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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Albanese government is undertaking the most significant reforms to Australian aviation in a decade to drive competition, to improve consumer outcomes and to boost resilience. This bill takes the next step in that reform process.

In February this year, I announced a major package of reforms to the Sydney airport demand management scheme, improving the use of this significant piece of national infrastructure while maintaining community protections.

Since announcing these reforms, we have begun the work of implementation.

The first slot audit is well underway, with findings to be released in coming months.

And, importantly, an open tender is underway to contract the slot manager, including stronger independence requirements to manage real and perceived conflicts of interest.

This bill takes the next step in implementing our Sydney airport reforms to better deliver outcomes for the Australian travelling public.

Australia's busiest airport, Sydney airport, is our major international gateway to the world and it is a critical hub for the national aviation network.

Located in the heart of Australia's biggest city, Sydney airport poses a number of challenges and community impacts that are not shared with other Australian airports.

It's capacity constrained, it has no room to expand, and it is located close to dense residential communities.

Since the opening of the parallel runway in 1997, the airport has operated under a unique demand management framework that balances managing operational capacity at the airport, community concerns about aircraft noise and ensuring access for regional New South Wales cities and towns.

Over time, however, this framework has fallen out of date. It is harming productivity, resilience and competition.

It is essential that this framework enables the airport to perform to its fullest potential, while still ensuring that communities on the ground are not unduly impacted.

That is what these reforms I'm introducing today will deliver.

Taken together, our reforms will encourage competition. By moving the responsibility for making the slot management scheme from the slot manager to the minister, we will be able to update the demand management system so that it better aligns with modern international standards, while significantly increasing transparency about how slots are allocated. Airlines will be required to provide regular information on how they use slots, such as reasons for cancellations or major delays, and this monitoring information will be regularly published through independent audits.

These reforms will crack down on slot misuse by modernising the compliance regime to include new civil penalties for failing to use a slot, for no-slot and off-slot movements, for flight operations conducted not in accordance with slot requirements, for applying for slots with no reasonable prospects of using them and for failing to return or transfer unused slots, along with updated and strengthened enforcement tools for the government to watch airlines more closely and take effective legal action where necessary.

New transparency powers are being introduced to support the strengthened compliance regime. This will include a power for the minister to compel airlines to produce information on slot usage and a requirement for the slot manager to regularly publish information about how slots are issued to airlines, how the airlines use them (such as information about cancellations and delays), and information about airlines that lose slots when they break the rules on slot misuse. This will help make sure that consumers have better information about airline performance.

These reforms will improve connectivity for regional communities by allowing regional New South Wales services to apply to use any slot during peak period hours, not just the slots that are already set aside for priority access for regional New South Wales services. In addition, when allocating slots to airlines, the slot manager will be required to consider giving priority to regional New South Wales airlines asking for peak period slots among the other priorities for slot allocation.

The reforms will also boost resilience of our entire aviation network by introducing a 'recovery period'. This strictly controlled 'recovery period' will be implemented after severe weather events or other major disruptions (for example; security issues) to temporarily allow up to 85 movements per hour for a maximum of two hours on the same day following the disruption. This change will not increase noise impacts on communities, but it will mean more travellers can reach their destinations and spend the night at home rather than on a terminal floor or in a hotel room.

This package of reforms will benefit the flying public and include strong protections for communities affected by aircraft noise and those in regional areas.

Those better outcomes for the travelling public are at the heart of the significant reforms that we are taking across aviation.

From better monitoring airline performance and pricing to improving outcomes for travellers with disabilities and creating the first Aviation Industry Ombuds Scheme—the government is undertaking the most significant aviation reform agenda in a decade, delivering reforms that were, frankly, left to linger and were seen as too hard by those opposite.

Along with the opening of the Western Sydney International Airport in 2026, this reform package will enable a more competitive, transparent and productive aviation network for years to come.

I particularly want to thank my staff; Nick Beaver, who has done a terrific job on working through these issues; as well as staff from the department. This is a really complex area of reform. It takes time to get this right. And I do want to thank them very much for working with the drafters to get this legislation right and to get it before the parliament. I thank them very much for the work that they have done, of course, on the aviation white paper.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.

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