Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, I will not. We are constantly searching for excellence in running this industry, and that is certainly what this government is all about.

I want to put on record that I am proud of the Australian aviation industry’s record, particularly its record on safety, and I would like to make some detailed observations about the history of aviation, particularly over the last decade. We have seen very substantial risks and loss of life within the aviation industry. My mind turns to September 11, when we lost many lives in the United States and many Australians, of course, as a consequence. We have seen, in more recent times, planes having to land in watercourses in the United States. We have also seen, within the Australian context, threats and risks in Darwin.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority plays a very significant and important role in ensuring that we have extremely safe skies. In Australia, with our civil aviation authorities and government intervention, we see very strong regulatory arrangements that have been in place for a very significant period of time. We will continue to strive to ensure that we have extremely safe skies.

In the Australian context, we have thousands and thousands of people, each and every week, flying from one destination to another, whether it be for holidays, for commerce or to catch up with family and friends. This government will do absolutely everything that we can to ensure that the statutes and the regulations are appropriately in place to protect those that use our aviation industries, and I will continue to support every effort to ensure that we do that.

In my own backyard we have Avalon Airport, which is in increasingly playing a very important role in domestic tourism. The community that I represent, a community that has substantial tourism assets, is increasingly keen to see Avalon play a role in international tourism. Of course, that potentially brings a whole raft of new and difficult challenges that we will need to manage in accordance with all of the statutes that are in place and should be in place. When you open up a new airport, when you bring new people from different parts of the world to any airport via an airline, very clearly there are substantial risks that must be managed to ensure the safety of the airline public. When I reflect on the efforts that this government has made in the last 12 months, I think some very substantial and worthy debates have taken place in this parliament around some of the legislative arrangements that we have chosen to put in place.

This bill contains a number of enhancements to the Aviation Transport Security Act 2004 and the Civil Aviation Act 1988. These arrangements, I believe, will provide for a safer public and a safer opportunity to use our airports and our airlines and will ensure the safety of the flying public. This government will keep striving, along with our partners in the airline industry and all of the authorities that play a very important role in protecting the wellbeing of the Australian flying public. All our partners—whether it be the aviation transport authority, CASA, state police or the Australian Federal Police—continue to make a valuable contribution to the safety of our flying public.

In conclusion, I would like to thank those who have played a very significant role within the aviation authority, the Federal Police, Customs and other valued partners and who continue to ensure that we do have, I think, a very proud record of having one of the safest sets of arrangements that protect our flying public within Australia. I commend the bill to the chamber.

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