue has gained momentum in the local community in the past months.

As soon as this issue was raised with me I began meeting with affected residents. I met the residents of Oyster Cove during their very first collective meeting on the issue at the Tillman residence, and then I attended the Williamtown consultative forum, where I forced an action item that would see Defence review the mapping and/or compensate affected residents. I have also personally represented every single resident that has approached me—without response from the Minister for Defence, I must say, who instead chose to delegate all correspondence regarding the issue to his parliamentary secretary, Mike Kelly.

I am absolutely delighted with Deputy Air Force Chief Geoff Brown’s announcement. This is a win for common sense and an example of what can be achieved when members of a community stand side by side to fight for a fair go. I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the member for Port Stephens, Mr Craig Baumann and the Mayor of Port Stephens, Councillor Bruce MacKenzie, for working cooperatively with me to fight for the rights of the Oyster Cove community at the Williamtown consultative forums.

This week the community of Oyster Cove should take some time to reflect on this achievement. They deserve to be proud of one another and the constructive, intelligent, focused approach they took to resolve the problem. From the moment I stepped into the meeting at the Tillman residence back in early March, I knew that this was a community that would fight for its rights. As their federal representative it was an honour and privilege to stand alongside this community and fight for a fair go.

I always enjoy going into bat for my constituents, but the most rewarding aspect of my job by far is the achievement of an outcome that at the outset seemed an insurmountable challenge. Together we have achieved this outcome today, and I will continue to work hard to represent those residents of Oyster Cove, Medowie, Salt Ash and Swan Bay who are facing possible decreases in their property values. I will also continue to keep the community informed as more information comes to hand.

There is also the issue of the Kings Hill development which Port Stephens Council tabled this week. The Kings Hill development would involve the council and the NSW state government approving re-zoning and a residential development directly under a flight path on rural land. It is obscene to do that. It only creates downstream problems. I am calling on Defence to up the action with the council and with the NSW state government to make sure that development directly under the flight path is ruled out. It can be ruled out quite simply by the Department of Defence acquiring the rural farmland so that it cannot be converted to residential development.