Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the significant role of air travel and air freight in keeping regional communities connected;

(2) commends the commitment of the Government to support air travel through regional Australia through:

(a) supporting the conclusion and purchase of Rex Airlines through a commercial loan of $60 million and the restructuring of $108 million in existing debt to keep regional air routes running during the voluntary administration process;

(b) an additional $50 million over three years in the 2024-25 budget to extend the Regional Airstrip Upgrade program;

(c) the extension of the Regional Airports Program for three years with an additional $40 million for competitive grant funding in the 2024-25 budget; and

(d) the establishment of the $5 million Regional and Remote Airport Support Program for local government and regional and remote airports impacted by the Rex Airlines voluntary administration; and

(3) recognises the ongoing commitment of the Government to representing regional Australians and investing in the services they deserve.

Love Actually is a 2003 film. It is a favourite at Christmas, and it starts in an airport with families happy to be reuniting, with hugs, kisses and all those great things. It shows the airport as the central hub of togetherness, a place where you go to leave for holidays and where you come back to your loved ones. But, for those of us in the regions, the airport is so much more. It is our lifeline.

My electorate is huge. You cannot drive from one end to the other. You especially cannot drive from one end to the other in the wet, and, to be frank, the islands kind of make that a bit hard as well! The airports that service those communities—and there are 25 of them—matter. They take kids to school, they bring in the doctors, they bring in the food and they bring loved ones home when it is time for them to rest. This is a very important piece of infrastructure, often run by the local councils. Most councils aren't equipped for that sort of thing, but the people in the regions find a way to get it done. Our airports in our remote and regional communities are our connection to the rest of the world. They are our lifeblood.

There is good news. The good news is that Labor is delivering an additional $50 million over three years, from the 2024-25 budget, to extend the Remote Airstrip Upgrade Program, as well as an additional $40 million in competitive grant funding. What that means for where I'm from is $4 million to reseal the Boigu Island airstrip and $2 million to extend the aircraft parking space at Horn Island. We'll replace airport fencing at both the NPA and Cooktown Airport. In 2024, we delivered funding to improve the Lockhart River, Aurukun and Kowanyama airstrips, and in the first year of government, in 2022, we delivered funding for Aurukun, Cooktown, Horn Island and Mapoon to improve their airports.

This matters. Often these communities feel left behind, feel left out and feel forgotten. When the central hub gets upgraded—the place where their food comes from, where the Christmas presents arrive from and where their health care and emergency services arrive from—that is them being told that we care. It is more than economic opportunity; it is an absolute moral obligation.

It's more than that, though. We're also delivering the $5 million Regional and Remote Airport Support Program for local government and regional and remote airports that were impacted by the Rex Airlines voluntary administration. For many of us here today, our towns and communities were impacted by Rex going under. It's very, very difficult sometimes to find someone to take those small routes that might only have 50 or 60 people at a time. Like I said, it is the lifeblood.

We've been supporting the purchase of Rex through a commercial loan of $60 million and the restructuring of $108 million in existing debt to keep regional air routes running during the voluntary administration. The airports that were impacted and lost money have the opportunity now to apply for funding to claw that back, and that will make such a difference in small communities that often have a big lot of space, a small number of people and not a huge rate base, and the rate bases carry the airports. This is giving back to our airports. This is giving back to our community.

I'm very proud that Minister King has delivered this for our regions. It makes a difference; it really does. I have flown to just about all 25 of those airports in my electorate. I prefer to drive, but sometimes that isn't possible. Quite often I'm there with elders, sometimes accompanying a body back and sometimes bringing a newborn baby back—both ends of life, both ends of the spectrum. Our airports mean more to us than people in the cities can possibly imagine, and the continued support of them is essential to the growth and security of our regions. I love our regions. I love my region, and I'm so proud that we're taking notice and delivering the infrastructure that makes such a difference to the way our people get to live.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does this motion have a seconder?

Anne Urquhart (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Leichhardt quoted Love Actually, and that's a favourite movie of mine too. I promise I won't show the chamber the little Love Actually clip I once shot whilst I was Deputy Prime Minister—maybe it might come out one day! But, to quote the airport scene, the Prime Minister, Hugh Grant, said this:

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport.

And indeed any prime minister these days would have enough reason to feel gloomy about the state of the world. We live in troubled times; we do.

But, rather than just standing up here and giving brickbats, as sometimes opposition members do, I do want to say to the government that I acknowledge the support that it has provided Rex Airlines. Regional Express's home is very much in Wagga Wagga, and, indeed, 180 people at those hangars at the Wagga Wagga Airport can't be wrong. It's the maintenance base and the base for so much of Rex's activities, and they pump $12 million worth of wages into the local economy each and every year.

