Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to raise the very vexing issue of aircraft noise. In the nearly six years since I became the member of Tangney, this problem has worsened significantly, especially in the last couple of years. One resident wrote to me:

The last 12 months have seen a constant stream of planes day and night over our house.

There also needs to be a curfew in place at night like they have in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

There are too many planes leaving the Perth airports now.

We are no longer a small insignificant capital city. There are over 400 landings and takeoffs per day. It has got to the stage if something is not done we will be forced to leave.

I can put up with the noise during the day but having my nights constantly disturbed is another matter.

I do not want to leave here as I’m used to the area and have friends here, who are also suffering with the plane noise.

Another constituent, in Shelley, said they fly directly over her house all through the night and she and her husband cannot get any sleep. She has phoned the mayor, who is on the airport noise consultative committee, and he says he cannot get anything done. She has contacted many other offices, including Airservices Australia. The officer there said he could see how many flights she was getting and was not surprised that she had problems. But everyone in the end told her to ring her local MP. Another constituent lives in Applecross and wants to know why his suburb has suddenly come under the flight path for aircraft using Perth Airport.

When I wrote to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, part of the advice I was given was for the constituents to raise their concerns with Perth Airport Noise Management Consultative Committee, but my constituents say no matter which body they submit their complaints to there is nothing being done about this noise. The complaint is the same all over the electorate: more planes are flying over, they are flying later into the night and even through the night, and they are starting frequent flights much earlier in the morning. This minor nuisance has become a major problem in Tangney, with health implications for some of my constituents. I call on the government to take this matter seriously and take some form of action to reduce this problem, as my constituents fear—with some justification—that it will only get worse.