Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak on the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill 2009 and the Transport Safety Investigation Amendment Bill 2009, and I look forward to this opportunity. These bills are important in their detail, but the overall context is also important. The bills are also important for my electorate of Corangamite, in Geelong. I will get to the detail of the legislation in a minute, but first of all let us look at the context surrounding the bills. The bills show just how much attention we give our airline industry. They show that in Australia we are constantly trying to improve and refine our aviation industry. We are constantly trying to make our airline industry and air commuting safer. We are vigilant about improving regulation and governance arrangements in the industry—and so we should be.

Obviously, this is an industry where there are risks and where accidents can be catastrophic. I think if you sit back and look at this legislation in context for a minute, you will see that it says a lot about our whole approach to aviation. It says we have the very healthy attitude that we can always do better. We are constantly searching for excellence in the running of this industry. That is certainly what this government is about. I think if you look at the attitudes behind this legislation, you will see why Australia has one of the safest and most efficient aviation industries in the world. I want to put on the record that I am proud of the Australian aviation industry’s record, particularly on safety.

In the first instance, I will go to some of the detail of the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill 2009. This bill puts in place the government’s national aviation policy green paper commitment. This commitment was about establishing a Civil Aviation Safety Authority board and enhancing CASA’s ability to take critical additional actions around safety. The board that is proposed to be established will be a small expert board, responsible for CASA’s strategic oversight. We will have the best in the business on this board, with an appropriate mix of very high-level skills. It will support the Director of Aviation Safety in managing CASA. The director will retain responsibility for the normal day-to-day decision-making processes.

There are a number of things in this bill that will help CASA’s ability to take necessary safety action. These measures include creating an offence for the negligent carriage of dangerous goods; extending CASA’s powers to regulate foreign operators; amending the automatic stay provisions in relation to CASA’s power to prevent an unsafe operator from flying; and bringing CASA’s investigation powers into alignment with the Criminal Code.

This bill will further enhance CASA’s governance arrangements. The CASA board is not intended to represent the sectional interests of the aviation industry. It will be a high-level, very skilled and knowledgeable strategic body. It will not be directly involved in the day-to-day activities of the authority. Whilst to a certain extent these roles are undertaken today, this structure very much clarifies the situation. There will be very clear structural governance arrangements. The director will manage CASA under the board’s strategic guidance and will be responsible to the board.

Another important aspect of this bill is what is termed the ‘automatic stay provisions’. In the past, I believe, CASA has been hamstrung by automatic stay provisions, which nullified CASA’s ability to suspend dodgy operators. Without naming names, in my electorate we have had at least one operator whom I believe has taken enormous risks, and I would go as far as saying that this operator defines the word ‘shonky’. Passengers, pilots and the public were all put at risk by this operator, who was expert in using legal loopholes to continue with very dubious operations. CASA had a lot of difficulty in dealing with this operator and in taking decisive action where necessary. Partly, this was due to the regulatory difficulties within the various acts. I think the new regulation will help CASA deal with these types of outfits.

Amendments in this bill are proposed to the automatic stay provisions. This will ensure that any extension beyond five days of a CASA decision to vary, suspend or cancel certain civil aviation authorisations is the result of an application to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a stay and the AAT’s determination on that application. The effect of this amendment will be to ensure important safety related implications of permitting a stay to continue beyond a five-day period only occur if a stay order from the AAT is sought. This would minimise any incentive, on the part of civil aviation authorisation holders or other affected persons, to unreasonably delay a determination of the matter on the merits by the AAT. I think that is an important step forward.

The other important aspect of this bill is regulatory oversight of foreign based operators. The bill strengthens CASA’s regulatory oversight of foreign based operators flying to Australia. It ensures CASA has the ability to satisfy itself that all operators flying into Australia are receiving adequate safety oversight outside Australia. That is a crucial power. This is obviously a difficult area and one which will need ongoing close monitoring to see whether these regulatory changes actually achieve what we have set out to achieve. The changes in this area allow CASA to take a broader range of issues into account when considering whether to allow a foreign operator to fly into Australia. They enable CASA to take greater account of the conduct of air operators in their home and in other jurisdictions as well as the level of safety oversight provided by civil aviation authorities in other countries. This is another important step forward.

