Who are RAWSA?
Everyday residents fighting the decision to build a 24/7 airport in Western Sydney
March 2014, PM Abbott emphatically declares Western Sydney Airport (WSA)will be built!
Everything since, has been done to ensure it is built with a government propaganda campaign of the airport’s benefits without addressing the impacts.
2015 a group of concerned local citizens organised a public meeting at Blaxland to gauge the community response to the Western Sydney Airport (WSA) proposal.
The response at the meeting and the level of community anger against WSA was overwhelming to the point that an informal group developed to counter the biased Govt media.
2015 this group evolved into the formalisation of Residents Against Western Sydney Airport (RAWSA) as an incorporated association. RAWSA’s aims are to provide the public with researched and balanced information on social and environmental impacts of WSA and to fight against the project.
2016 the Govt. released the draft WSA Environmental Impact Statement EIS where 4500+ submissions against the project were ignored, except for two insignificant concessions. Essentially it was nothing more than a ‘tick the box exercise’ by Govt.
The EIS was based on a concocted need, false assumptions and incomplete planning, All social, health and environmental impact assessments were carried out without knowing where flight paths would be located. Mandating of flight paths will not be released to the public until just before WSA is planned to go operational.
2017 an Independent report debunks Govt employment claims and shows jobs created will be only a quarter of Govt figures and that most jobs will be low skilled and low paid.
2018 Construction started to level the site which involves moving 22 million cubic metres of soil to flatten a very undulating site which has an equivalent height of 12 storey building between lowest and highest points.
2019 another independent report on EIS noise impacts, defines incorrect and misleading terminology was used in the EIS, which underestimates noise impacts and challenges inappropriateness in EIS of show true aircraft noise impacts.
2020 an online survey showed that only 37% of respondents were in favour of the airport, so it now appears that public trust in project continues to flounder.
2023/24 Latest EIS with flight paths released by Labor Government….Residents replied with over 8000 submissions received..Rawsa extensive submission can be read here online.