Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, upon notice, on 18 August 2011:

(1) Have the lessors of Commonwealth airports, in particular the capital city secondary airports known as: Moorabbin, Essendon, Bankstown, Archerfield, Parafield and Jandakot, fully complied with their lease agreements and acted within the spirit of the lease agreements, if not, can details be provided of which airports have failed to comply with their lease agreements and the circumstances of this breach.

(2)   Can the Minister confirm that no lessor of these airports has taken advantage of the restricted market by raising prices above comparable price levels that have generally applied to those airport properties subject to these leases and which would apply to property leases for similar types of property in nearby commercial areas.

(3)   Can the Minister confirm that no lessor of these airports has used their market power to impose lease conditions on tenants that are more commercially or physically restrictive to tenants than have been generally and commonly applied to tenants of these airport properties in the past, and which in their terms are more restrictive to the tenants than the terms that apply to similar commercial properties in nearby commercial areas.

(4)   Have any lessors of secondary airports had legal action taken against them by tenants who claim to have been disadvantaged commercially and/or to have suffered financial losses, if so, at which airports has this occurred, how many actions have been taken, when did these actions commence and what is the current status of these actions.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1)   My Department assesses compliance with all airport lease agreements annually. There have been no issues of non-compliance identified to date.

(2)   Contracts between airport-lessee companies and their sub-lessees are negotiated on a commercial basis between the parties. Lessees are able to set terms and conditions that reflect a reasonable commercial approach, subject to relevant provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 which contains specific provisions on misuse of market power. Tenants have access to existing commercial protections and remedies through the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission if they consider the terms and conditions are unreasonable.

(3)   Please see response to Question (2).

(4)   The legal affairs of airport-lessee companies are matters for those companies.