12th Sep 2018, 12:12 PM – Senate Airports Amendment Bill 2018 - Second Reading - Consultation

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Greens Senator Janet Rice, which means it failed. The motion would have added the words below to the usual second reading motion "that the bill be read a second time" (meaning "that the main idea of the bill be agreed to").

Motion text

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate calls on the government to develop and implement better consultation and community engagement standards for federally leased airports, to mitigate the impact of air noise on communities under major flight paths."

What is the bill's main idea?

According to the bills digest:

The purpose of the Airports Amendment Bill 2016 (the Bill) is to amend the Airports Act 1996 (Cth) to adjust processes relating to the preparation of master plans and major development plans for federally‑leased airports, including to:

• enable most federal airports (other than the major airports at Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney) to submit new master plans every eight years instead of every five years
• ensure that a new Australian Noise Exposure Forecast (ANEF) is required in each new master plan
• increase the threshold that triggers the requirement for an airport major development plan from $20 million to $35 million and allow the threshold to be increased in the future via a legislative instrument and
• amend certain other processes relating to major development plans, such as imposing a new 15-day timeframe within which the Minister must consider applications for shorter consultation periods for major development plans.