No Aircraft Noise hosts meeting

By Janet Parker SYDNEY — Activists campaigning for the No Aircraft Noise Party in the federal seat of Sydney hosted a meeting on January 21 to forge links with other community groups in the Sydney electorate. In his opening address, NAN President Chris Nash emphasised the common concerns of these groups. "We are not, as many people believe, a single issue party", he said. "What happened at Kingsford Smith Airport was no aberration. It was an end result of a system of politics, a lack of concern for the environment and a refusal to consult with people on major development issues. The same system of politics is causing problems across the public sector from health to education, transport and provision of community services." Nash stressed the need to "occupy another level of ground" by forging a coalition with other groups fighting for genuine public consultation and participation in those decisions that affect our lives. "Everybody talks about public consultation", NAN's candidate for Sydney, Wendy Bacon, told the meeting, but in becoming part of the language of politics, she said it has also become a sham. Bacon pointed to the third runway and the backroom deals sealed between Keating and Murdoch as examples of this fraudulent process of consultation. "In Parliament House", she said, "there are 61 boxes of documents that record the consultation process that occurred over the third runway. Of the thousands of responses, 98% were critical of that environment impact statement. Nevertheless what was going on behind the scenes, using PR firms and inside confidential consultations, was a bolstering up of that EIS. It was a sham and a lie." The meeting began the process of community consultation and exchange by breaking into workshops to discuss policy areas that activists want to see NAN represent.