Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, I present the committee's report entitled Report 133: treaties tabled on 1 November 2012.

In accordance with standing order 39(f) the report was made a parliamentary paper.

I ask leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report.

Leave granted.

Today I present the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties' Report 133, which contains the committee's views on a series of treaties which were tabled on 1 November 2012. The Treaties Committee has approved eight treaties, six of which are air services agreements. Air services agreements contain important provisions on the operation of international airline services country to country, including matters such as traffic rights, the capacity of flight routes, tariffs and competition policy. The committee has approved six air services agreements which formalise previously established, non-treaty arrangements between Australia and the United States, Japan, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Palau.

All of these air services agreements grant Australian airlines access to the aviation markets of these countries for the purposes of international air travel. In the case of the US, the proposed agreements will allow air services to operate between Australia and the US under an 'open-skies' framework. The air services agreements will enable airlines of Australia and the countries in question to provide services between any point in Australia and any point in those countries, based on capacity levels decided from time to time between the aeronautical authorities of the countries listed. It is expected that Australian travellers and Australian businesses, particularly in the tourism and export industries, will benefit from this proposed set of agreements through the opening up of increased commercial opportunities. As noted earlier, these agreements have already been in place for a number of years as memoranda of understanding. Thus, the treaties here are providing a more formal and legal foundation to existing arrangements.

The remaining two treaties approved by the committee relate to international interests in mobile equipment and are together known as the Cape Town convention. The treaties introduce a uniform international securities framework that applies across borders and provides financiers of aircraft with increased certainty around Australia's insolvency laws, as they apply to highly mobile equipment. These treaties should reduce creditor risk exposure and allow for the prompt repossession of an aircraft asset or, indeed, the taking of other action by a creditor upon insolvency. In turn, they are expected to allow for increased access by the Australian aviation industry to cheaper asset financing and sources of finance external to the domestic market. The current gaps in the Australian legislative framework do not provide for the unique financing requirements applicable to aviation. The committee sees the Cape Town convention as a means of addressing these gaps.

Finally, the report also contains the committee's view that binding treaty action may be taken on two minor treaty actions, namely an amendment of Australia's schedule annexe to the Marrakesh Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and an amendment of the 2007 agreement between Australia and the European Police Office. The committee concludes that all the treaties covered in Report 133 should be supported with binding action. On behalf of the committee I commend the report to the House.