against council’s airport interest
Stop Flight Path Impacts strongly opposed City of Gold Coast (Council’s) 2023 decision to investigate the option of acquiring a share in Queensland Airports Limited (which includes Gold Coast Airport) anytime into the future. A 74.25 per cent stake in Queensland Airports was put up for sale by several institutional investors.
It was announced in late September 2024 that Council and its real estate investment partner had been unsuccessful in its bid for the QAL investment. The media reporting of its unsuccessful bid was the first public announcement that the City had officially been in the running for the investment stake.
We opposed it as we believe it would create a significant conflict of interest for Council in situations where the operational and profit interests of the Airport are contrary to the interests of the wider community. Of particular concern is protection of the Airport curfew (11.00pm to 6.00am) which provides residents living close to the growing airport some protection from the well-documented serious health and welfare effects of interrupted sleep.
Stop Flight Impacts (Gold Coast Lifestyle Association) wrote to all councillors in late 2023 expressing our concerns, including a request for greater clarity regarding Council’s interests, as it was only discussed in closed session. Find more about our concerns in the following points.
key concerns
The Association’s main concerns relate to the potentially untenable conflicts of interest that arise for Gold Coast Council should it become a shareholder in QAL:
1. The City of Gold Coast Council is the local government planning authority for the rapidly densifying neighbourhoods surrounding the Airport. The Airports Act 1996 refers to the role of local government in several places. For example: section 71 relevantly provides that Airport Master Plans must specify “the airport lessee company’s plans, developed following consultations with the airlines that use the airport and local government bodies in the vicinity of the airport, for managing aircraft noise intrusion in areas forecast to be subject to exposure above the significant ANEF levels;”
If the City holds an ownership stake in the Gold Coast Airport, then the City Council will effectively be consulting with itself on how aircraft noise intrusion needs to be managed in Airport Master Plans.
2. Becoming a major shareholder also appears to create a significant conflict of interest for Council in situations where the operational and profit interests of the Airport are contrary to the interests of the wider community. We are particularly concerned that the integrity of the Airport curfew (11.00pm to 6.00am QLD) is protected and upheld for the long-term. This is a vital operational condition that provides residents living close to a growing airport surrounded by a growing city a good night’s sleep. The serious health and welfare effects of interrupted sleep are well documented in the medical literature, including reports by the World Health Organisation.
3. We consider pressure will continue to escalate from airlines and the Airport for the curfew to be relaxed or abolished. In 2022 QANTAS sought a long-term exemption from curfew times to allow air freighters to land inside curfew hours. This application was refused by the Federal Minister in March 2022 following a sustained campaign from community groups, including ours, to protect the integrity of the curfew and the community health benefits it delivers.
4. In future circumstances where there may be further moves to relax or abolish the curfew, we wish to know that the Council will have the community’s back and will not be conflicted and constrained in its advocacy for the community interest because it is a shareholder beholden to the commercial interests of the Airport/QAL.
5. Conflict of interest may also arise regarding the provision of parking for the proposed light rail and heavy rail stations at the Airport. The Preliminary Draft Master Plan 2024 proposes that within 20 years there will be a combined light rail and heavy rail station (extension of heavy rail from Varsity Lakes) on Airport land east of the Airport Hotel. This will be a major new ground transport hub for the southern Gold Coast. Heavy rail stations demand high volume, free public car parking. However, car parking on airport land is a major revenue stream and is expensive, never free. Expensive car parking will provide a huge disincentive to use of the publicly funded light and heavy rail stations. Clearly the community expects the Council to be unfettered in its ability to advocate for free public parking at this proposed major new ground transport hub. That ability will be compromised if the Council is conflicted due to its Airport shareholding.
6. An additional potential conflict could be maintaining a harmonious and constructive relationship with Tweed Shire Council due to it being impacted more by Gold Coast Airport and aircraft noise than the Gold Coast itself. This comes into play particularly regarding the Airport’s growth projections for increased passenger jet movements and the potential extension of the runway south to cater for larger, heavier aircraft (still a provision of the Airport Master Plan). Both these scenarios could trigger a Tweed community call for a noise amelioration program (i.e. retrofitting of sound-proofing measures to thousands of existing dwellings under the flight path). Privately owned airports are generally opposed to such programs as they are funded by a per passenger levy the airport must collect. Again, the desired situation is that Gold Coast Council does not have a financial interest in the Airport to ensure it is unfettered to act in the best interest of the community.
Read our letter: https://flightpathgc.squarespace.com/.../Concerns-re...
Read Gold Coast Bulletin’s coverage: https://flightpathgc.squarespace.com/.../Gold-Coast...
