Page 2320 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 16 June 2009
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on 10 February 2009. No, we did not. The Canberra airport released its preliminary draft master plan on 10 February. There was a 60 business day public consultation period, which closed on 8 May.
The ACT government made a submission on the preliminary draft master plan. In that submission we raised a number of issues in relation to the future development of the Canberra airport, including issues in relation to aircraft noise. The government has not released that submission. We do expect that the submission will become public. The position that the government has adopted in relation to the submission is that, as a submission to an inquiry or a decision making process in relation to the draft master plan, we made the submission to the commonwealth, and we have taken the attitude and adopted the position in relation to that that it is probably for the commonwealth to release those submissions, if that is what it chooses to do.
These are always difficult issues for government. In relation to documents and submissions to inquiries, indeed, in relation to parliamentary inquiries, there is a process and it is not unusual for some submissions not to be released by the investigating authority.
In relation to the Canberra airport master plan, indeed, in relation to the issue of noise, we did raise implications and issues in relation to noise. In addition to that, we have engaged a noise expert, Miss Marion Burgess, to undertake a review of an Airservices Australia aircraft noise monitoring study which is currently being undertaken. Airservices Australia has agreed that it will make its results available for independent analysis, and we expect that to happen within the next month or so. That independent review which we are undertaking is in direct response to aircraft noise concerns that have been raised and are raised regularly by members of the community, most particularly from north Canberra and probably most particularly from Hackett.
The government’s intention in relation to that is to ensure that there is independent, objective advice available to this government and to others in relation to what is a significant decision for this community in relation to Canberra airport and a potential freight hub there, that we make our decisions objectively on the basis of evidence and on the basis of definitive and independent validated data so that we are all informed and the decisions we take are backed by objective, definitive, validated evidence and data. It is the way decisions should be made and it is the way we intend to finalise decisions that we make in relation to the government’s position in relation to noise and the Canberra airport and the implications of that for its future development.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Bresnan, a supplementary question?
MS BRESNAN: Does the ACT government support the position of Canberra airport’s managing director, who stated on 5 June that the 24-hour freight hub should be built so as to relieve Sydney of aircraft noise?
MR STANHOPE: The government’s position in relation to the freight hub is that decisions in relation to that should be taken around noise and amenity, and at least decisions in relation to that should be informed most particularly by issues in relation to noise and potential impact on amenity for Canberrans. Most particularly, those that
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