Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Congratulations, Madam Deputy Speaker, on your elevation to your new role. During our campaign to win the seat of Brisbane, we heard from thousands of locals about the issues that affected them most. One issue that came up throughout multiple suburbs was the impact of unsustainable flight noise caused by the new parallel runway built by Brisbane Airport Corporation. Residents who have called suburbs like New Farm, Hamilton, Ascot and many others home for years were not consulted about the impact that the new runway would have on their lives. They were misled about the flight paths the planes would take; they had been told that the planes would fly over the bay, only to find them flying directly over their homes and causing huge amounts of noise at all hours of day and night.

As the newly elected member for Brisbane, I will be fighting for the interests of my community—and the community is not asking for a lot. They simply want the same standard across the board. I'll be fighting for the introduction of a curfew and a long-term operating plan, as exists at Sydney's airport, as well as a cap on the number of daily flight movements. We must also amend the air navigation regulations to introduce a maximum decibel noise limit that complaints can be measured against. We need a real framework that allows the complaints of residents to be taken seriously. The people of Brisbane deserve to enjoy their homes, without flight noise caused by corporate greed.