House debates

Tuesday, 12 February 2019

Statements by Members

Canberra Electorate: Drones

1:48 pm

Photo of Gai BrodtmannGai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security and Defence) Share this | | Hansard source

Last Friday heralded the end of the drone delivery trial in Bonython and the community is rejoicing. From Irena:

The drones stopped flying last weekend and I can tell you the peace and quiet we have had in the past week has been sublime.

We (and our pets) have been seriously traumatised by living with and fighting the drone trial.

We are so relieved that they are gone.

Our thoughts are now with the residents of Gungahlin.

The drones should not be allowed to fly over there until a government body is made responsible for the noise, and the issues about privacy are addressed.

Irena, I am with you. The Bonython trial has thrown up lots of questions. That's why I've been calling for and I continue to call for the minister to conduct an independent review before the Gungahlin pilot—an independent review led by CASA and the Privacy Commission and involving the relevant federal and territory government agencies; an independent review that is publicly released and looks at the regulatory framework, particularly for commercial operators; an independent review that looks at the privacy issues, particularly regarding where the data is being stored, what data is actually being captured, what happens to the data and at which location it is being stored; an independent review that looks at the economic benefits to the ACT, particularly for local small businesses. If we're going to have a place where we have fast food delivered by drones, as a nation we need to have a conversation about this, and that starts with an independent review. (Time expired)