Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for reporting to the parliament on this significant event over the weekend, with the grounding of one of Australia's major airlines. When Tiger began, I think it would be fair to say that Australians welcomed what was going to be regarded as a new era of competition. Certainly low-cost travel was taken to another step. The airline has grown solidly. It now has 10 aircraft operating in Australia and a significant network, particularly into some of the tourist destinations around Australia. It is a substantial company in that it has the backing of important Singaporean investors and Singapore Airlines, one of the world's leading airlines, has almost a one-third interest in the company. It is a substantial operation and, therefore, to have its services in Australia grounded in this way is a significant blow to the Australian company, to the Australian tourism industry, to those who depend on Tiger to travel but also to the reputation of the Tiger brand around the world. So it was a significant decision to be made, and I am certain that CASA would never make a decision of this nature lightly. The implications are inevit­able: public confidence is lost in the airline and a lot of work has to be done then to rebuild that confidence if the airline chooses to continue its operation. We all hope that a way can be found through the current difficulties so that it can return to providing services across the nation and do so with a high degree of confidence that it can operate safely and securely.

We have a proud reputation in Australia for the safety of our skies and, in particular, the safety of our major airlines. That is a reputation that we have invested in over decades, and we must make sure that it is retained for the future. We are so dependent in this country on aviation because of the size of the continent and the need for us to travel around regularly—in particular, the advent of fly-in fly-out mining operations et cetera has crowded our skies. So it is important that we have a high degree of confidence that our safety regulatory systems and, indeed, our airlines operate within a culture of safety. To achieve that we have to have well-trained crews and well-trained engineers. We have to have sound regul­ations. Also, we must support the emergency services and other regulatory agencies. But what is most important and what is difficult to regulate from a government's perspective is a culture of safety within each of the operating companies. They have got to think 'safety'. They have got to be aware that this is a priority. It is an important commercial priority, as Tiger is discovering now when its safety has been questioned. You cannot have a strong, viable and secure airline and business unless the public are satisfied that your operations are safe.

People like cheap fares and they want to get to their destinations reliably and on time but what they want most of all is to be as certain as anyone can possibly be about anything in this life that when they board the aircraft it has been properly maintained, it has been properly looked after, the crew are competent and the airline is determined to get them safely to the destination. So it is important that we seek to act wherever necessary to maintain the safety of airlines and assure the flying public of Australia that they are safe.

In this particular instance, as the minister has outlined, issues that had occurred in Tiger airlines had been brought to CASA's attention over quite a period of time, and in September a series of obligations were attached to their air operator's certificate which required the airline to improve its performance. A series of steps were identif­ied, with time frames over quite a long period, for the airline to progressively improve its safety performance. As I underst­and it, the airline had been making progress in that task, although none of the actual target dates had yet expired. It was a series of extra events, beyond those which actually had triggered the original requirements, that led to the suspension over the weekend.

CASA are responsible for overseeing aviation safety in Australia. I know, even from my own time as a minister but also by observing over the years, that they take that responsibility very seriously and they do not act precipitously. In fact, this is the first time that something like this has happened to an Australian airline. I know people refer to the Ansett incident, which affected a significant proportion of the Ansett fleet but not all of it. In this instance CASA are concerned about the culture of safety within the organisation, and that is a fundamental issue which, as I mentioned earlier, must be addressed. But it cannot be addressed quickly and easily. You cannot change a culture overnight. That is why the minister is, I think, right to the refer to the fact that it is a big task to try to do this within five days. I hope they can, and it is encouraging to see that senior airline management and senior owners of Tiger have come to Australia from Singapore. They are clearly taking it all seriously. I hope that they can get in the air as quickly as possible. I note that Tiger are still selling tickets for next week. That is a demon­stration that they have got some degree of confidence that they can fulfil the requirements and assure our regulator that they have developed within their organisation the systems that are necessary to guarantee safe operation.

This has been a major step. It is a significant blow to air travel within Australia. I join the minister in complim­enting the other Australian airlines for their willingness to carry Tiger passengers. It is not quite the Ansett situation, where they would have been genuinely worried that they would not get paid for the passengers that flew; in this case, Tiger has the backing of very substantial interests and there is good reason to believe that they have the financial capability to do whatever they need to operate again. The key thing is to develop the culture. That is not a money thing; that is about having proper processes in place with their management to ensure that safety is always given priority.

I thank the minister again for his statement. I commend the whole Australian aviation industry for the way in which they are responding to this, including Tiger's willingness to address the issues in a constructive way so that hopefully their business can resume operation as quickly as possible, but most importantly of all so that Australia's valued reputation for having safe skies is preserved and enhanced.

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