Mr RUDD (9:40 AM) —Today in the House of Representatives chamber I will lodge a note of intention to lodge a private member's bill to amend the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act. Specifically, this amendment will enable members of parliament to take a matter to the AAT on behalf of their local communities where the interests of their local communities have been aggrieved by an administrative decision by government. This arises from a judicial decision in 2002 which found that I did not have legal standing in a matter that I had brought forward to the AAT concerning the decision of the Minister for Transport and Regional Services to approve the Brisbane Airport master plan of February 1999 and that master plan's recommendation for the construction of a western parallel runway at Brisbane Airport—a decision which would have a profound impact on my local community.

The 1999 decision to approve this airport master plan was undertaken by transport minister John Anderson despite the opposition of more than 4,000 petitioners, despite the potential impact on over 50,000 residents on Brisbane's southside and despite the fact that there was subsequently a legal case which ran for two years and involved four stages before both the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Federal Court. That legal action was ultimately lost on the question of legal standing, thereby not enabling the substantive matter to be heard on its merits. The action also resulted in a damages bill to me which, when personal costs were taken into account, amounted to some $32,000. The residents of Brisbane's southside assisted greatly in enabling me to pay that bill, for which I thank them.

This situation opened in my mind and in the community's mind the broader question of access to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. This tribunal was establish in 1975 in order to give average Australian's affordable justice rather than their having to go to the extraordinary expense of engaging professional legal expertise to take matters through the full courts—hence the basis for my presenting this private member's bill in the main chamber today. The amendment seeks to open up the question of legal standing, in particular as it relates to federal members of parliament.

On the question of the Brisbane Airport master plan itself, late last year the Brisbane Airport Corporation submitted a second draft master plan, and that was in turn approved by the minister on 11 May 2004—which happened to be budget day, thereby preventing any effective public scrutiny of the decision to approve yet again this most controversial plan. Quite plainly, objections to the first master plan were ignored by the Howard government and objections to the second master plan were ignored by the Howard government. Regrettably, because the decision has been taken to approve this master plan and its recommendation for a parallel runway, that runway will be constructed irrespective of the political outcome of the next election—a result which I regret profoundly.