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

by leave—The government’s aviation training package is a key resource for registered training organisations to deliver training, assess competencies and issue nationally recognised qualifications in pilot training and other aviation industry skills. There are a number of aspects of this training package which deserve special mention. Firstly, it represents for the first time the two regulators of Australia’s aviation industry—the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and Defence—have agreed on standards and requirements for aviation qualifications. This has laid the groundwork for aviation workers to move more easily between civilian and defence workforces. The closer alignment of military and civil pilot training to a national standard improves the ability of people to move between defence and commercial sectors. This will improve the overall attraction of flying as a career choice.

The development of this package owes much to the hard work and cooperation developed between the aviation industry, training organisations, CASA and Defence, with leadership from the government funded Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council. I acknowledge those efforts and congratulate the industry on this important achievement.

The new aviation training package directly aligns CASA licensing requirements with the national qualifications. Although a CASA issued pilot licence still determines the eligibility to fly an aircraft, a new nationally recognised qualification gives prospective pilots the opportunity of getting both a nationally recognised qualification and a CASA licence.

Secondly, prior to the development of this training package, the myriad state and territory accredited courses and the CASA licensing system were not directly aligned to the national training system. This package cuts through these state and territory based qualifications to provide nationally consistent qualifications. This makes it easier for people considering a career in aviation to compare training costs at different institutions and also transfer their studies between registered training organisations Australia-wide.

The government has already received positive feedback from the airline industry concerning improvements to the aviation training package. Airlines and industry trainers have welcomed the training package because they can see the benefits of a nationally recognised pilot qualification. Airlines and industry trainers are investigating ways in which their organisations can benefit from this new training package—which is exactly what the government wants.

By becoming a registered training organisation, pilot training institutions also have the option of becoming accredited to offer these qualifications to international students. This allows training institutions to train a mix of domestic and international students and further enhances Australia’s reputation as a world leader when it comes to aviation training. The training package is not designed as a quick fix to short-term pilot shortages but it will help to improve the appeal of flight training as a professional career path, thus attracting more people to this important profession in the future. This can only be achieved through extensive education and training, which requires a consistent and coherent framework that sets out national competencies and qualifications for the aviation industry.

A major advantage of this revised training package and new qualifications is that pilots are able to hold a nationally recognised qualification and a CASA issued licence. This national qualification is recognised by registered training organisations throughout Australia. This means that a pilot with a qualification such as certificate IV in aviation—which in practice is a commercial pilot aeroplane licence—may choose to build on this qualification at the higher diploma or advanced diploma level in any state or territory. They may also receive credit for recognised prior learning if, for example, they choose to change career direction and qualify as a helicopter pilot, or to transfer their civil training into the defence sector. Increased transparency and choice for students contemplating a career in aviation can only increase the attractiveness of aviation as a career choice helping to ensure that Australia’s aviation industry has access to skilled personnel in the future.

One of the most important aspects of this training package from my perspective is that it brings together two of this government’s main priorities:

• an education revolution, and
• the development of Australia’s first national aviation policy.

The government wants Australia to be the best educated country, the most skilled economy and the best trained workforce in the world. That is why we have embarked on an education revolution, with a renewed focus on investing in our institutions, and getting better outcomes for students from preschool, through to TAFE or to university. A centrepiece of this is a $1.9 billion investment over five years to fund up to 630,000 new training places.

As a result of the Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council’s research and discussion with industry, they recommended that pilots with a commercial pilot aeroplane licence be added to the ‘priority occupations list’. Inclusion on this list recognises that pilots are one of the occupations the Rudd government is targeting as part of its broader skills policy. Pilots will be added to the list from 1 July 2008. This will give registered training organisations that offer the relevant pilot qualification the opportunity to access some of the 630,000 new training places announced in the 2008-09 budget through the Productivity Places Program.

Members will also be aware that in April this year the Rudd government took the historic step of developing a long-term plan for the future of Australia’s aviation industry. The national aviation policy statement, or white paper, will guide the industry’s growth over the next decade and beyond.

Development of the white paper began in April, with stakeholders being invited to make submissions on an issues paper which outlines challenges facing the Australian aviation industry. The next step in the process is the release of a green paper in September, outlining possible policy directions, settings and reforms and providing yet another opportunity for public input. The process will be finalised in mid-2009 with the release of a white paper which for the first time will bring together all aspects of national aviation policy into a single statement.

One of the key issues for the aviation white paper is addressing the skills needs in the aviation industry. There have been numerous reports in recent years about the difficulties regional airlines are having recruiting pilots. Regional airlines are also feeling the flow-on effects from a pilot shortage. Skills shortages in the aviation sector not only affect services to regional centres; they also impact on emergency service operations, like the Royal Flying Doctor Service and search and rescue operators. As the minister for regional development, I am fully aware of the impact of the aviation skills shortage on people living in regional and remote Australia. This critical issue underscores the importance of the national aviation policy statement.

The work already done by the Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council in this area will be vital. The skills council’s unique position as an intermediary between government and industry means they will have a vital role in shaping future government policy and priorities to help meet the long-term training needs of this industry.

Our aviation industry has grown to a point where it supports nearly 50,000 jobs nationwide and underpins our nation’s continued economic growth. We are developing a strategy which looks to the long term and closely links the development of aviation to the economic development of the nation.