It was important that Rex, when it did hit turbulent skies, got help from the government. I very much appreciate not only the Prime Minister ringing me whilst I was overseas at the time—returning my call—but also the minister for infrastructure and transport, the member for Ballarat, talking to me, because they knew how important Rex was not just to Wagga Wagga and the Riverina but, indeed, to the wider regional economy. I note with interest that Labor has a fund to help councils which have suffered losses through the Rex downturn, and I sincerely hope that Wagga Wagga is able to recoup some of the money that it lost when Rex hit troubled skies.

I'm pleased that Rex has got a new owner, but I'm very disturbed by the fact that Qantas has dropped its flights from Albury and Wagga Wagga to Melbourne. Of course, when Rex decided to get too big and take on Qantas on the Melbourne-to-Sydney route and many, many other capital-city-to-capital-city routes, it took on a behemoth. It certainly did and it certainly found out the hard way that you don't get a future by doing that. Obviously, Qantas took on some of the Rex regional routes as well. One of those regional routes was Wagga Wagga to Melbourne—there was also Albury to Melbourne—and now Wagga Wagga people are disadvantaged by the fact that they only have limited access to Melbourne via the aviation route, and that is deeply disappointing.

The former member for Farrer and I have both written to Qantas seeking explanation. I realise they're a business and I also appreciate that they have to operate according to shareholders, according to their margins et cetera. But I think Qantas is big enough to sustain more regular flights to Melbourne from both Wagga Wagga and Albury. Whilst I appreciate that they were operating with less than half of their passenger capacity, it's simply not good enough for the national carrier to just dump that route full stop. I know you would share that view, Member for Indi—although I won't verbal you, seeing as though you're in the chair—given your close proximity, obviously, in Wodonga to Albury.

I heard the member for Leichhardt talking about the airport upgrades. There's nothing new there; the coalition had that as well. I'm proud of what we did during COVID, when we kept Virgin—which was on its knees—Qantas, Rex and other airlines in the skies, because I knew, and we knew, that planes in the air meant jobs on the ground. And I have to say that, when 26 airlines of a size comparable to Virgin at the time went belly up across the world, we were able to maintain all of our airlines across Australia, and that was very important. Not only that—we were able to, obviously, fly in vaccines and health professionals to regional and remote communities, including the member for Leichhardt's. So it's important.

Aviation is a huge player in regional Australia. It shouldn't be that, when you are in pain, you have to catch a plane. Certainly, with today's limited air travel, we should have more health professionals in country areas, and we certainly work towards achieving that through the Murray-Darling rural medical school network et cetera. There are certainly a lot of issues confronting the government, and one of the most important of these is regional air travel. Anything the government can do to help that, I will support.

Anne Urquhart (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My electorate of Braddon is entirely regional, rural, remote and very remote. It is rich in resources, boasts agricultural produce that is in great demand because of its quality and freshness and has a spectacular natural environment unlike anywhere else in the world. Braddon is also an engine room for Tasmania. It delivers good, well-paid jobs and is a critical contributor to our state's economy.

The economic, social and community wellbeing of communities and producers in my electorate is intrinsically linked to reliable, affordable and fit-for-purpose aviation transport and freight services. Air services are a critical lifeline for the beautiful and very remote King Island in my electorate, enabling access to health care, education, employment, business opportunities and social connections. We know aviation services outside major metropolitan centres face structural economic challenges, leading to higher costs, reduced competition and concerns about service reliability and equity. Uncertainty about the operation of Rex flights to and from King Island was more than an inconvenience for the island's 2,300 residents and the many visitors and FIFO workers who travel there. For King Island, air services are about the essentials of life and are a mainstay for the local economy.

Federal Labor want regional airports to flourish because we know how important these services are to those local communities. We want regional aviation to remain strong, and that's why the Albanese Labor government has backed it right the way through Rex's administration until the sale of the airline to Air T. In agreement with us, the new owners have undertaken to keep operating Rex's regional routes and will over time bring more planes into service, have more flights on these routes and grow the business here in Australia—but it's important that they settle first.

The importance of the Albanese Labor government's support of Rex Airlines cannot be understated. We delivered a commercial loan of $60 million and the restructuring of $108 million in existing debt to keep regional air routes running during the voluntary administration process. We are also grateful that the many councils who operate airports across our regions worked and stepped up to keep Rex flying. That's why we have established the $5 million Regional and Remote Airport Support Program for local government and regional and remote airports that were impacted by Rex Airlines' voluntary administration. We're happy that local governments have an opportunity to recoup some of the costs they incurred during the administration period. Many of these councils are small. They have lots of other expenses, and it's good that they're getting some of their money back. These measures are in addition to the additional $50 million over three years in the 2024-25 budget to extend the Remote Airstrip Upgrade Program. There is also an extension of the Regional Airports Program, with an additional $40 million for competitive grant funding that was also announced in the 2024-25 budget.

