Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to bring to this place the plight of and challenge for the air service in Coober Pedy in the north of my electorate. Coober Pedy is, of course, the opal mining capital of the world. It is 800 kilometres north of Adelaide and 700 kilometres south of Alice Springs. It is increasingly becoming a tourism gem. It is where I instruct travellers to go when they think they have seen the world. I say, 'Go to Coober Pedy. You will see something that you will not see elsewhere in the world. It is unique.' It is not just its rich and colourful mining history and the fascinating cultural mix that makes up Coober Pedy; it has some of the most fascinating and spectacular underground accommodation and hospitality in the world.

Because it is so isolated, it is simply not negotiable that we have a commercial air service out of Coober Pedy. Since 2002 this has been operated by Rex airlines. Prior to that it was Kendell. Rex operate a fleet of Saab 340s Australia-wide. In February 2012, CASA made an amendment to the minimum runway widths for landing such aeroplanes as a Saab 340 on. The Coober Pedy airstrip is 18 metres wide and CASA, in their wisdom, have decided that airstrips should be 36 metres wide. It is not completely clear to me why CASA have gone in this direction, but it seems they want to be part of the same standard as everyone else in the world, or the general aviation widths and standards around the world. Perhaps this is an admirable aim, but I would point out that we are territorially isolated in Australia and in fact we see very few aircraft, apart from jetliners, fly into this nation. We are quite capable of making our own rules for our own population.

The strip that would need to be made another 18 metres wide would cost the owner of the airstrip, the Coober Pedy Council, $800,000, and it would need to be in place by February 2015, unless something is done about it. I have been closely involved with this issue since late last year. When these amendments were made, in 2012, I thought common sense would get the best of it—that we would not have to worry about this, because no-one could be so stupid. In fact these aircraft have been landing on this strip for probably about 15 years, without incident. One would think that with that kind of record it should not be all that hard to grant the same exemption that the aircraft have had for all of that period.

I have had numerous conversations with Rex and CASA over this issue. In their latest letter CASA assure me of the following:

I would like to reiterate that the widening (upgrading) of Coober Pedy's runways is not required, unless the aerodrome operator wishes to do so as a business decision …

But CASA are telling Rex, the operators of the aircraft, that they need to go back to Saab and develop a flight supplement that will allow for the narrow-runway landings. They have ordered some simulator tests, and that sounds all reasonable and fair, except that Saab no longer make aeroplanes, so you can see that they may not be totally interested.

My point is that if this costs Rex a significant amount of money to develop—maybe $100,000—I do not think they will retain the service into Coober Pedy. So while CASA are telling us there is nothing to worry about, I am deeply concerned. If the development of the flight supplement with Saab is to cost more than the route is worth to Rex, the flight service will cease on 12 February next year. I continue talking to CASA and they say that it will all be well in hand and will all happen. I just worry about the sands of time drifting out. This has been going since 2012. We are now only seven months away from February, so it is of great concern to me that things are moving too slowly.