ABC Radio Brisbane, Mornings

HOST, REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Catherine King is the Federal Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Minister, good morning.

MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, CATHERINE KING: Good morning. Good to be with you.

LEVINGSTON: You've had the report for a while it's been made public, what's going to change?

KING: So a few things, I think it's an incredibly important report. It's something that we pushed for when we were in opposition. We're very conscious that we had a new runway come in, it came in during COVID. Not a lot of people really noticed, because there was so few flights coming through during COVID and then with the aircraft starting back up again, that noise became a significant issue for people after a couple of years of pretty minimal flights coming in. So we pushed for Airservices to actually try and look at how that runway, how the noise was actually affecting people. So the report's really important. These are internationally the best technical people. I'm a politician, I don't know the technical ins and outs of every single way in which flights work and how you manage those. So that's why it's important. We've had this group look at it. What now has to happen is Airservices Australia, who are the regulators who regulate airspace and make sure that we are safe in the skies. They will look at that. I will do some consultation about what is feasible - is this actually going to work? And are the recommendations going to work? There are some that are easy and short-term to implement. So things around the governance structures and things like that we can act on that pretty quickly. So, they're going to have a look at it. They're going back out to the community to actually talk to people to say this is what we think and then by November they will have finalised what their recommendations are and what they think they can do. And then we implement them and as I said some are quick, some we can give relief to people fairly quickly. Some are a bit more technically complex and are going to take a little bit more time.

LEVINGSTON: So Minister can you confidently say that there will be fewer flights over Brisbane suburbs who are disturbed and upset by flight noise?

KING: Certainly the aim and the whole intent of us pushing for this in the first place is to try and give relief as best we possibly to communities under Brisbane Airport. I'm not going to sit here and say we're going to fix it and make it perfect for everybody. I just don't think that is possible to do. But we will do our best to try and provide relief for people and this is what this report is on a pathway to try and do.

LEVINGSTON: Why no curfew?

KING: A few reasons: one, it'll actually shorten the lifespan of Brisbane Airport and mean that we have to bring forward a second airport for Brisbane which is a) costly and then just transfers a whole lot of noise to a range of other communities and in the process of having to deal with the flight paths and think about flight paths for Western Sydney International Airport, there's new runways in Perth and Melbourne as well. Basically if you have your airport lifespan shortened, it brings forward the need for a second airport. I think also we've got to remember that there's 24,000 people who work at the airport, often live in the local community as well. They potentially would be impacted if the airport was shut down over certain periods of time. But also what I'd say, is a lot of the complaints I'm getting are actually not really during the times you would have a curfew. They're on weekends, public holidays, in between the hours 7 and 9pm seem to be where people are most distressed, so I'm not overly convinced that a curfew would actually help. I think people have latched on to that as a way of garnering political support. Certainly my view is that we're a party of government, not a protest. We had to look at what the economic impacts on the airport are, on jobs in the region, on freight coming in, including, freight that's going to carry medical supplies, all of those sorts of things. So that's why we've gone down the pathway of trying to provide relief as best we can.

LEVINGSTON: What about a curfew over residential suburbs, but flights could still take off and land over the bay?

KING: Again, the Trax report has made some recommendations around that. The paramount issue that Airservices has to look at is safety. It actually has to be safe to do that. So I think there are some certain times that that's just not possible. But certainly, the Trax report has recommended much more much more frequency of flights over water to try and maximize those. And I think having that as a principle, makes sure that Airservices Australia actually is doing that, that it actually has to do that. But it also has to make sure that it is safe for passengers.

LEVINGSTON: You're listening to Catherine King, who Is the Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, responding to the Air Services Australia report yesterday. Just on the idea that you know, if you had a curfew you'd have to have another Brisbane airport I mean, there are lots of other airports in southeast Queensland, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Caboolture, Amberley, Archerfield. So what about, you know, maximizing the access and the potential of those is that been factored in?

KING: Well, certainly that's not part of the Trax report, it obviously was looking specifically at Brisbane Airport noise, but that's certainly the impact if you did put in place a curfew is you shorten the life of that airport. I think, people who are flying into Brisbane Airport are flying into Brisbane airport for a reason, they're not flying into Gold Coast, or other airports. They're either coming to do business in Brisbane or you're getting freight in there. And there's particular reasons for that. So we certainly haven't looked at the long term secondary airport for Brisbane or any of those issues but you know, the airport has got quite a long lifespan as it is, but certainly if you put a curfew in place it does shorten the lifespan of the airport. That's the reality of what you do. You hit the cap, we hit its maximum capabilities, and then you can't bring any more flights in or any more passengers in and they are growing. That is just, what's actually happening. Over the longer term it'll be interesting to see and we've started to pursue high speed rail and high speed rail, particularly between Sydney and Newcastle was the first viable option that we're looking at. But, what you're seeing internationally is domestic air travel start to drop and that high speed rail replacing it so who knows, in 20, 30 years’ time, it may be that you don't you don't actually even need a second airport.

LEVINGSTON: Minister to speak frankly, is there an element here that we are a big growing region and you got to suck it up to some extent, you know, you live in a place that's getting busier - you're going to have noise?

KING: I wouldn't say that. I think for anyone who has experienced it - you bought your house, it's your refuge really. And for that to happen it's distressing for people. Could this have all been done better? I suspect what we're seeing from the Trax Report is yes, and I think there are some real lessons to learn and certainly for me, as a new Minister for Western Sydney International Airport, and for Perth and Melbourne. And really, making sure that we don't pay lip service to consultation, we really explain to people what's happening. We measure the noise properly. We do international best practice. So, I absolutely understand how distressed people are. It's your home, you don't want to have aircraft noise over it. My job now is to try and, as a party of government to try and actually do the best we can to try and alleviate it. But I don't want to pretend that we can fix it for everybody, because I just am not going to be able to do that. And I think politicians who try and pretend there's a magic solution again, are really not a party of government, they're using it as a protest.

LEVINGSTON: It's clear that the key out of this report to reduce aircraft noise for residents who live under the flight path is to increase the number of flights that arrive and depart over Moreton Bay. So when will that change begin?

KING: Well, again, we need to get advice from Australia. We need to do the consultation about that first, and then they'll give some advice as to when they think they ought to do it.

LEVINGSTON: It's dragged on for so long. And of course for those people under the flight path. It's like they're hanging on your every word and figuring this out for other people. It's like oh, my goodness, this is years and years of consultation and planning and expertise and federal money, has Airservices Australia dropped the ball on this?

KING: I don't want to criticise a Department I’m responsible for, but I certainly have announced that we'll be doing a substantial Aviation White Paper to look at the whole state in aviation full stop and that includes the way in which Airservices manages these issues. I have certainly recognised that there is a need to look at that properly. But as I said, I want to try and give relief to people as soon as we possibly can. But there are some real technical aspects that I'm not an expert at. I don't want to pretend to be, I need to get advice from Airservices Australia about; can they implement this? How? And can we do it safely? There are some trade-offs around that, it may mean flights just take a few minutes longer to get in. There might be you know, increased emissions as a result of having a longer fly-ins and there's trade-offs about that and they need to give me some technical advice about that and then about what they're planning to do. But as a principal, maximising flights over water is absolutely the recommendations of the Trax report. Airservices Australia now need to look at how can they actually implement that and what are the implications of that? So, I do want to thank people for their patience. I know it is distressing and people want it fixed tomorrow. But it is a really complex thing when you're designing airspace and how planes operate. And we have to do it as safely as we possibly can.

LEVINGSTON: Minister, thanks for your time this morning.

KING: Good to talk to you.