After the chaos we've seen from the Liberals and Nationals, regional Australia needs a government that it can rely on and that represents it more than ever. In my community I travel regularly right across the electorate—particularly to King Island, where I and many others who travel there for business, for pleasure and for tourism rely on air services. We have a large tourism industry there. Also, it's important that people have access to good air travel for health needs.

I live on an island; I live in Tasmania. Without air services it's hard to quickly adapt to getting on and off islands. As the member for Leichhardt, the mover of this motion, outlined earlier, we have many islands that we represent as members of the government, and it's important that we look after the councils who manage the airports in those communities so they can rely on us to deliver—and it is Labor that is delivering for our regions. Labor members are out there every single day visiting these communities, making sure we're listening to the concerns they have. We've got over 24 of us sitting in the Labor caucus representing regions right across the country, and we're delivering for those regions, as we showed during the Rex administration. We will continue that into the future.

Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Imagine living in a capital city and waking up to find the train lines dismantled, the buses sold off and the major highway gates shut. That would be a national outrage. Yet this is exactly the kind of isolation being inflicted upon regional Australians by this government, which is flying blind when it comes to regional aviation routes.

Clearly it costs more to run regional routes versus city routes—and that cost difference is 152 per cent and rising. Regional communities and regional councils like Port Lincoln, Ceduna, Whyalla, Port Augusta, Coober Pedy and Roxby Downs know how important regional airlines are not only to see a specialist doctor in Adelaide but also to bring a specialist from Adelaide to their local clinics and their hospitals. They know this because my councils, except for Olympic Dam, run every airport in regional South Australia—and nearly all run at a loss. Port Lincoln, Ceduna, Whyalla, Port Augusta and Coober Pedy are run by the council, and all lose money. Something is clearly not right.

Under this government's watch, the regional aviation sector has become a graveyard. First, Bonza collapsed, leaving a trail of stranded passengers and repossessed aircraft. Then came the agonising, slow-motion administration of Rex, a historic lifeline for bush communities in Ceduna to Coober Pedy and Whyalla to Port Lincoln. The government champions the AAT acquisition as a victory, but a closer inspection reveals that this so-called rescue could easily become a flight of fancy. Unfortunately, the true winners of this scenario are the administrators. EY walked away with $25 million in fees. Meanwhile, the ratepayers in the cities of Albany and the Shire of Esperance are left staring at nearly $1 million in unrecovered debt. Labor is forcing local councils and regional ratepayers to subsidise aviation failures, and it is because Labor and the Greens only care about cities. It's as simple as that.

We're looking at the restructured and flimsy entity burdened with $168 million in debt with no timeline for it to be repaid. Labor's Minister King herself said, 'There is no timeframe.' So we are expected to believe that Air T, a company that recently reported adjusted earnings of US$6.7 million, is going to finance debt of $168 million while expanding an ageing fleet from 30 to 44 aircraft. I'd like to hope so, but it just does not stack up. The government has gambled over $160 million of taxpayer money to keep Rex breathing, yet they cannot guarantee that the smaller routes will not be slashed. Australians know what happens next. High-yield routes will be cherrypicked, and the rest will be forgotten, left on the runway. With the exception of the member for Leichhardt, find me one Labor, Greens or teal parliamentarian who needs to take a Rex flight regularly for work. None. And, because of Labor's mismanagement, we are now facing an unprecedented chokehold on our skies. The Qantas Group and Virgin Australia control an astonishing 98.3 per cent of the market. What is this government's fierce response to this suffocating duopoly? A productivity review. The regions do not need an 18-month academic exercise to tell them they are being gouged. Instead of endless reviews, we need practical, immediate reform.

Take Whyalla as a prime example. Why does an airport receiving just two flights a day require eight staff for security screening? That mandate slaps a ridiculous $60 onto every single ticket. If we shared that cost across the entire national aviation network, regional ticket prices would drop instantly. This is being called for by the Eyre Peninsula Local Government Association and its chair, my friend, Dean Johnson. Aviation is not a luxury in regional Australia; it is used for essential infrastructure. It is the only viable link for the workers in Anna Creek Station, the Indigenous communities in the APY Lands and the students studying in Port Lincoln. Labor has abandoned these people, withdrawing upgrade programs and watching passively as existing operations nosedive and new players falter. If we do not drastically change course, regional Australia will be permanently grounded. They deserve a government that builds bridges and connectivity, not one that manages terminal decline.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.