Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

The Civil Aviation Legislation Amendment (1999 Montreal Convention and Other Measures) Bill 2008 will modernise Australia’s arrangements for air carriers’ liability. It will do this by implementing the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air done at Montreal on 28 May 1999, known as the Montreal convention. The bill also makes some amendments to modernise and update various legislative provisions relating to the scope of carriers’ liability.

Under the Warsaw convention, carriers were not liable for the death or injury of a passenger or for damage to air cargo if they could prove that they took all necessary measures to avoid the loss. It also capped carriers’ liability at a rate which is now out of date, unreasonably low and set in a currency which no longer exists. Different parties to the Warsaw convention subsequently adopted a variety of amending instruments, resulting in a complex and confusing array of international arrangements for carrier liability.

The Montreal convention is designed to overhaul this system and eventually replace the Warsaw convention. It introduces a two-tier system of liability for death or injury. The first tier, for damages up to approximately A$190,000, is on the basis of no-fault liability and cannot be reduced except in the event of contributory negligence by the passenger. For the second tier, for damages exceeding this threshold, the carrier is liable unless it can demonstrate that the damage was not due to its negligence or that of its agents.

Effectively, the Montreal convention increases the compensation limits for victims of air accidents. It also sets the monetary unit of compensation as the SDR, the special drawing right, of the IMF rather than the long abandoned gold standard and provides for the periodic review of compensation to take account of inflation. It will also enable Australians to bring legal action in Australia rather than in the country where the air accident occurred, and it modernises the list of family members who are entitled to seek compensation in the event of death in an air accident. The Montreal convention will also ease the burden on air shipping companies by removing the need for paper based waybills for air cargo and allowing them to use electronic means to keep track of shipments.

The Montreal convention was concluded in May 1999. It combines the various provisions of the previous Warsaw system arrangements into a single package. It entered into force in November 2003. The Department of Transport and Regional Services issued a discussion paper in January 2001 seeking input on whether or not Australia should accede to the Montreal convention.

The Montreal Convention Treaty was tabled in the Senate, along with a national interest analysis, on 4 August 2004. The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties published a report shortly thereafter which concluded that Australia should accede to the Montreal convention and that it would not have any detriment to Australia. The department of transport also issued a discussion paper in 2005 reviewing the Civil Aviation (Carriers’ Liability) Act in light of the decision by the Australian government to accede to the Montreal convention and proposing amendments to Australian law that would have had the same effect as the legislation currently proposed by the government.

Effectively, the previous coalition government had already decided to accede to the Montreal convention and this is the next step in amending the law in such a way as to put that accession into force. This legislation, therefore, is implementing a convention for which there is bipartisan support. It has gone through the proper processes of the parliament, including consideration by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, and it is therefore appropriate that it be brought here for the parliament to take this next step in implementation.

My office has discussed the content of this particular bill with the Australian aviation industry. Qantas and Virgin, our international carriers, have indicated their support. The domestic carriers are not opposed, but then again this legislation does not affect them as it involves only international carriers. It is clear that this convention enjoys the support not just of the industry but also of aviation customers in Australia.

It is not expected that the Australian air carriers would face higher costs, as most carriers operating in Australia voluntarily subject themselves to higher liability limits than those that currently apply under the Warsaw convention. Carriers, particularly the cargo freight industry, are also expected to benefit from the simplification of the documentation procedures which are provided for in this legislation.

The opposition is more than happy to support this legislation. As I indicated, it is a carryover from work that had been begun by the previous government. I think it is high time that Australia became a full partner to this convention. Most of our OECD colleagues have already joined it. Most of the countries to which Australian airlines fly are a party to it. It is therefore appropriate that Australia should also accede to the Montreal convention.

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