Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister responsible for emergency management. Minister, every year Australian governments spend a fortune leasing foreign firefighting aircraft like the acclaimed Erickson Air-Crane. Why don't we establish our own firefighting air force of large specialised aircraft? The Defence Force, for instance, operates hundreds of aircraft, many of which never see operational service. Imagine the good that a dozen or so large specialised firefighting aircraft would do. They could even be profitable by helping other countries in the northern summer.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member asked the question of the minister responsible for emergency management. That is not the minister's title, but the Minister for Justice has responsibility in that area. Perhaps you might like to address your question to the Minister for Justice.

Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My apologies, Madam Speaker. I did say, 'the minister responsible'.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, ask the minister by his proper title.

Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All right. I direct that question to the Minister for Justice, please, Madam Speaker.

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Denison for that question. It is a good question, and I acknowledge that his home state has been subject to very serious bushfires as recently as this year. One capability that we have in Australia to address what is always an ever-present danger is firefighting aircraft. They remain a very important tool for us. We know a lot about this. We have been using firefighting aircraft in Australia since the 1920s, and we have been using water-bombing aircraft since the 1960s. The consensus among the experts is that we get a better bang for our bucks by leasing those aircrafts. That allows us the flexibility of taking advantage of emerging technologies as well.

Currently, in Australia we have a very significant fleet, and it covers a vast geographical area. It includes such things as the Erickson Air-Cranes—mentioned in the member's question—which are better known as Elvis, even though there are quite a few of them, and a number of heavy-lift helicopters as well as surveillance and intelligence-gathering aircraft, which assist us with hazard mapping.

Leasing aircraft allows us to acquire more aircraft and expert crew for our summer season. Purchasing a standing fleet of aircraft would be incredibly expensive and not considered to be good value for money, because of the extensive costs associated with maintaining that fleet of fixed-wing aircraft and also maintaining and supporting pilots, engineers and specialist support crew.

We do have a very significant capability. We work at it in conjunction with our state and territory colleagues through the National Aerial Firefighting Centre. This centre leases specialist aircraft for us, and brings them to Australia for our summer season. The Commonwealth government contributes about $14 million per year for that capability. The states and territories contribute a similar sort of amount.

To help the member for Denison, and to highlight the cost of fixed-wing aircraft—a lot of this information is commercial-in-confidence—to purchase one Canadian fixed-wing aircraft would cost us about $40 million. You could understand that the numbers of aircraft deployed to deal with emergency situations could be quite significant. In New South Wales, during the recent bushfire emergency about six weeks ago, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service deployed about 90 aircraft to deal with the height of that emergency. So you could understand that maintaining a fixed fleet of that large volume of aircraft would be incredibly expensive. And it is not considered to be good value for money.

The other point I would like to make is that we have looked at using larger fixed-wing aircraft for this sort of work. We have trialled RAAF C-130s, and also, more recently, a DC-10, but the expert consensus still remains that, because it is very difficult for those larger fixed-wing aircraft to operate in difficult geographic locations— (Time expired)