By Tim E. Stewart
DARWIN — Defence minister Robert Ray is due here following the end of "Pitch Black" — dusk and dawn military exercises operating out of Darwin airport. Ray finally agreed to an invitation-only meeting with the Noise Abatement Group (ANAG) on September 9 after months of manoeuvring and procrastination by the Department of Defence.
Since the campaign against the massive increase in military air exercises began this year, community concern has been met with a variety of tactics. The Department of Defence has dispatched Senator Bob Collins to meetings, engaged the services of the RAAF public relations officer and even commissioned a two-day ministerial report into "allegations against US pilots during exercise Southern Frontier" (the allegations were dismissed).
Commenting on the evasive methods of the department, ANAG's Terry Drier said, "Nobody ever tells you in plain English what's going on. All we want them to say is what they are going to do."
Pitch Black was somewhat quieter than expected this year, with a squadron of United States FA-18s abstaining from the exercise. For two weeks of the exercises, the Department of Defence has been doing official noise tests which will form the basis of any further action.
In a letter to ANAG, Ray wrote: "I'm sure you will understand that the need for the commissioning of an environmental impact statement ... will be determined from noise studies currently being undertaken by the Department of Defence. If it is evident that military aircraft activity represents an impact significantly above the forecast in the RAAF Darwin 1997 Australian Noise Exposure Forecast map the matter will be referred to the Commonwealth Environmental Protection Authority for assessment."
"That letter contains a number of ifs", Drier told Green Left Weekly. "With the department using those words, on that front we're not going to win. But that doesn't mean we can't be pushing for a full EIS. I think we can win on the health aspects." ANAG is currently researching published reports on health and safety issues in other cities affected by military air exercises.
Kerry Howell, another ANAG member, is looking forward to the September 9 meeting. "We want to let Robert Ray know it's an election issue."
She pointed to the recent upset in the territory elections in the seat of Millner (the Darwin electorate most affected by military air noise). Howell attributes the sitting ALP member's loss to a soft stance on the noise issue. The seat was contested by Greens candidate, Ilana Eldridge, who supported ANAG and picked up just under 10% of the vote.