Page 3493 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 12 October 1994
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Recently a new track was established at Wakefield Park in Goulburn, which, I am told, uses this standard. Already a number of Canberra motor sports are going to Goulburn to participate because it is far simpler for them to operate there than in the ACT, where our current situation is cumbersome in the extreme and also lacking in certainty.
Madam Speaker, it is my understanding, although I was not in the Assembly at the time, that at one stage the ACT Government deleted section 12 of the Noise Control Act. I fear that it may have been misguided in deleting that section. This Bill attempts to remedy any damage that might have been done there and puts back that section. At present, in the ACT, motor sport is regulated by a number of provisions of the Noise Control Act. The fundamental provision applying to all noise in the ACT is section 3 of the Noise Control Regulations, which prescribes noise levels at premises. Section 3 states:
For the purposes of the definition of "excessive noise" ... the following noise levels are prescribed in respect of premises generally in respect of the following times of day -
(a) between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. on a day - the level that is 5 dB(A) above the background noise; and
(b) between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. on the following day - the level equal to the level of the background noise.
It is very difficult for a lot of human activity to comply with a level of five decibels above the background noise. In fact, I am told by an expert in the area, Mr Louis Challis, that it is virtually impossible, given the nature of human activity. Normal conversation registers 60 decibels, and a three-metre light van in transit registers 80 decibels. That is well and truly above ambient background noise, which I understand to be somewhere between 30 and 36 decibels, depending on the circumstances. In his correspondence with me, Mr Challis has indicated that the Legislative Assembly for the ACT should understand that any Act or law that proposes that noise emission associated with any human activity can be controlled so as to ensure that it does not produce noise levels of more than five decibels above the pre-existing background sound level is fraught with danger. King Canute tried that approach with the sea, and it did not work then.
The ACT has further provisions in relation to motor sport. The Minister has in place a system of exemptions which are given to motor sports. These tend to be blanket exemptions that limit the number of days on which motor sports can use certain facilities. The exemptions are given, pursuant to section 16 of the Act, by the Pollution Control Authority, which is subject to the direction of the Minister. The authority has a number of guidelines that it looks at to assist it in making its decision. Unfortunately, each time an activity is held, an application has to be put in. The sports concerned are worried about the unnecessary bureaucracy involved in that and also about the fact that whether they are granted permission or not is very much at the whim of the authority and the Minister of the day.
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