Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

For a man who spends so much time in the air, whether it's travelling internationally to grace the world stage or whether it's coming to Western Australia for his very short visits to get his photo opportunities on all the things that don't really matter to Western Australians, you would think that Prime Minister Albanese would know more about the Australian aviation industry than he does. The Prime Minister has been called out this afternoon in question time. He has been held to account for his comment on ABC radio when he said, 'In Australia, we have the most open aviation market in the world, bar none.' The Prime Minister said on Sky News, 'In fact, it's the most competitive market in the world.'

I don't know what the Prime Minister of our country is doing when he is flying around, but he clearly is not thinking about the state of Australian aviation, because the ACCC's 12th and final airline-monitoring report made the state of airline competition in Australia very, very clear. At page 2—the Prime Minister does not even need to read very far into the report—the ACCC report said:

After showing signs of improvements earlier in the year, the latest rates of flight cancellations and delays have gotten worse and remain poor compared to long-term industry averages.

That statement from the ACCC is not one that backs in the Prime Minister's views about the state of airline competition. The report goes on to say:

The duopoly market structure of the domestic airline industry has made it one of the most highly concentrated industries in Australia, other than natural monopolies.

Here is a prime minister leading our country, spending a lot of time on an aircraft, and making the wrong call and saying the wrong thing about the state of airline competition.

Senator Watt, representing the minister for transport, came into question time today quite proud of the government because they have announced their aviation green paper. We heard Senator Watt say the aviation green paper was going to do a variety of things. Guess what? It looks like and it sounds like the aviation green paper is plagiarising the sorts of things that have already been said and the sorts of recommendations that have already been made by the ACCC's monitoring regime. That monitoring regime, in its conclusions, has already said, 'Duopoly market structure has led to minimal competition between airlines' in our country. It has said, 'Outcomes limited by the domestic airline industry have been underwhelming.' That's the ACCC's word—'underwhelming'. Its third recommendation was that the arrival of Rex and Bonza would need to grow if Australia is to have more effective, competitive airline industry. Its fourth and final point in its 12th and last report was, 'Legislative and policy changes could encourage further airline competition and improve outcomes for consumers.' It specifically referenced policies that would better protect airline customers. Guess what? That is exactly the same sort of thing that Senator Watt proudly came to the Senate in question time today and said the aviation green paper is looking at. Why is the government choosing to reinvent the wheel when it comes to driving better aviation policy in Australia? Why?

After all of the noise we have heard about flight cancellations, rising airfares and poor customer service, the government is still sitting on its hands on the one meaningful thing it can do—arm legislators like me and other senators in this place, arm consumers and others interested in watching over the airline industry, and reinstate the ACCC airline industry monitoring report. It's not a hard decision for the government to make. I wouldn't be surprised if the recommendation from the ACCC is already on Minister Leigh's desk or even the Treasurer's desk. Why do I say that? Because the very last statement in the ACCC report is an invitation from the ACCC to the government to extend the monitoring program.

Question agreed to.