Page 6013 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 2010
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The airport also plays a key role in the Canberra community as a major gateway into the capital region. The opening of the new airport terminal will reinvigorate the aerial gateway into the ACT region and will continue to play an important role in ensuring that Canberra remains an attractive place for business investment and tourism.
The ACT government has been a very interested and active participant in relation to the operation of the Canberra airport and related aviation policy matters. The government has over the last few years raised with both airport management and the commonwealth minister a range of concerns regarding the Canberra airport and its growth.
The airport master plans, for instance, are an issue in relation to which the ACT government has consistently been involved. The airport master plans are a requirement of the commonwealth Airports Act and set out the strategic planning framework for a 20-year period. Master plans must be updated every five years—or earlier if requested. The ACT government provided submissions to the Canberra airport’s latest master planning processes in both 2008 and 2009.
The ACT government has also provided submissions to the development of the commonwealth’s national aviation policy statement white paper. The white paper, released by the federal minister on 16 December 2009, is a comprehensive, forward-looking framework to guide future aviation growth. It contains more than 130 policy initiatives.
The ACT government expressed a range of views as part of its submissions to the early phases of the development of the white paper. We provided a submission to the national aviation policy issues paper in June 2008 and a submission to the national aviation green paper in February 2009.
This brings me to the issue of aircraft noise. On 21 November 2010 the Leader of the Opposition announced: “Liberals to step up for Canberrans on aircraft noise.” In my view, it is too little a step and much too late. What needs to be recognised is that the current noise abatement requirements protect the vast majority of ACT and Queanbeyan residents from noisy aircraft overflights. Aircraft noise is generally restricted to a high noise corridor—in the main, Majura valley to the north and Tralee and Environa to the south.
Notwithstanding these current arrangements, over the years there has been a range of aircraft noise concerns raised by the community. The ACT government, of course, takes these concerns very seriously. In response, the ACT government has been lobbying the Australian government for a number of years to undertake a review of noise abatement for Canberra airport to ensure that, as new suburbs in Gungahlin come on line, they are afforded adequate protection from aircraft noise. Of course, that is also true for all other developments within the territory.
I was very pleased that the federal minister, in announcing his approval of the Canberra airport 2009 master plan, recognised the concern within the Canberra community about aircraft noise. The minister requested that Airservices Australia
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