A few issues arise here Dave....

1. It's not just the curfew - it's the barking-mad noise abadement strategy that has air traffic in the existing operating hours FAR from optimised. If this was fixed, you could get a singificant increase in the number of hourly aircraft movements. Whilst this may not be a pressing need today, it will be once the recovery comes.

2. It is unreasonable to expect anything to remain static. Your argument about airports could just as easily apply to new motorways/ shopping centres/ rail lines (not in NSW - we don't get any)/ expanded trading hours for licensed premises/ increased housing density/ etc/ etc/ etc. No sane person would move within 2 parsecs of an airport without some expectation of aircraft noise.


3. Laws rigid and well defined? Maybe in some bizarre parallel universe. One judicial officer's "reasonable force" is another's brutal assault. If you want one area of human endevour that perfectly illustrates chaos, you would be hard-pressed to pick a better example than law!


At the end of the day, my care/ sympathy factor for those in Sydney affected by aircraft noise is <0. I too live under a rescue helicopter flightpath, and I bought my house knowing full well this was the case - I have no right to whinge (in any event, it doesn't bother us). I fail to see how whingers who ..... and moan about noise while living in the country's largest and busiest city - that markets itself as a "24hr world city" - have any right to complain.