Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, Mr Truss, I table a ministerial statement on the Australian government's aviation safety regulation review.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

Labor welcomes the minister's statement and the announcement of a further review into the regulation of aviation safety. It is a well-known fact that Australia has an aviation safety record that is the envy of the world, and we want to keep it that way. This is a result of the efforts of governments of all persuasions, which have never made aviation safety a political issue, and this is to be commended. I can say as chair of the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee for the last six years, and now as chair of the references committee, that when we do address aviation safety it is bipartisan, and done very closely in association with the Greens and the minor parties as well. I acknowledge that the new government did not make this matter a political football in opposition, and we do not intend to make it one either. It is important that this issue is one that continues to enjoy bipartisan support from all of us in this building. While the Labor government took the view that when it came to aviation safety we could never, ever be too cautious, this is not self-centred. As much of our time as senators is spent on aeroplanes, we actually do understand as much as anyone just how important aviation safety is to all Australians.

While I have the opportunity, I would like to commend the previous minister, Anthony Albanese, on his achievements while in government. The former minister is responsible for significant reform we have seen in the aviation sector, particularly over the last six years under his leadership, including as the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. No less than $1 billion is being invested in upgrades for air services. The former government opened new control towers in Adelaide and in regional centres such as the Sunshine Coast and Broome, where I had the privilege of joining the then minister for the opening of that wonderful piece of infrastructure in the Kimberley. The air traffic control process has also been streamlined to achieve greater cooperation between defence systems and the civil aviation sector. Minister Albanese was responsible for implementing the first comprehensive plan for aviation that encompassed all aspects of the aviation industry, including safety, workplace planning, regulatory issues and international agreements.

The former government also improved the governance of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau by having commissioners and by extending the ATSB's responsibilities to include rail and shipping so that it could provide a comprehensive approach to transport safety issues in Australia. Then Minister Albanese also set up a board of governance for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, which was chaired by Dr Allan Hawke. I acknowledge that this particular initiative received the support of the parliament. This plan, which went through a formal green paper and white paper process, has set guidelines for the aviation industry for decades to come. All the recommendations from this process were put in place by the former government.

Labor hopes that this review will continue the reforms that we implemented while in government. Labor is proud of its record on aviation safety while in government. We got the balance right between costs to the industry and the vital importance of safety and appropriate regulations. We welcome the news that Mr David Forsyth will chair the government's review. Mr Forsyth was appointed Chair of Airservices Australia by the former government in 2008 and performed that role admirably until last year. Under his leadership, Airservices Australia invested deeply in training and critical safety infrastructure. I believe he will bring a great depth of experience to the government's review. I commend his appointment.

I am also pleased to see that the government has appointed overseas experts to this review. This is entirely appropriate given the international nature of our aviation industry and it will be useful to have input from across the sector. I know Mr Albanese welcomed the news that Mr Forsyth will be joined in this new review by Mr Don Spruston from Canada and Mr Roger Whitefield from the UK. Both men are more than qualified to undertake their roles in this review. I also note that the ATSB recently invited the Canadian transport safety bureau to undertake an independent review of the ATSB's investigation methodologies and processes. I look forward to seeing the results of the ATSB review when it is completed next year and I hope that this kind of international cooperation will continue in future.

Australia's aviation industry has faced many challenges in recent years. In September there were more than five million passengers on domestic flights; Sydney's domestic airport alone saw more than two million passengers travel through its terminals. In the international sector, 54 international airlines operated services to and from Australia during the month of September. International scheduled passenger traffic in September 2013 was 2.681 million, compared to 2.533 million in September 2012. That is an increase of no less than 5.8 per cent.

In relation to that great state on the other side of the country, we have seen an unprecedented increase in passenger travel through our domestic and international terminals in Perth. In September of this year the domestic terminal saw more than 740,000 inbound and outbound passengers—an increase of more than 20 per cent over the same period in 2009. The international terminal has seen an even greater increase, of more than 25 per cent, over that period, as we saw more than 335,000 inbound and outbound passengers. These figures show just how vital the aviation sector is to all aspects of the Australian economy. It also highlights the importance of ensuring we have a safe, secure and sustainable aviation sector.

