Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I rise to speak to my private member's bill to introduce a curfew, cap on flights and create a long-term operating plan for Brisbane airport.

I want you to guess who said this:

'Aircraft noise is a major problem for many people in Brisbane's suburbs … there are an increasing number of night flights disturbing people's sleep. I believe the only solution is an introduction of a night curfew … everybody has a right to a decent night's sleep.'

These are not my words. These are former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd's words when he was the fledgling candidate for the seat of Griffith.

Here are some more words: 'This is not a 'nimby' attitude. I am tired of those who say this debate is about inner city people wanting to dump their problems somewhere else.' They were the current Prime Minister's words when introducing his private member's bill to tackle flight noise in Sydney.

Two Labor prime ministers, claiming to listen to the community when it suits them politically, then abandoning them when they came into positions of real power and influence over these situations.

Right now, thousands of Brisbanites are affected by constant, unrelenting flight noise. All they're asking for is a decent night's sleep, a simple request met with utter disdain and hostility from Brisbane Airport Corporation, from Airservices Australia, from the political establishment and from this Labor government.

Airservices Australia have wasted countless hours and resources, giving false hope to residents with their fake consultation processes. Brisbane Airport Corporation runs attack stories in the media against anyone who dares to question their right to make enormous profits at the expense of residents. The reaction of the transport minister was to simply dare the affected residents to go out and protest. Be careful what you wish for, Minister!

Solutions exist—like those already in place at Sydney airport. And BAC continues to argue, with no cogent rationale, that they are impossible for Brisbane.

The contemptuous treatment of affected residents was exemplified a few weeks ago by Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles labelling those affected 'inner city elites'. The irony of someone on $380,000 a year speaking to a room full of aviation CEOs and lobbyists calling everyday people 'elites' is breathtaking, and it was not lost on residents.

If Steven Miles and the Queensland Labor government are more interested in the profits of Brisbane Airport Corporation and the airline companies than they are in the wellbeing of everyday residents in these areas, their seats will be in grave danger at the 2024 state election.

The latest spin from Brisbane Airport Corporation is that somehow regional Queenslanders would lose out if caps and curfews were implemented. Dividing Queenslanders between those who live in the city and those who live in the regions—a pretty hackneyed political strategy that everyday people see right through. They know regional flights get cut when privately run airlines and airports are willing to sacrifice regional Queenslanders to corporate profits.

The solution to this? Simple! Take the profit motive out of the equation. We need to reconsider public ownership in this sector. It's clear that the current system—in which monopolies like that of Qantas and its subsidiaries control around 60 per cent of the domestic aviation market—is not working. Another monopoly, Airport Coordination Australia, controls airport slot management at most of Australia's major airports, and, extraordinarily, ACA is majority owned by Qantas and Virgin. They are effectively selling slots to themselves! And the monopoly Brisbane Airport Corporation, who are determined to double flights through Brisbane, exacerbating flight noise, all in the relentless pursuit of profit.

In the medium to long term, publicly owned high-speed rail also needs to be part of the conversation. This has obvious benefits not just in flight noise reduction but also in the decarbonisation of the transport sector more broadly. Sadly, this opportunity is being squandered under the Labor government's plan. It is unlikely that high-speed rail connecting Brisbane to Melbourne via Sydney and Canberra would be completed before the mid-2060s; this is despite a comprehensive report written by research institute Beyond Zero Emissions in 2014 that shows that such a route could be built in just 10 years.

Fundamentally, all this demonstrates the absolute corporate capture of what should be essential public services: airlines, airports and regulators. This is a consequence of the sell-off of public assets primarily by the Hawke-Keating Labor government in the eighties and nineties. Qantas and airports have been privatised. Airservices Australia, tasked with regulating our airspace to prioritise safety and reduce impacts on communities, is similarly 'corporatised' and relies on airline revenue to function.

This needs to be fixed. The residents of Brisbane should have the same rights as other Australians: the right to a good night's sleep.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the bill. Brisbane now suffers from the worst flight noise in Australia. The opening of the second runway in 2020 has been having an enormously detrimental impact on people's sleep, health and wellbeing across Brisbane suburbs. Airservices Australia's last annual report showed more complaints for Brisbane Airport than all other major Australian airports combined. Despite thousands of residents' participation in official government processes, complaints and reviews, the government has only offered token consultation and window-dressing.

The Brisbane Airport Curfew and Demand Management Bill 2023 will force real change to curb flight noise; introduce reasonable restrictions, including implementing a night-time curfew on flights from 10 pm to 6 am so that residents can get a good night's sleep; a total cap on flights at 45 flights per hour to manage relentless noise throughout the day; and a new long-term operating plan to prioritise more flights over the water. Noise reduction mechanisms like this are already in place and providing relief for other communities near airports across Australia, including at Sydney airport, which has had both a cap and a curfew since 1997. Obviously, it hasn't stopped Sydney from being a thriving world city—and with some of the cheapest flights in the country. The Prime Minister himself was a strong advocate for noise reduction when it was affecting his own inner Sydney seat. If a cap and curfew on flights is good enough for Sydney, then it should be good enough for residents of Brisbane.

It can be hard, I think, for people not living directly under the flight paths to appreciate how severely impacted residents are by this issue, particularly while the airport and government are working overtime to tell people there's no problem. As one constituent in Griffith, Erin, told me: 'The constant waking through the night from the noise is affecting our health and wellbeing. We have a small two-bedroom Queensland cottage and the noise from the planes rattles our entire house when a plane goes over, and we are struggling to even hear each other talk. My toddler is absolutely terrified and now constantly waking all through the night from the ridiculously loud planes at all hours.' Megan, who lives in Dutton Park, told me: 'Each night I am constantly woken by airplanes over our home, particularly around 2 am to 3 am. Then from 5.50 am to 7 am we have a constant stream of low-flying aircraft over our home—almost every three minutes. In the evenings, the aircraft fly over constantly between 7.30 pm to almost midnight. The planes rattle our windows and we cannot hear each other speak, nor the television—particularly for my four-year-old who enjoys a bit of ABC Kids. The disrupted sleep every night is unbearable. When we purchased our home there was next to no aircraft noise. One day it was like a switch: the aircraft noise started and it has never stopped.'

There are thousands of stories like this across the community. That the minister for infrastructure and transport is now refusing to meet with the community campaigners advocating for change is shameful; I am certain that the airport corporation has no trouble getting access. We know that Brisbane Airport Corporation's ambition is to double flights over the city by 2035. What's worse is that the government's own aviation green paper predicts a tripling of flight movements by 2050. This is just madness when we consider the impacts of noise, air pollution and CO2 emissions. You would think that instead of tripling flight movements by 2050, we might instead be finally building high-speed rail in this country, connecting three of the busiest air routes in the world and decarbonising our travel. But since the sell-off of our major airports and the national carrier in the nineties, we've now created a powerful corporate lobby group who have fought to protect any threats, like noise protections or high-speed rail, from growing their profits.

At the end of the day, this is a fight led by everybody: by people standing up against the greed of big corporations and against Labor and the coalition, who are held captive by the airline corporations. The Greens will always stand with the people in that fight. The community is tired of playing by airports rules, tired of being lied to and tired of giving up their lives to participate in endless technical reviews and sham consultations that go nowhere.

I commend this bill to the House. I hope that the government listens.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allocated for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.