RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC SYDNEY MORNINGS WITH SARAH MACDONALD
FRIDAY, 8 NOVEMBER 2024

SUBJECT: Western Sydney Airport Flight Paths

SARAH MACDONALD, HOST: Do you live under the flight path near Sydney Airport? Are you now used to having to pause conversations, wait for a plane to roar overhead?

Have you got noise protection in your roof? Maybe you've just accepted it as an inescapable part of living in the city. Well, if you live in Penrith, Claremont, Eastern Creek, Kemps Creek or the Blue Mountains, you will be hearing planes yourself from 2026. That runway is now built and the final environmental impact statement into Western Sydney airports, flight paths has now been published. This has more detail about the noise impacts that neighbouring suburbs can expect. Now. I've been having a look at the website from WSI flightpaths.gov.au and you can too if you want to search for that. But to tell you what it means, Susan Templeman is the MP for Macquarie that covers the Blue Mountains and Emu plains, and we'll go to the Penrith area next. Good morning, Susan Templeman.

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MACQUARIE, SUSAN TEMPLEMAN: Morning, how are you, Sarah?

HOST: Yeah, I'm good. Thank you. Now, these maps are a bit complicated, and I know the loudness varies according to the flight paths and the times, but overall, how's it looking for your neck of the woods?

TEMPLEMAN: Look, I'm as concerned today as I was when flight paths for the Blue Mountains were first talked about nearly a decade ago. This will be new noise in our community, and it won't be welcomed noise. There will be impacts right across the mountains. However, changes that were made In August this year means that there is a better nighttime pathway for the planes so that the noise is reduced. But look, I still worry very, very deeply about what this will be like when planes start flying for the Blue Mountains. We are one of the quietest places that you can go. That's why people come to the Mountains, and this will be 24/7 noise.

HOST: I want to talk about the nights in just a moment, but which areas in the mountains are you particularly worried? I mean, I could see in terms of landing, I think there was over Medlow Bath or is it, Linden? are there any particulars areas where you think people will notice the noise?

TEMPLEMAN: Well, the noise will be most noticeable where it is lowest and that will be the lower mountains. So, the lower Blue Mountains without doubt will experience the biggest change and it will be up to, according to the maps, and the maps are there because I demanded that there be transparent information about all these flight paths. The maps show that it could be as much as 60 decibels in the day around the lower mountains, different parts of the lower mountains at different times. And I think that is a real concern. That applies also to Emu Plains and the Penrith area. The changes that have come through have lightened the noise a little bit in different places, but I think we're all still trying to absorb just what those changes mean. Some of the changes were better for the Blue Mountains, some were better for Angus Taylors region south of me. Others were better for different parts of Sydney.

HOST: So, do you think they've spread the pain then fairly?

TEMPLEMAN: I don't. I think there's still more fairness to come and I think that's something in years ahead we need to work on. But you think about what we started with back in 2016, it was 100% of incoming flights coming over the Blue Mountains, especially the lower Blue Mountains. My community said that's not fair. And the consequence of that was a sharing of the noise. Now the downside of sharing the noise is more people experience some of the noise, and I think the Challenge in these flight paths is they predominantly affect Western Sydney. They don't make a big difference to eastern Sydney and really, you get fair noise sharing when you do a whole of Sydney Basin redesign.

HOST: Yeah, but the rest of Sydney's already got the noise of the of the Kingsford Smith Airport, so I suppose in some ways this is the Western Sydney will go through what the rest of Sydney's been going through for years.

TEMPLEMAN: Well, some people will argue it that way, but you think about it, this Western Sydney Airport is supposedly an essential economic thing for the whole of Sydney. And so, all of Sydney will get benefits we're told, in which case all of Sydney should share the noise pain of it. I think ultimately, we're only going to be able to say the noise is fairly distributed when the whole of the Sydney Basin is redesigned. That is due to happen when the second runway for Western Sydney Airport comes online.

HOST: And when does the second one come online?

TEMPLEMAN: Decades away.

HOST: Right

TEMPLEMAN: In the meantime, the next opportunity I see is the new EIS mandates noise monitoring across Western Sydney. What that will allow us to do is get actual readings of noise when the planes are flying. Right now, it's lots of speculation, science and the like, but it isn't getting the actual noise levels. and so, I think it's really good to see that there is mandated noise monitoring by air services in this version. And those noise monitoring levels will be absolutely crucial for us to determine whether there is fairness to the way this noise is being distributed. But the bottom line is the Blue Mountains would rather there be no noise.

HOST: Well, you'd rather no airport, would you?

TEMPLEMAN: That was my position, way, way back. And you know, obviously when times change and Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison continued the construction of the airport, there's a point where you go, OK, this airport's happening and that becomes no longer a possibility.

HOST: Well, it's been supported by several governments on both sides of the political spectrum hasn't this airport and a lot of people are texting and saying, come on, Australia loosen up and live, we need progress, we need another airport. Having it so close to the city is very unusual the airport we've got.

TEMPLEMAN: And to all those people who are welcoming it, I'd say great, take a share of the noise. And I think in years to come, I think this story isn’t over. Sarah. I think this, like Sydney Airport, is going to be a noisy issue that that runs for decades to come.

HOST: Thank you for your time this.

TEMPLEMAN: A pleasure

ENDS