“We need a balanced and sustainable aviation future for all Australians”

The way the world works and thinks is changing. Aviation has to change too.

To maximise the future benefits of air travel for Australia, aviation policy will need to ensure a balance between safe air travel, efficient use of airspace and minimisation of harm to communities and the environment.

While the current policy framework rightly priorities air safety, it has routinely allowed efficiency and commercial interests to dominate public and environmental interest. Community stakeholders have been left out of the process.

It’s time for a new normal.

How we get there

By ensuring the interests of community stakeholders are properly represented through a new Australian Community and Aviation Safeguarding Framework which would:

1. Establish capacity caps and curfews for all major Australian airports through section 195 of the Airports Act, and compensation for sound-proofing and loss of property values through the the Aircraft Noise Levy Act.

2. Provide an equal voice for affected communities in aviation policymaking through a community-driven forum such as a replacement of the current ineffective airport-led community consultation process.

3. Establish a genuinely independent body, appointed by parliament, to provide scrutiny of aviation decision-making and complaint handling.

Airport development

Airports keep growing bigger and busier, but the rules to protect neighbouring communities are outdated and ineffective.

The complex planning framework doesn’t work for councils or developers either but the federal government seems reluctant to act.

Flight path changes

Where planes fly can have an enormous impact on communities, as well as the environment. Flight paths are changing all the time but, unlike other transport industries, the people affected have very little say.

While safety is the priority, communities need to be involved in the design process .

Flight training

Flight training is big business, but it imposes huge costs on communities, which can be overflown by literally thousands of training flights every day.

In most cases the communities were there long before the flight schools - why should they subsidise the industry?