Other challenges facing the industry include the proliferation of low-cost carriers, the huge growth of fly-in fly-out airline and helicopter services and the emergence of unmanned aerial systems. These are just some of the big challenges facing aviation safety; others include new aircraft types and the wider use of satellite based technologies. There is always a balance to be struck between safety regulation and cost. As Shadow Minister Albanese recently said, this balancing is best done by experts, not by politicians. Hear, hear! I could not agree more. The aviation sector injects no less than some $7 billion into the Australian economy each year. It is one of our vital industries. Australia has an enviable record of aviation safety, as I said earlier, but it is only through the diligent efforts of the industry and the regulators that this will continue. I firmly believe that we must keep our personnel appropriately trained and skilled and be prepared to provide proper resourcing well into the future.

As I have said before, I welcome the minister's acknowledgement today that Australia's safety performance is among the best in the world, that it is built on a strong regulatory system and that we should do everything needed to maintain that. The opposition will follow the review and carefully consider its recommendations when they come forth in May next year. We hope that the minister will keep us updated on the progress of the review during the coming months.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to support the minister's statement and to follow Senator Sterle, who I know has a very keen interest in transport matters—not just as a transport unionist but, I am aware, from his work as chairman of various committees over the years. He has a serious and abiding interest in transport generally and aviation safety in particular.

I am pleased to read in the minister's statement:

Safety will always remain the Government’s highest priority in aviation policy. That will never change.

I also highlight another paragraph of the minister's statement:

I acknowledge the concerns being expressed by some sectors of the aviation industry, in particular general and regional aviation, about the costs of regulatory compliance and how outcomes of the current aviation safety regulatory reform programme compare with regulatory approaches in other countries.

I am particularly delighted to see the minister concentrating on that. As someone from a rural and regional area of Australia, I am very well aware of the cost of aviation generally in the more remote parts of the state.

One of the failures of the previous Labor government in dealing with these issues was the almost ridiculous situation of, for example, a security process at Horn Island airport, up in the Torres Strait. The cost of introducing that system was prohibitive, to almost bankrupting the local council which runs the airport. The government did provide some assistance after a lot of urging by myself and Mr Warren Entsch, the member for Leichhardt, but it was nowhere near enough.

Generally, as with many other aspects of life in Australia, what happens in the bush is out of sight, out of mind, and rules are made—perhaps quite rightly—for a majority. But very often in making rules for the majority those areas of our nation which are remote seem to miss out, so I am particularly delighted that the minister has this in mind when looking at the cost of regulatory compliance, particularly from a remote regional aviation point of view.

I might pause here to say that there have been a lot of good regional aviation operations over many years. I am particularly delighted at the relatively new service that operates now in Northern Australia, out of Darwin into very many other places in the north. Recently they introduced yet another service—a direct service from Darwin to Townsville—which from memory is operating three days a week, but it might even be more. So congratulations to Airnorth on the work they are doing to make travel in Northern Australia that much more affordable and possible.

This review arose out of a number of submissions that had been made to Mr Truss, as the coalition's opposition spokesman. One of the things that was raised regularly with me was the general aviation industry's concern at the administration of aviation safety. I repeat: nothing should ever lessen our concentration on safety, and all of us in this room, being regular users of airlines, would probably have a more precise interest in that than most others. There was a lot of concern about the administration of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. I attended one meeting in Brisbane that had a lot of follow-up meetings subsequently, of a group who were very concerned at the way CASA was operating. The complaints to me were many and varied but some of those that were more prominent than others were about the approach of certain officials in the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to general aviation.

