By Cameron Parker
SYDNEY — In a revealing speech to the Airport Privatisation Conference in the Hilton Hotel on May 22, minister for transport Laurie Brereton unveiled the federal ALP government's strategy for selling leases for Australia's 22 major airports.
Forced to broadcast his opening speech because a vocal and angry anti-airport privatisation demonstration was taking place outside the two entrances of the hotel, Brereton outlined Labor's strategy for a "light touch" regulatory regime to control the privatised airports.
"The new airport owners will have their own role in addressing community concerns about noise. [They] must recognise that managing noise is a commercial issue", Brereton announced.
Fifty-year leases to the airports will be sold to the highest bidder, beginning with Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Badgerys Creek in 1996. Regulations controlling aircraft will be relaxed to "provide incentives" for investment. The ALP is hoping that Australian superannuation funds will be the major bidders, but does not rule out substantial overseas "equity".
By calling for diversity of airport ownership (except for Kingsford Smith and Badgerys Creek), Brereton and Labor believe competition and efficiencies will naturally follow. But no data have yet been provided that prove handing over public assets to profit-driven private interests is more efficient.
The British government decided against breaking up its airport network when no proven advantages could be identified. The French government is now looking to reunifying its airport network. New Zealand has lost coordination of its airline services, facilities and charging after privatising terminals.
Community dissatisfaction with the government's plans is growing. At a Community Advisory Committee public meeting on May 19, people were clearly unhappy. Concern was expressed that private airport operators will pursue having more planes take off and land in their drive to increase profits. Private operators will place greater strains on the current, poorly observed, curfew hours. There will be no curfew at Badgerys Creek, even though it is situated in a burgeoning residential area.
The Federal Airports Corporation has the fourth-lowest landing and take-off charges in the world. Charges at Cairns airport, already partly privatised, are three times the present FAC charges. If Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane airports are sold, then landing charges at all other airports will rise. According to Brereton, "Price capping [will be] restricted to the largest four airports". This will mean the price of tickets rises.
Environmental, health and safety issues can be administered in the public interest only by an accountable public entity, like the FAC should be, ensuring compliance with standards. The government is now on record as saying it has accepted the desire of prospective owners to keep regulation "as light as possible".
Competition between similar enterprises is not applicable to Australia's airport network. Travellers can't switch to another airport because it's more "efficient" than others. The fact that Kingsford Smith and Badgerys Creek airports will be sold as a package proves that Labor's "competition" strategy is a cover for making the community bear the financial, environmental and health costs of infrastructure deregulation.