The incoming Western Sydney International Airport continues to be a contentious topic, with an all-day forum being held to discuss the issues last week.
Last Friday, Senators Matthew Canavan, Bridget McKenzie, Glenn Sterle, Lisa Darmanin and Steph Hodgins-May were joined by stakeholders and community members to discuss issues surrounding the new airport as part of a Senate inquiry into the impact and mitigation of aircraft noise.
President of the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, Annette Cam, presented at the inquiry and said it was important to her group that the surrounding bushland would be protected.
“To me, as a person who loves the bush, all bushland areas are important [but] this in particular is a world heritage area,” Cam said.
“So, it is an internationally [and] globally recognised area of wilderness and the Federal Government in signing us up for that agreed to a whole lot of legal regulations on protecting it.
“So, it is not like they can say ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter’ [because] legally they have said ‘We will protect this area’… the government really has to look at how they are going to mitigate the detrimental impacts.”
On behalf of the community group Residents Against Western Sydney Airport (RAWSA), Trevor Neal said there was a similar theme among the day’s presentations.
“They all had a pretty consistent view on the airport’s operations, particularly demanding a curfew, particularly demanding a long-term operating plan and particularly requiring that the flight paths that have been released… requiring that the flight paths should be redesigned for both Sydney Airport and Western Sydney Airport to make it fairer across the whole Sydney basin area,” Neal said.
“What people don’t realise is that this airport has been given unprecedented permission to structure [operations] how they like [and] when they like without any regulation and that’s quite different to Sydney Airport that has a long-term operating plan, that has a curfew, [and] has flight caps and so people are saying we didn’t particularly want this airport in the first place and now you are giving us flight paths and operating parametres that are nothing like what you said they were going to be.”
Federal Member for Lindsay, Melissa McIntosh, has been outspoken about changing the flight paths to be more equitable across Sydney and said after the event that Lindsay is the area most affected by the proposed flight paths.
“It was really important to have the Parliamentary Senate hearing in Penrith,” McIntosh said.
“I worked hard to get the senators out to our community because we are the most impacted community by flight paths and right now people aren’t being felt listened to by the Albanese Labor Government and it is clear, because there was over 8,000 submissions to the Environmental Impact Statement process. So, this was another opportunity for people to have their say.
“A couple of the big issues that came out, one was that there is less than 100 homes that are earmarked for noise mitigation and we’ve heard from Luddenham residents who are parallel to the runway to the airport itself and one resident said his home is 750 metres away from the airport and he is not receiving any insulation on his home.
“We have a whole township there that feels left behind, they had one pop-up consultation by the government at the local IGA on a Sunday and it was raining. That’s all they got.
“So, there is a lot of emotion from people about what is going on and ultimately what we’re asking for and what we’ve always been asking is to have fair and balanced flight paths, for it to not be just concentrated over one electorate being the electorate of Lindsay.”
Inquiries across Australia into the issues are ongoing.
Emily Chate
Emily Chate joined The Western Weekender in 2024, and covers local news - primarily courts and politics. A graduate of the University of Wollongong, Emily has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and worked as a freelance journalist.