Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to speak on the Civil Aviation (Unmanned Aircraft Levy) Bill 2020 and the Civil Aviation Amendment (Unmanned Aircraft Levy Collection and Payment) Bill 2020, I signal that the opposition are supporting them, but we will be moving a second reading amendment, which I'll talk about briefly. This package of legislation follows an extensive inquiry from the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee between 2016 and 2018. The committee made a number of recommendations, and Labor is pleased that the government has finally gotten around to actually acting on some of them.

We all know that the future of aviation will include a role for unmanned aircraft, colloquially known as drones. By 2026 it is predicted that drones will be an $11 billion industry globally, and right now there are thousands of drone operators in Australia plying their trade and carrying out essential work in a range of industries. Surveyors use drones to plan infrastructure. Photographers use them to find new angles. Filmmakers and news crews take advantage of their versatility. Farmers use them to check on crops and soil moisture levels. Emergency services personnel use them for a range of operations. In Canberra you can even have your morning coffee delivered by drone. Beyond operations, Australia is a growing hub for innovation and for technological advances, with operators taking advantage of our regulatory environment and wide open spaces to develop beyond-line-of-sight technologies and capabilities.

Drones have a great future, and it is essential that regulations keep up with this fast-moving industry. Drones are aircraft, albeit relatively small ones. Their operations must adhere to standards that uphold the safety of Australians. But it is equally important that this regulatory scheme, including the registration of remotely piloted aircraft, is simple and cost-effective and doesn't stifle this growing industry. We can't allow excessive and costly regulation and registration to strangle an industry that could provide jobs and greater services across the community. If the government were to impose excessive conditions, we would see fewer players getting involved in the industry, less innovation from Australian operators and even industry leaders moving away from Australia to more supportive and accepting jurisdictions overseas.

While registration and regulation is needed, there are risks inherent in that process. Labor wants to work with the government and with the industry to ensure that we get this right and that we both uphold the highest safety standards and maintain an innovative and exciting industry. It is clear that the industry is yet to be fully brought on board with these changes, and more engagement will be needed before the legislation itself comes into effect. For instance, the industry raises the fact that this bill allows registration costs of up to $300, when similar fees cost $16 in the UK, $7 in the US and $5 in Canada. If fees are so high in Australia, we will see fewer farmers, photographers and surveyors registering their aircraft, and research and development sent offshore. These problems are clearly not insurmountable; they can be easily fixed, and that is something Labor will be seeking to do in the Senate.

Just as further consultation will be needed to ensure that this legislation preserves a strong future for the unmanned sector of our aviation industry, the government also needs to listen to the traditional aviation sector to maintain their future. Of the many things that I expected and hoped to see us talking about in aviation in this chamber, drones probably wouldn't have been my first priority for the government to bring forward from a legislative mechanism, but that is what the government has decided to do. We know in this country, when it comes to the future of aviation—and particularly of Australian airlines and the jobs that they support—the government has done nowhere near enough. Since March the government has allowed Virgin to fall into administration, costing 3,000 jobs. It's denied JobKeeper to 5,000 Dnata workers and workers at council owned airports. It sat back while Qantas sacked 8½ thousand workers. We know that the CEOs of our two major airlines were here in Canberra this week and last week calling on the government to extend JobKeeper beyond March and, equally as important, to extend beyond December, just a short three weeks from now, the assistance that the government has got for some of the aviation sector, because they know that it is going to be a very, very bumpy return. Again I say to the government: you need to come and explain to the aviation sector and explain to all of those thousands of workers whether you're going to continue that support or whether you're going to pull that out come December.

What more will it take, frankly, for this government to finally come up with a plan for aviation? We can't wait for five years from now. We can't wait for a year from now. The government actually needs to articulate what it wants the industry to look like, what it thinks are in the best interests of Australians now and actually do something about that to make sure that that's the sector and the industry that we have. Aviation workers can't wait. The future of aviation in Australia will include drones, but it must also include our airlines, our airports and our aviation workers. I encourage the Morrison government to finally come to the table and to give the industry the help that it needs. I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes that unmanned aircraft are an important part of the aviation sector, offering exciting new business and service opportunities into the future;

(2) further notes that Australia's existing aviation sector has been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic;

(3) criticises the Government's failure to take a sector-wide approach to supporting the aviation sector during the pandemic, putting the livelihoods of thousands of aviation workers at risk; and

(4) calls on the Government to develop a sector-wide aviation recovery plan to support the industry to recover from the impacts of COVID-19".

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