The other major aspect of this bill is about carrying dangerous goods. The bill closes a loophole that controls the carriage of dangerous goods on board an aircraft. This is a major safety issue. The inclusion of an offence for the negligent carriage or consignment of these goods makes sure that any lack of care by carriers and consignors is adequately addressed.

Finally, when we are talking about the aviation industry and there is a politician from the Geelong region speaking on this issue in this chamber, one might expect some of the detail related to the establishment and development of Avalon airport within Geelong. I will get to how the detail of this bill relates to Avalon, but first I would like to, again, put on the public record the importance of Avalon. As you are probably aware, Mr Deputy Speaker Washer, the future development of Avalon airport, both for domestic aviation and potentially for international carriers, is critical to the future of my region. It is critical for tourism operators, who are already one of the major drivers of our economy, particularly along the Great Ocean Road. If Avalon is opened up to international carriers, tourism will go to a whole new level in my region. Thousands more people will be employed in the tourism sector if Avalon goes international.

There is nothing more significant to tourism in my region than the future of Avalon. Avalon is also important to a range of other industries, particularly industries trading overseas and high-tech industries, because goods can be brought in or exported much faster, more efficiently and much more safely. Goods can be exported or imported on time. What happens to Avalon will have a big bearing on our region’s whole future. I think all ministers in this government are now aware of the importance of Avalon. This bill, I believe, is another little step in the future development of Avalon.

One of the key issues with the future development of Avalon is, of course, security. Avalon, if it is opened up to the world, will become another part of the Australian border. This bill, by degree, improves border security by providing better governance arrangements in the aviation industry. It makes the governance of the aviation industry more robust, safer and more secure. The bill also gives us greater control over foreign airline operators. This will surely also add to the confidence we can have in security. Of course, the activities we are dealing with are not just decisive in security; they will all play their part in giving us confidence in the overall system.

The Civil Aviation Amendment Bill shows this government’s commitment to aviation safety. In yet another important area of public policy we are taking decisive action to strengthen the nation’s safety agencies and their oversight of the aviation industry. Circumstances have clearly changed since the decision in 2003 to abolish the CASA board. Since then, a substantial amount of organisational reform has been undertaken in CASA, and the way that CASA interacts with the aviation industry has evolved. This legislation recognises that evolution. As I said, the bill is just another example of why Australia has the safest, and certainly one of the most efficient, airline industries in the world.

I will now make a few comments about the Transport Safety Investigation Amendment Bill 2009. The bill amends the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003 to establish the Australian Transport Safety Bureau as a statutory agency within the meaning of the Public Service Act 1999. The agency will be established with a commission structure and will come into being on 1 July 2009.

The intent of this amendment is very simple. It is to strengthen the independence and clarify the role of the ATSB as the national safety investigation agency. It clarifies the relationship with CASA and puts in place arrangements to ensure independence in the investigation process. This change did not come out of any whim. It was the result of some careful consideration and, in particular, a review in 2007 by Mr Russell Miller AM. Mr Miller found that there was room for improvement and clarification in the relationship between the two agencies at a governance level.

This issue was also addressed in the national aviation policy green paper, released on 2 December 2008. It is crucial that, where accidents or incidents occur, investigations are independent of the parties involved in an accident, including transport regulators and government policymakers. It is a way of avoiding conflicts of interest and external interference so that the findings of any investigation are completely beyond question.

The amendment is also completely consistent with the Convention on International Civil Aviation, which states:

The accident investigation authority shall have independence in the conduct of the investigation and have unrestricted authority over its conduct …

The ATSB will also have operational independence with respect to exercising its investigative powers and functional independence with respect to the administration of its resources.

The Transport Safety Investigation Amendment Bill 2009 again demonstrates this government’s commitment to aviation safety. It demonstrates Labor is committed to scrutinising and improving all areas of our aviation industry. Labor is taking decisive action to strengthen the nation’s safety agencies and their oversight of the aviation industry. I commend these bills to the House.

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