The government has already begun an education revolution, because we know that skills are a core element in economic capacity and future prosperity. We are committed to a strong, vibrant and well-skilled Australian aviation industry, one that can look ahead with certainty and one which has incentives to invest for the future. The aviation training package is part of this commitment. It is a key resource for people already in, or planning to enter, Australia’s aviation industry. It is a reform that I commend to the House.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Wide Bay to speak for nine minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Truss speaking for a period not exceeding nine minutes.

Question agreed to.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to respond to the statement by the minister in relation to pilot training and other education issues within the aviation sector. It is an issue that has caused considerable concern in the aviation sector over recent times. The shortage of pilots is reflective of the shortage of labour in a whole range of areas in the busy and vibrant economy that our country has enjoyed over recent times.

Whilst this statement deals exclusively with pilots, I remind the minister and the government that issues also arise in other sectors of the aviation industry. There is a shortage of air traffic controllers in some places, and aircraft maintenance engineers are in demand. Indeed, a considerable amount of work is being sent offshore for a range of reasons, including the fact that there is a limited range of licensed aircraft maintenance engineers available in Australia.

The statement itself does not include any new announcements. It is one of these trios of ministerial statements we seem to be getting every day lately because the government has essentially run out of business to put before the parliament and it needs to occupy the space. What measures are included in this statement are substantially less than what the previous government had committed to. So this attempt at catch-up is a failure in that regard.

The first area covered by the minister in his statement was the arrangements to make it easier for workers to move between civilian and defence workforces—in particular, arrangements to help recognition of skills between the civil sector and the defence sector. That is sound policy. It brings to fruition work that has been underway for several years to try to bring the defence aviation sector closer to civil aviation. It is not the completion of the task. There are still some important things that need to be done. But there has been quite a bit of progress over the years. We have seen a melting down of the barriers between defence aviation and the civil sector. There has been a real willingness to talk, which I think has been appreciated by both sides, and it has led to significant improvements. Civil air traffic controllers are now doing a lot of work for the military, and the military also cooperates with the civil sector.

There is one major area yet that needs to be broken through, and that is airspace. There are still large areas of defence airspace where civil aircraft are not allowed to travel, and that can mean much-extended journeys for people because they have to fly around military airspace. I think it ought to be possible, in this day and age, with modern technology, to resolve those issues. There are important emission-reducing implications: if you can take a shorter route and get to the airport faster, you use less fuel. That is a cost saving for the airline but it is also means fewer emissions into our environment. So that is an area where I think more work needs to be done. I acknowledge that there are significant issues involved, but some of the tribal issues that were associated with it previously have tended to dissipate, and there ought to be, with goodwill, a capacity to make progress in that area.

The second element of the aviation training package is a national training scheme, with state and territory accredited courses and the CASA licensing system aligned under the national training system. Again I think that is a welcome step forward. It will not be revolutionary, but it is a logical step and it is good that the various states recognise one another’s training arrangements and that recognition of qualifications will be applied consistently across the country. There is also a reference to education and an announcement that the government will in fact list commercial pilot aeroplane licensees as a priority occupation. Again, that will help to provide some benefits and encourage people to undertake pilot training.

But it is a long way short of what the previous government had committed to. In the last election, our commitments included the establishment of a regional airline pilot scholarship scheme to help maintain regional airline services. The minister rightly recognised that there is a particular crisis in the availability of pilots to the regional airlines. That is probably because careers with the larger, intercontinental airlines and, indeed, with those who operate jet services around Australia are attractive to experienced pilots who have previously been flying Dash 8s or, particularly with Rex Airlines, the SAAB 340s. They have had the practical experience, got the hours up and when they see an opportunity for promotion available to them with one of the major jet carriers they take it. So it is has been airlines like Rex that have faced the pointy end of the shortage of pilots issue.

My own hometown is one of the many towns that no longer have air services or where air services have been suspended because Rex has been unable to obtain sufficient pilots to be able to maintain the services—for some months now. That has an enormous impact on a town—losing your air services. You have to travel miles—in my case, three-quarters of an hour—to get to another airport, and in many cases it can be hours and hours. There are also difficulties with skilled professionals coming in, visiting surgeons and the like, and so the whole community loses when there are no air services available. So getting an effective pilot training regime in place is important. Rex themselves, and, for that matter, Qantas and other airlines, recognise that they do need to do more and have therefore set up their own training institutions, and that is welcome.

The coalition promised to establish a regional airline pilot scholarship scheme, costing $9 million over two years, to help in the training of regional pilots. We also extended FEE-HELP to vocational education and training providers in the 2007-08 budget, which helped to provide support for young people who were undertaking pilot training. Our commitments at the last election also included establishing an aviation technical college to address the skills needs. I think it would have been a particularly meritorious development to have an institution that was a centre of excellence for aviation training. Of course, this government has got rid of all the technical colleges, and the promise of an aviation technical college will not be fulfilled. We also committed to providing funding to the royal aero clubs around Australia to run cadet pilot certificate courses to encourage high school students to pursue a career in general aviation—to attract young people to this profession and so help to ease the skills shortages apparent in this industry.

As the minister said in his statement, Australia is a popular place for training pilots. Airlines from around the world are setting up their own training facilities in Australia. Some of them have been active for a long time. We are supplying a significant proportion of the pilots in international aviation. This is a good place to learn to fly because our skies are safe, we provide a wide range of experience and, obviously, a pleasant environment in which foreign students are able to gain some of these skills. So I think aviation educational services have been one of the real success stories of the service sector in the Australian economy. We need to support the training of those pilots not only through the measures announced in this particular statement but also by going further and recognising the enormous opportunities that Australia has to be an aviation trainer for the world. (Time expired)