Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

You will probably not be surprised to hear that I will deal with the more substantive questions from the member for Grayndler in relation to Airservices Australia, and I certainly welcome his questions in relation to Airservices. As he correctly pointed out, it is a very important body and the safety of our aviation arrangements here in Australia are chaired by an eminent Australian, Sir Angus Houston.

The member is right to indicate that there is a restructure program underway at the moment known as the Accelerate program and the reduction of the workforce in the order of 900 jobs. I want to assure the member for Grayndler that I have also sought and received assurances that none of the positions to be made redundant under the Accelerate program would impact on aviation safety. I appreciate the question and assure the member that, in the same spirit of that question, the government has no plans to privatise Airservices Australia.

I can say that Airservices is continuing to advise me and consult with its staff on the rollout of the program and I expect to be kept closely informed on the progress of that through the Airservices board. I meet quite regularly with the board and the chief executive. Airservices has been quick to indicate—and I appreciate those assurances—that, obviously, safety remains the highest priority in delivery of its services.

I would also like to refer to the member for Grayndler's questions in relation to the aviation—

Mr Albanese interjecting—

I will get to that in a moment, thanks, member for Grayndler—rescue and firefighting services. I welcome the very constructive manner in which the member has raised these questions not only today but in the past, and he has raised some concerns with me privately. The government has no plans to close the aviation rescue and firefighting services that currently operate at regional airports. The government's response to the Aviation Safety Regulation Review asked the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development for policy advice on a range of potential improvements to the regulation of the ARFFs. The government is considering the advice from the department on the outcomes of that review and I undertake to keep the House and the member fully informed, as any final decisions about the acquirement of ARFFs at regional airports will be made, quite appropriately, by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

The member referred to the Australian Rail Track Corporation, the ARTC. It was made clear in this year's budget, and I can assure the member again here today, that the ARTC is our preferred delivery model for the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project and that there are no plans to privatise ARTC. In the context of this year's budget I think it is important to note that $594 million was put forward in this year's budget for the next stage of the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project. I know it is a project that many members opposite and on this side of the House have a great deal of interest in. It is regarded, quite rightly, as a project of extraordinary national importance. The total commitment from the Commonwealth at this stage is in the order of $894 million. We are fully aware of the fact that that does not build you the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail. That gets you through the foundation stages. There is a market testing process underway. There are a whole range of preliminary works underway.

I was in Warwick just last week, where I met with state members of parliament, local federal members of parliament and local council. It is fair to say that there is a heightened level of interest in that community about the proposed alignments from the New South Wales border, through the Warwick area, to Toowoomba and down to Brisbane. I would put to the chamber that the heightened level of community interest reflects the fact that the community now believes that the government is going to get on with the job of actually delivering Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail. It is a project that has been talked about for decades, and we are now getting close to the pointy end of the conversation about what the final alignment will look like and how we are going to deliver maximum benefit to communities along that route.

Again, I assure those opposite—and I would like to assure the member for Wright, who asked the question of me earlier about the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail—that we are working in a very constructive way with the ARTC and with the Queensland, New South Wales and Victorian governments, in terms of reaching agreement on memorandums of understanding on how we can work together to deliver this project. It is one that is of great national importance, and I certainly look forward to having bipartisan support for a project which I think will deliver enormous benefits to not just regional Australia but the whole nation. If we are ever going to capitalise on the benefits of the three free trade agreements which were negotiated under the previous trade minister, Andrew Robb, we are going to need to make sure we get our national freight arrangements working in a way which minimises cost to producers right across regional Australia. I thank the member for his questions.

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