Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

Sydney airport is vital economic infrastructure for Australia, for Sydney and, more importantly and specifically, for the Sutherland Shire, supporting thousands of local jobs. The long-term operating plan for Sydney airport, also known as LTOP, was an election commitment that the Howard government took to the 1996 election. It involves the principle of sharing aircraft noise around all areas surrounding Sydney airport, using different combinations of runway modes. Subject to safety and weather considerations, LTOP seeks to maximise the number of flights over water and non-residential areas. Within LTOP there are specific targets for the percentage of flights to be routed from and to the south—around 55 per cent—and equally from the east, the west and the north. The assumption is that flights to the south are over water—but, as those at Kurnell would know, those flights are over their places. It is also implicit in the assumption that 55 per cent of flights to the south are over water that the flight path predominantly used, other than for planes that come in directly over Kurnell, will be over water.

A key component of the plan to achieve this objective was the way in which flights are intended to track when landing from the south. Approaching from the north, they are intended to track east of the airport—out to sea, off the coast—before looping around and landing from the south along the two parallel runways. On this route they do substantively travel over water. LTOP became a legal obligation for Airservices Australia when it was made the subject of a ministerial directive referred to in a motion by the then transport Minister John Sharp in 1997. Following the last election an announcement was made by Sydney airport that construction works were required at the western end of the east-west runway to erect a jet blast barrier. These were important and necessary safety works. Following consultation and approval by the minister for transport, requiring a series of worthy safeguards for the project, the project was agreed to and allowed to proceed.

A key element of the approval was to ensure a fair sharing of aircraft noise during the construction phase due to the restricted use of the east-west runway. An environmental impact statement was also done as part of this process. The project got underway in the latter part of 2008 with the goodwill of the communities that would be affected. For shire residents, a key issue was that the government should be held to the promise that—and I quote from the Sydney airport release—‘as soon as the construction is complete, normal airport operations and noise-sharing arrangements will resume’. As the project proceeded, many residents from Kareela and the nearby suburbs of Sylvania, Jannali, Miranda, Gymea Bay and Grays Point contacted me to register their opposition to the increase in aircraft noise over their homes. I raised this issue with Airservices Australia and they told me that these flights were normal and not subject to any LTOP obligations. That was plainly not true. They were definitely subject to LTOP obligations, as required over many years.

The publication of operational statistics for Sydney airport told me a very different story to the one initially presented by Airservices Australia. It showed that there was a direct concentration of flights over the area that was affected and from which the complaints were originating. The increased noise was the result of the increased use of a standard arrival route known as Boree 4. It showed that there had been an increase in the concentration of flights on that route from 2.8 per cent of arrivals to 7.8 per cent of total arrivals in just a 12-month period. I call it ‘Labor’s highway in the sky’. Once again, this route applies to landing from the south but, rather than going to the east of the airport and out to sea, the planes are flying directly through the member for Lowe’s electorate, right down through the member for Watson’s electorate and the member for Barton’s electorate and across my electorate in the shire. They are supposed to be flying over those areas at a height of 6,000 feet before looping around and landing from the south. The problem with this approach is not only that it is against the principles of LTOP—which were put in place and which this motion seeks to have applied—but also that there has been a constant struggle to ensure the community gets access to information about what they know to be really happening on the ground.

These flights arrive during the early part of the morning, particularly in the curfew shoulder period and between six and seven. What we have been able to establish through the Sydney Airport Community Forum is that not only has this been happening, and it has been a real experience, but also, since the construction project that was blamed for the increase in noise has been completed, the noise continues. So we have been asked to ensure that the government provide the information that will confirm what people know on the ground: this flight noise is continuing because the government has not changed the flight paths back to normal, as was suggested, and the community is calling on them to do just that—to return aircraft operations at Sydney Airport to normal, as promised.

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