Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Civil Aviation Legislation Amendment (1999 Montreal Convention and Other Measures) Bill 2008. This bill is important because it is about offering greater protection for Australians travelling abroad. The Montreal Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air deals with international air carrier liability for the carriage of passengers, baggage and cargo. It spells out an air carrier’s liability for injury or death of a passenger. My next-door neighbour, an in-flight services manager for an airline, says that it does happen, that deaths do occur not infrequently. Often he or she—I do not want to name him or her—has had to counsel flight attendants and it is a very traumatic experience when it does happen. It is easy to talk about it here, but the reality is that deaths do occur. Obviously with an ageing population, a wealthy population, and with baby boomers more of us will be flying. While there are requirements about having medical certificates to fly, obviously every now and then people get it wrong and deaths occur. This is a very timely piece of legislation. As I said, it spells out an air carrier’s liability for the injury or death of a passenger, the loss or damage of luggage and damages caused by arrival delays which occur in the course of international travel.

The convention was agreed to on 28 May 1999. I asked one of my youngest staff members if they could remember that date. The years blur a bit for me. I am in my 40s, but a younger member could definitely remember May 1999 because it was Kylie Minogue’s 31st birthday—my staffer was still in school. I think Kylie Minogue will be 40 tomorrow. That gives you an idea of when this convention was first agreed to. Happy birthday to Kylie Minogue from Parliament House here in Canberra and a special thank you from me for those gold hotpants!

What else was going on back in 1999? Take your mind back. The average city retail price for unleaded petrol was 80.4c per litre. It is great to be able to mention the word ‘petrol’ and not have a chorus of voices in this House at the moment. The average price for a house was $200,000. The housing interest rate was 6.5 per cent and the size of the average home loan was $136,500. Back in May 1999, Britney Spears had just released her debut album. The title track was ‘Hit me baby one more time.’ At that time she had no babies under her control and it is much the same now, as it turns out. In 1999, The Matrix had just hit the cinemas and there were no sequels to The Matrix movie at the time. Back in 1999, John Howard’s approval rating on 28 May 1999 was at 42 per cent, which is 30 per cent more than that of the current Leader of the Opposition.

Back to the more mundane matters to do with flight: the Montreal convention was agreed to on 28 May 1999 and came into effect on 4 November 2003. I point out that there was a fair gap between when it was actually agreed to and when it came into effect. So far, 86 countries have signed and ratified the Montreal convention. To pluck a couple of names out of the air, Bolivia, Tonga, Namibia, Estonia and Botswana—none of these countries, though wonderful in their own way, are OECD countries. Nevertheless, all of them managed to ratify the Montreal convention.

You may be wondering why it has taken so long to be enacted by the Australian government. Since 1999, the coalition had nine years to sign and ratify the Montreal convention, yet they failed to do so. 28 May 1999 is a very long time ago. So while other countries moved swiftly to enact the laws, the coalition government sat on their hands. They simply could not be bothered. They did not care about Australian international travellers. Like their stubborn refusal to ratify Kyoto, here we have another example of the former coalition government being slow to act to advance international laws. They were not able to look beyond our shores. In fact, with the passing of this bill, Australia will be the last OECD country to sign and ratify the Montreal convention.

On that note, I will just take this moment to thank Minister Albanese for moving so swiftly to bring this bill before the parliament. The Montreal convention replaces rather than amends the complicated and outdated Warsaw system of carriers’ liability. The Warsaw convention became law in 1929, in an era when air travel was just taking off, so to speak. I am sorry, Deputy Speaker; I do apologise for that pun. I do not think it ever got off the ground. In fact, I think that pun might have crashed. Nonetheless, the Warsaw system, with its origins in 1929, before jet engines were even invented, is written in archaic language. It measures compensation in the gold franc Poincare, a currency that no longer exists, and offers very low compensation to victims and their families, sometimes as low as $16,000. Obviously this is manifestly inadequate in 2008, in this millennium. Compensation for damaged luggage could be as low as $30. For anyone who has been in an international airport, $30 barely buys you a milkshake and a sandwich in most airports. But it gets worse. In some circumstances, under the Warsaw convention, the amount of compensation is limited to a cap that was set two weeks before the great crash. Of course, I am talking about the Wall Street crash, not a plane crash.

It is therefore essential that the Rudd government modernise these arrangements to ensure that equitable compensation is available to injured passengers or passengers that have incurred damage. It is essential work for a government that believes in the future. It is essential work for a government committed to the new millennium. We believe that our world has changed quite a bit since 1929. The Warsaw system has also become unwieldy through many additional instruments such as the Hague protocol from 1955, the Guadalajara convention of 1961, the Guatemala City protocol of 1971, the 1975 additional Montreal protocols Nos 1 to 3 and Montreal protocol No. 4. These were introduced in an effort to modernise the laws regarding the international carriage of cargo.

Today, international jet travel is booming and we need fair and workable laws in place to protect consumers. The Montreal convention provides this protection for Australians travelling overseas. It does this by removing the cap on carrier liability and introducing a much fairer two-tier system. For damages up to a threshold of 100,000 special drawing rights, which is equivalent—as you well know, Deputy Speaker—to around $170,000 in today’s terms, passengers will not have to prove fault on the part of the airline. That is, it makes it a much easier process for the consumer, for the poor traveller who has suffered at the hands of a carrier. So, instead of adding insult to injury, this new Montreal initiative pours oil on troubled waters. On the other hand, for damages greater than the 100,000 special drawing rights threshold, the onus will be on the airline to prove that they were not at fault. As I am sure you well know, Deputy Speaker, special drawing rights are a unit of currency used by the International Monetary Fund, based on a basket of international currencies. The new compensation thresholds will ensure that victims and their families are now fairly compensated for injury, death or loss.

I have heard some argue that this bill will lead to greater travel costs for consumers. However, as many international airlines have already voluntarily begun operating under more generous liability arrangements, this bill is not expected to increase travel or insurance costs.

This bill is also good for modern families. The bill expands which relatives are able to claim damages in the event of a passenger death. The list now includes stepsiblings and wards of the passenger. The Montreal convention may also be applied to domestic air travel. However, as our domestic scheme is working so well, as mentioned by the member for Brand, the government has decided to keep the existing arrangement covered under part IV of the Civil Aviation (Carriers’ Liability) Act. The legislation is complemented by state government legislation to create a national, uniform liability framework for domestic air travel.

Finally, I am pleased that the passing of this bill will strengthen Australia’s standing as a leading aviation nation. Certainly, coming from Queensland, I know that the state of Queensland is particularly committed to aviation and, having an airport in my electorate, I am particularly interested in it as well. So we will join the 86 other countries as a signatory to the Montreal convention. We will catch up with the protections afforded the good citizens of places like Bolivia, Tonga, Namibia, Estonia and Botswana and, in doing so, we will ensure greater protection for Australia’s international travellers. I commend the bill to the House.

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