I was told often that one particular inspector would call upon a general aviation outfit, usually in the country, and give a certain set of directions. Some time later a different officer would come in and give a completely different interpretation of the rules and regulations. There was also a very great concern about Australia apparently following a European model, if I can say that broadly, of civil aviation regulation and safety when perhaps we would have been better off following the New Zealand experience and regulations of recent times. I must confess I did not fully understand all of the elements of what is obviously a detailed area of learning and expertise of operations but it was clear to me that the administration of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority did need some looking at.

I am not saying for a moment that everything complained of to me was accurate. I am not saying that the director and his staff were not good, professional people. All I am saying is that there were sufficient concerns raised with me by many, many constituents that did require the government to look seriously at the administration of safety in our country. Unfortunately, the previous government did not bite the bullet as far as this was concerned but I am pleased to see that Mr Truss, the current minister, has implemented this very wide-ranging aviation safety regulation review that can only work to the benefit of all Australians who use the airways to move around. As a result of this review, and hopefully further action by government, we will get an even better system of aviation safety regulation in Australia.

Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was very keen to take part, for a short time, in this debate because over recent months I have been visited by a number of people who have been involved in our aviation industry. They all were keen to have a say in the future of aviation in this country. As Senator Sterle has pointed out, we welcome the review that was announced today by the minister. This gives, by the process that they are putting in place, an opportunity for the voices to be heard.

Senator Macdonald, I was with you for most of your statement except that little bit where you said our government had not grasped the nettle. The reason people came to see me was that they had responded to the plan that the previous government—our government with Minister Albanese—had put in place. For the first time there was a national aviation plan that looked at the range of aviation issues in our community. I think what had happened for many years was that people had seen aviation issues linked to large passenger aircraft, to the significant growth in numbers that we have seen over the last few years. Senator Sterle pointed out some of the statistics, but only a few of them. We saw in a number of the annual reports that have been tabled in the last couple of months the extraordinary growth in the number of passenger air flights in larger commercial airliners over the last 10 years. The numbers are confronting.

But they are not just linked to the major capital cities. The issues that were raised by people talking with me in many of the same places as Senator Macdonald—in Brisbane, in Townsville, in Mount Isa—were about the fact that there is a new form of air industry in our country. Particularly when we went to the Torres Strait recently, I had the opportunity to talk with a number of people who were involved in the helicopter industry, which is based in North Queensland and services a range of needs. The people who work in this industry are largely small business people who built up their businesses because of their passion for aviation and because they identified niche needs that lead across the northern part of our country. They did a lot of work in terms of tourism, in taking people to various places, but they also worked extensively with service providers, who rely almost exclusively on this form of transport to do the kind of work where we, in other parts of the country, have other options.

In the parts of the Torres Strait where I was privileged to visit, there are no options. If you are going to do your job, if you are going to visit the communities, if you are going to service the airways, if you are going to look after the telephones, if you are going to provide the health services and if you are actually going to service the vehicles on the islands, the only method of transport that fits within a time frame is the helicopter service. The big issues that were raised by those people when I was talking and travelling with them, and also afterwards, were resources availability and training. Training is part of the National Aviation Plan that former Minister Albanese put in place. I am keen to see, to be part of, the review that is going to happen into effective, appropriate and timely training for people who want to take their role in the industry.

The discussions I had talked about training now being available through high school. Now we have options. Through their senior schooling in Queensland, and I am sure in other states, young people who have an urge to work in this industry can take on board preliminary training as pilots, as people who work on the security of aircraft, maintenance and planning in the area. All of this can be offered in the high school curriculum, so while building a career and making choices about where they wish to work they can take that up within a concentrated plan that allows all the elements to work together.

I am very keen that in this new process of review the important issues of preliminary training, introductory training and ongoing training for people to upgrade skills and move between elements of the industry will be considered so that we will have appropriate, well-resourced and also well-skilled trainers in this field. There is a worry—and we see it—that perhaps sometimes the training available is not always to the levels of skills that we would desire and which people want.

The other element that people were very keen to talk to me about was the cost. If people are wanting to work in the industry, they have to pay considerable amounts of money to do their training and upgrade their skills. At this stage, there is no kind of resource support available for people in that area. I would like to put on record concerns about that so that into the future we will be able to have this knowledge and skill base that would be accessible to anyone who wishes to work in the industry.

