The Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome Committee believes it has been vindicated at testimony given at Senate Estimates this week in its views about lack of safety zones around airfields.
The Hearing on Monday involving CASA and other agencies involved with aviation and aviation safety came under close questioning from several Senators.
Senator Nick Xenophon asked a series of questions about public safety zones around Australian airfields. His questions followed the Essendon airport tragedy last week in which five people were killed when a plane crashed into a commercial building on the airfield.
Senator Xenophon based his questions on research from Europe and other countries which have well-defined safety zones. His questioning revealed that the only State in Australia which has public safety zones around its’ airfields is Queensland. The rest of the States didn’t even though federal governments had been meeting with the States for five years about the problem.
One of the bureaucrats indicated that there were various State “sensitivities” about safety zones which was impairing resolution of the matter, but did not elaborate. It was obvious that there was also some bureaucratic ‘sensitivity’ about the matter!
It would appear that the sensitivities relate to the problem of what to do with developments which already encroach on runways around airfields because States have been using a noise nuisance measure (ANEF) to determine where developments can and cannot be built. Scientific research shows that noise nuisance measures and safety zones relating to aircraft accidents on take-off and landing are two different things with the noise contours allowing development much closer to runways than safety would permit.
The sensitivities also relate to how safety zones might impair big developers and stop them from building on airport land.
Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome Committee president Dr Richard Gates said the big developer lobby had demonstrated that it was against any reform which improved noise control around airports demonstrated by opposition to reform of the noise standard now being used to control development.
‘You can imagine that they might not be very happy with new rules about public safety zones which pushed development further away from airfields,’ Dr Gates said.
Senator David Fawcett (SA) also picked up on the public safety zone matter. He had asked questions before and Xenophon made reference to him. Greens Senator Janet Rice from Victoria also explored the issue and indicated that local residents at Essendon had been complaining for years about noise and safety and nothing had been done.
The Aerodrome Committee has concluded following last night’s Senate Estimate’s Hearing that:
- The federal government has been abrogating its responsibility to the public by not insisting on Australia-wide public safety zones around all airfields in Australia,
- The federal bureaucracy and government have passed the buck by leaving it to the States and local governments to deal with the matter when clearly aviation safety is a cross-border issue. These bodies are often ill-equipped to make sound and fully-informed planning decisions and are not being checked by the federal government.
- The public is being put at risk by most state governments who do not have in place empirically-determined planning rules and regulations for safety zones around Australia’s airfields. But more than that they have been deliberately dragging their feet to aid and abet their developer mates so that they are not stopped from building inappropriate developments on our airfields. Bucks ahead of human safety…the ‘affordable risk’ model.
- All levels of government do not know what to do about the problem they have already created by failing to deal with the issue of allowing development too close to active runways. No doubt they will be looking at the cost of having to remove some real estate at the ends of runways or closing some airfields.
- There are serious ramifications for what is happening at Badgerys Creek which will further impair any resolution of the matter.
Dr Gates said it was not clear when the Federal and State governments would be resolving the issue of public safety zones around airfields but it was incumbent on them to resolve the matter urgently because of risk to public safety shown in the Essendon crash.
Dr Gates said his committee would be writing to the Premier to ask her to move the issue to the top of the planning agenda in NSW and to bring it to resolution as soon as possible.
He said that his committee would be writing to Richmond Valley Council, the owners of two airfields asking them to ‘Stop the Clock’ on all developments on and near its airfields until the planning matter is resolved.
He said council had already had one aviation incident at Casino where a plane crashed into the adjacent residential estate right at the end of the main runway.
‘How many accidents does it take before these authorities and elected representatives take human safety and human lives seriously?’
He said his committee would also be writing to the State Heritage Council to ask them as joint consent authority for all airfield development at Evans Head to be stopped.
‘The 2009 amended Plan of Management for the Aerodrome is now clearly out of date and needs to be amended to take account of public safety issues. The 2009 Plan also did not involve any consultation with stakeholders including the Aerodrome Committee which prepared the State Heritage Listing application and saw it through to gazettal.’
Dr Gates said his committee was “sick and tired of economic interests being put ahead of public safety and the heritage value of the airfield”.
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