Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—The Civil Aviation Amendment Bill 2009 and the Transport Safety Investigation Amendment Bill 2009 will strengthen Australia’s aviation safety regime and honour a pledge I made when releasing the government’s aviation green paper late last year. I thank all members who participated in the debate for their input to this legislation.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority will have its governance enhanced by the creation of an expert board to provide high-level direction of the organisation’s regulatory and safety oversight role. The Civil Aviation Amendment Bill will also make changes to improve CASA’s oversight of foreign carriers flying into Australia. The bill strengthens the provisions for preventing operators from continuing to operate services where CASA considers it unsafe for them to continue. Finally, it closes a gap in the current legislation by introducing an additional offence of negligently carrying or consigning dangerous goods on an aircraft.

I have noted the comments from the shadow minister for transport, who expressed some concern about the nature of appointments. Let me assure the shadow minister that the appointments to this board will be in accordance with the highest standards. We need to make sure that these appointments are not political. I was surprised, given the number of former staffers of National Party transport ministers that I run into in official positions, that the shadow minister made those comments. I am sure that those comments apply to people when they come up for re-appointment as well, given the shadow minister’s expression. Indeed, we need to make sure that right across the transport sector we have the best possible appointments to official positions, but there is nowhere where this is more important than in the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

The Transport Safety Investigation Amendment Bill reinforces the ATSB’s independent status by establishing it as a separate statutory agency with a full-time chief commissioner and two part-time commissioners. It will also give the ATSB new powers to compel agencies and operators within the aviation industry to respond to its formal recommendations within 90 days.

The amendments in these two bills strengthen public confidence in the safety and reliability of air travel. I commend the bills to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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