Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank those members, including the member for Makin, who have contributed to this debate on the Airports Amendment Bill 2016. The federal government regulates planning and development on federally-leased airport sites through the Airports Act 1996. On 1 December 2016 the former minister, the member for Gippsland, introduced the bill into the House of Representatives. The bill proposes several measures developed in consultation with key industry stakeholders to streamline certain administrative arrangements in the Airports Act 1996 relating to master plans and major development plans that are currently generating inefficient outcomes for industry as well as imposing unnecessary and onerous administrative and compliance costs. In particular, the bill proposes to implement a differential master plan submission cycle, thereby requiring the major airports, such as Brisbane, Melbourne, Tullamarine, Perth, Sydney's Kingsford Smith—and I note the comments from the member for Kingsford Smith in this debate—and Western Sydney airport to maintain the current five-year submission cycle while the remaining airports will prepare a master plan every eight years.

The bill also proposes to increase the current $20 million monetary trigger for a major development plan to $25 million. The monetary threshold will be reviewed and revised via legislative instrument every three years, having regard to changes in construction activity costs and associated indexations to ensure that the monetary trigger accurately reflects and keeps pace with economic and marketplace conditions. The bill reinforces the government's commitment to improving the capacity of our regulatory framework to ensure that it continues to deliver a proportionate and efficiency-based approach that reduces administrative and compliance costs for operators, creating regulatory certainty for industry and maintaining appropriate and effective regulatory oversight.

On 9 February 2017 the bill was referred to the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 28 March that year. Following an aviation accident at Essendon Airport, the Senate granted an extension of time for reporting, to 19 March 2018. In March 2018 the committee recommended that the Senate pass the Airports Amendment Bill 2017. The committee's report has made it very clear that there is no linkage between the accident at Essendon Airport and the matters under consideration in this bill. I thank the shadow minister for infrastructure and transport for working constructively in a bipartisan way to ensure passage of this legislation, and I acknowledge his amendments to the bill, which he's just about to put to the House. The government contends that the bill will bring about positive changes for the aviation industry and airport users whilst still maintaining appropriate regulatory oversight and that this bill should be supported. With that, I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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