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

I thank members for their contribution to this debate on the Sydney Airport Demand Management Amendment Bill 2024. At the outset, I want to acknowledge that this is a really complex area. Airspace, airports and the operation of airports are really complex. Frankly, there are a lot of experts in this field who have lots of opinions and lots of views, and trying to get the balance right is always challenging. That being said, I acknowledge the second reading amendment that has been moved, but you will not be surprised to hear that the government will not be supporting it.

This bill really is a central part of the broader reforms to Sydney airport demand management. That is the subject and focus of this bill. It is another step of the government's active reforms to improve aviation in this country—reforms that will crack down on poor behaviour by the airlines and get a better deal for consumers. Sydney airport is Australia's most significant international gateway and a critical hub of the national aviation network. The efficiency and effectiveness of operations at the airport does have a significant impact on many Australians. So it is right that the reforms proposed in this bill ensure the airport is used to deliver better efficiency, enhanced competition and better consumer outcomes. The bill does this by adjusting the settings of the demand management framework so that access to the airport can be managed more efficiently and effectively while maintaining aviation access for regional New South Wales communities and upholding existing community protections from the impacts of aircraft noise.

Firstly, the bill gives the minister responsibility for developing and making the slot management scheme. This will enable the government to implement and improve transparency and governance arrangements for the slot manager and to provide direction on the administration of the slot management scheme. The government's reforms to improve regional access and improve access to slots for new entrant airlines will be implemented through a new slot management scheme.

Secondly, the bill introduces new civil penalty provisions to strengthen the compliance regime, which will allow anticompetitive behaviour by airlines to be addressed. The compliance committee is also being reformed, with a new membership that will allow the committee to effectively provide independent advice on compliance action.

Thirdly, the bill introduces new transparency powers to support the new stronger compliance regime. This includes requirements for the production of information and documents, the keeping of records and the publication of information. This will help make sure that consumers have better information about airline performance.

Finally, the bill introduces a recovery period to temporarily increase the number of movements at Sydney airport to 85 for up to two hours when a major disruption occurs. The recovery period declaration will only allow flights that were already scheduled to operate on that day to take off or land and will not extend into curfew hours. There will be a mandatory reporting of information on when and why the recovery period is used so that the community can be confident it is being used properly. The bill will deliver a new demand management framework for Sydney airport that enables efficient and effective operation of the airport while ensuring that communities on the ground are not unduly impacted.

I commend the bill to the House.

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