First Meeting - 22 July 1996

INDEX

List of attendees

SUMMARY RECORD

The first meeting of the Sydney Airport Community Forum was held at the Commonwealth Parliament Offices in Phillip Street Sydney on 22 July 1996.

AGENDA ITEM 1

OPENING REMARKS

The meeting opened at 9:10am. The Chairman, Mr Joe Hockey MP, welcomed members.

Apologies were noted from:

  • Mr A Albanese, Member for Graynder, represented by Ms J Weder
  • Cr Barry Cotter, Mayor of Marrickville, represented by Mr M Refshauge
  • Cr Lorraine Rodden, Mayor of Sutherland Shire, represented by Cr Roy Stanton
  • Mr David Saul, Sydney Airport Forum Pty Ltd, represented by Mr Bill Moss.

The Chairman outlined how he envisaged SACF working and its key tasks. In particular, he intended that the Forum should function as a non-partisan body aimed at finding long term solutions in a co-operative manner to the problems caused by aircraft.

The Chairman emphasised that members had been appointed on an individual basis, and should be accountable as such. In the event that members need to be absent from time to time, a formal proxy would be needed for a substitute representative.

The Chairman stated that the key issue for the committee to deal with over the next 12 months is the Airservices Australia Review of Airspace Management on which the Minister had determined that the Forum should be the principal medium for community consultation. The Forum would therefore have the opportunity to comment on recommendations produced by the Review Task Force and consult with the community.

The Chairman also indicated that the Forum would give broad policy advice to the Minister on the operations of the Airport and would address the information needs of the residents on particular problems.

The Chairman stated that he wished to avoid issues being put to a formal vote. He added that there would be scope for members to have dissenting views recorded in the summary records of meetings. The Chairman also proposed that meeting summary records would be public.

The Chairman proposed to allow media and interested persons to be present as observers with no speaking rights and this was agreed to by the Forum.

Ms Nori requested that her view that the structure and geographic balance of representation on the Forum was inappropriate be put on record. She requested that there be more representatives from the areas in the immediate vicinity of the Airport. Similar concerns were expressed by several other members. The Chairman agreed to discuss this issue with the Minister.

See also: Agenda Item 7

AGENDA ITEM 2

ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Members adopted the provisional agenda and agreed to proceed in the order listed.

Two items were added under Other Business -- 7A Insulation and Acquisition, and 7B Representation by Coalition of Councils.

AGENDA ITEM 3

TERMS OF REFERENCE AND WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

Mr Hockey advised that the Minister for Transport and Regional Development had laid down the Terms of Reference.

Following discussion on the need for reference to the second airport in the Terms of Reference, the Chairman accepted a proposal that the first sentence of the Terms of Reference should be amended to read:

"The role of the body is to act as a forum for

  • the provision of advice to the Minister for Transport and Regional Development on the abatement of aircraft noise and related environmental problems at Sydney Airport including a second major international airport for Sydney..."

The issue of the venue for future meetings was discussed. Members suggested several venues including State Parliament House and local council facilities.

The Chairman advised that he preferred not to have sub-committees but acknowledged that there may be a need for ad hoc groups from time to time.

Between meetings members will receive a copy of the SACF Action Sheet with contact phone numbers.

AGENDA ITEM 4

LONG TERM OPERATING PLAN FOR SYDNEY AIRPORT

Representatives of Airservices Australia gave a presentation on progress with the Airspace Review and an update on operational changes introduced at the Airport over the last few months.

Following the presentations by Airservices, members were invited to ask questions. Issues raised in this session included:

  • problems experienced with the Noise Enquiry Unit
  • the need for any advertisements to be in other languages in addition to English
  • the ultimate capacity of the Airport and the implications for operating procedures of traffic levels increasing to 80 per hour
  • the need for Airservices to consider different scenarios with different runway maximum capacities during the airspace review
  • the abolition of the "Bennelong funnel"
  • the time required to turn the Airport around from southerly to northerly flow
  • the number of incidents associated with intersecting runways vs the number of incidents associated with parallel runways.

AGENDA ITEM 5 AND 6

PROVISION OF INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC MONITORING AND OPERATIONAL REPORTS

Members discussed what information they would like to have made available to them for distribution to the community.

Numerous suggestions were made by members in relation to both the nature of materials to be provided and the means of dissemination. Suggestions from members included the following:

  • the Minister's Briefing Notes on Sydney Airport (with the addition of some historical data for comparison and an executive summary)
  • BASI Incident Reports
  • full information on curfew activities
  • examine results of the market research currently being undertaken for Airservices to show what people want in the level of information
  • use of a faxback system
  • information be provided via Internet
  • presentation of information in both a summary and detailed format
  • material be distributed to libraries.

It was decided that for immediate purposes the current Briefing Notes should form the basis for regular information updates and that members' suggestions for refinements and means of dissemination would be progressively implemented whenever practicable.

The Chairman asked members to submit written suggestions to him on what additional information they would like to see in the Briefing Notes.

The Chairman undertook that the Secretariat would distribute a number of copies of the Briefing Notes to each member of the Forum. Community groups and members of three levels of government listed would also receive the information.

The Chairman advised members of the new 1800 freecall number to the Secretariat, and the post office box.

AGENDA ITEM 7

OTHER BUSINESS

A) ACQUISITION AND INSULATION PROGRAM

Mr Refshauge drew attention to a number of outstanding policy issues:

  • the Government's attitude to achieving AS2021 for residential insulation
  • the $45,000 per residence limit on Commonwealth contribution towards residential insulation
  • payment for remedial work prior to insulation where this causes hardship
  • hardship caused by increased electricity bills due to running air-conditioning
  • timeframe for houses under the east-west runway to be insulated.

The Chairman undertook that a presentation on the acquisition and insulation program would be arranged for 9 August 1996.

B) REPRESENTATION OF COALITION OF COUNCILS

Members requested that consideration be given to including representation from the Coalition of Councils (which will represent 19 Councils after 25/7/96) on the SACF.

The Chairman advised he would take this recommendation up with the Minister (along with earlier proposals for additional members to be appointed to the Forum).

C) OTHER

Members noted that there are a number of issues outstanding from the Sydney Airport Community Consultative Committee (SACCC). The Chairman undertook to place these issues on the agenda for the next meeting on 26 August.

It was proposed that for the September or October meeting:

  • IALPA be invited to present a pilots' point of view
  • Captain Wiltshire be invited to give an industry point of view
  • a tourism representative be invited to provide a tourism perspective on the Airport.

The Chairman agreed to a request that 20 copies of the agenda be available at each meeting for observers.

AGENDA ITEM 8

DATE AND VENUE OF NEXT MEETING

On 9 August 1996, a tour and general briefing is to be arranged for members at Sydney Airport. This is to involve the Federal Airports Corporation (FAC), the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), Airservices Australia, the Department of Transport and Regional Development (DoTRD), the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) and the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI). Due to security and space considerations, this briefing on 9 August is to be restricted to SACF members.

On 16 August 1996, a detailed briefing is to be provided by Airservices Australia on progress with the Airspace Management Review.

The next regular meeting of SACF will be on Monday 26 August 1996 at a venue to be determined. The Chairman undertook that a draft schedule of future meeting times would be distributed to members for feedback.