I visited the Sunshine Coast area, and that is an area of burgeoning growth in the airline industry. It has been the beneficiary of the fly-in fly-out services. People do not have to go only to capital city areas, they can use the Sunshine Coast and other airports and air facilities around the country to provide this valuable service. This allows people to maintain their home base in areas such as the beautiful Sunshine Coast but have special services provided. This has actually increased the volume of traffic and the financial stability of the Sunshine Coast airport. They are able to use that service and maintain their home base and keep their work in the various mining facilities around the country. Some of the flights that are going are not just within Queensland but connect further to Western Australia and South Australia so that people are able to do that.

It is also important to know that there are great individual initiatives that are taking place in our airlines. I particularly want to mention the work that is being done in the Toowoomba region by a private company there. It has actually put the effort in and is building a high-quality airport facility just outside Toowoomba. This is going to be able to provide services for domestic travel, which is very important. It will also provide services for the very important industrial travel as the Darling Downs opens up to a range of mining initiatives as well as its important agricultural base. By providing this airport facility just outside Toowoomba, we are able to see that this is a diversification of options. No longer does this kind of facility have to be located only in capital cities.

In terms of all the aspects that senators Sterle and Macdonald talked about, the need for absolute safety is always at the forefront of any discussion in this area. As well, there is the need to offer real options to the industry for the people who have an interest, who actually have the chance to see that this is something that is important for our economy. I know Senator Sterle talked about the enormous economic benefit to the aviation industry in our community. I wish to put on record my acknowledgement of the work that was done by former Minister Albanese and the people who worked with him. It does not matter which policy area that we find in this place, we need to balance the need for effective regulation with the need for innovation and development.

Of course, when we talk about aviation, the first issue that comes to mind is safety. We see that, and Australia has a proud record. In fact our proud record shows that our regulation bodies have been effective, that we have had a high level of training, we have had a high level of maintenance and we have a skills base in our country of which we can all be proud. We need to have appropriate regulation. This is not an area where you actually have to cut back on regulations. You need to have effective and appropriate regulations.

I know the purpose of the review is to look over the whole area and that is welcome, but in terms of the overall commitment we must acknowledge that we are starting from a very high base. The work that has been done over many years needs to be acknowledged and engaged in any review that is put into place.

We welcome the review. We know that there will be regular reports back to this place so there will be the opportunity to talk about it and, of course, for the committee structure, Senator Sterle, to be engaged at every stage. I think that is an important aspect, we welcome it and we congratulate the new minister.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a pilot and a glider pilot, and someone who is interested in aviation, I do want to speak to this document on the review of aviation safety regulation. As there is limited time available, I will get an opportunity to contribute at a later time. It is encouraging to see in the review that work will be undertaken to ensure that areas of aviation that I have a strong interest in will be consulted. It is very good to see that Mr Phillip Reiss, President of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia, will take a particular role in this. General aviation play a vital role and, by and large, they have been overlooked by successive governments in the past. That is not to detract from the broader ambit of the Australian government's aviation safety regulation review and the strong case for the review made by all the previous speakers.

I will only take a moment of the Senate's time to reflect upon some of the more important areas that need to be addressed and the need to get it right. Through this review, we get an opportunity for eminent Australians to ensure that we can get safety in our airways at the regular public transport level, the general aviation level and what I would call the sports aviation level, so it can be an integrated whole and we have an outcome that provides a good result. I am always a little sceptical when it is 'just another' review. Governments use reviews as a way of not making decisions. I hope it is not going to be that. I hope that this review will be a real review of the operations and that real recommendations come out of the review, and that the government looks at those recommendations with a view to implementing them. Of course, I am not going to second-guess what those recommendations will be or call on the government to implement them. The government should take into account those recommendations to ensure that we get outcomes that will provide for better safety outcomes in aviation for all. With those short remarks, I will take this up at another time. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted.