By Jenny Long
Marina Carman, Democratic Socialist candidate for the seat of Port Jackson in the March 27 NSW election, warned on February 13 of more protests against Sydney Airport before the Olympics.
"Yesterday's announcement by transport minister John Anderson that Sydney Airport was about to trial a new radar system to allow planes to land and take-off at 30-second intervals, in any weather, is horrifying news to Sydney residents", Carman said.
According to the February 12 Sydney Morning Herald, the $12 million "Precision Radar Monitor" system would involve planes flying in a loop over suburbs to the north of the airport. Some would fly 300 metres lower than currently.
The system will allow airport authorities to far exceed the current 80 aircraft movements an hour cap. The cap was a concession to anti-airport protests in recent years.
"People in many suburbs already suffer enough from aircraft noise and the nightmare of air accidents over their homes and workplaces. Now we could have more planes flying lower. This confirms the extreme social recklessness and irresponsibility of Premier Bob Carr's Labor government and the airport authorities", Carman declared.
"Tens of thousands of people have protested against an airport in the inner-city and the western and southern suburbs. We'll have to do it again as the Olympics approach."
Sydney Airport should be closed and moved outside the metropolitan area, said Carman. The Badgerys Creek second airport plan should also be abandoned, she said.
Carman, who was vice-president of Sydney University Students Representative Council last year, helped organise the 1998 high school student walkouts against racism and debated One Nation's David Oldfield on Nine Network's A Current Affair. She was subsequently the target of an intimidation campaign by the violent neo-Nazi group, National Action.