2020-10-12 GC Agenda - Item 9 - Attachment 1 - Aircraft Noise Ombudsman Report - Investigation

Airservices collated and analysed the feedback received from all areas of the
community about the flight path designs, and undertook some additional briefings
and community updates with affected communities in the general areas after the
feedback period closed. Complaints by residents to Airservices about the process
were not responded to until well after the closure of the consultation period.
Airservices acknowledges that responses to complaints were not completed in a
timely manner, and advised the ANO that community submissions were first
analysed for feedback that could help shape the final flight path designs to ensure
that insights were provided to the flight path design team in a timely manner. When it
finally responded to complaints made about the process, Airservices described its
consultations as “successful”, which served to further anger complainants to the
ANO.

Conclusions
Airservices has a responsibility to engage with the community on the environmental
impact of aircraft operations. Although it did not evaluate or assess the community
engagement process under the EIS in 2014/15, Airservices relied on it to decide that
it had no responsibility to consult any further with residents in the general area in
2019. These areas would be captured by a community update program being
undertaken by the Sunshine Coast Airport Expansion Project. The consultation
process itself was not well communicated and caused public confusion about the
relative responsibilities of Airservices and the Sunshine Coast Council. This persisted
throughout the consultation period and after.
While Airservices was drawn into considering submissions from the general area by
the sheer volume of response, it became clear to those making submissions that they
had little chance of influencing the outcome. The predictable result was the
community outrage expressed in the complaints to the ANO.

Recommendations
Where Airservices proposes flight paths required by an airport (or other third party)
development, it needs to be involved early in the planning process and to clearly
specify its role and the terms on which its responsibility to engage with the
community on changes to aircraft operations will be managed.

                                    Airservices should develop a framework for third party
                                    proposed changes that:
                                    (a) provides robust and dependable governance
                                        arrangements to manage its early and ongoing
                                        engagement with third parties
                                    (b) establishes clear lines of accountability and documents
                                        these arrangements as they evolve
                                    (c) ensures an effective consultative process, which includes
                                        monitoring the adequacy of any third party consultations
                                        being relied on.
At the Sunshine Coast, Airservices can use its post-implementation review process
to re-engage with communities and consider community-suggested alternatives to
the flight paths that will be introduced in support of the new runway.


Aircraft Noise Ombudsman
Investigation into complaints about the introduction of new flight paths in the Sunshine Coast (April 2020)   Page 2