Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thirty-eight million passengers passed through Sydney Airport in 2023. The airport is an economic powerhouse supporting many businesses in my local community and providing 30,000 jobs for people in the Sydney area. An airport in my local electorate is sometimes an advantage, but it can also be a disadvantage.

The advantages, of course, are the jobs. The airport provides so many jobs for locals in my community. So many of my mates that I went to school with have jobs related to the airport. My father worked for Qantas for 35 years. My brother and sister both worked in the travel industry associated with the airport. It provides so much employment for locals in our community, and, as a result, we have relatively low unemployment. That's a great advantage for our community. There is the convenience of having the airport 10 minutes away. When you need to travel, it's quite convenient to live up the road and be able to jump in a taxi an hour before your flight and still make it.

But then there are the disadvantages. One of those, of course, is aircraft noise, which can have an effect on the welfare and the lives of residents. No airport in Australia has residents living as close to an airport as Sydney airport in Mascot. In fact, I would hazard a guess that there are no airports in the world that have allowed residential development to butt up so close to a major international airport. When I lived in Williams Street, in Botany, if 747s took off in the morning on the east-west runway, the house would shake. There were well and truly about 800 metres of homes between me and the airport that were worse affected than we were.

Getting the balance right and ensuring that residents have period of peace and quiet in their homes while still allowing the effective and efficient operation of Australia's busiest airport is a challenge for governments. That is why the curfew arrangements and the cap on movements have been put in place through legislation to manage the operation of Sydney airport. I am very proud to say that this government will keep those arrangements in place with these amendments. This government has acted—and I will pay tribute to the minister in a moment—to balance the rights of residents associated with the effective operation of the airport but ensuring that residents can get some peace and quiet.

During COVID, the Morrison government granted exemptions to freight operators regarding the types of aircraft and the number of flights that could be flown during curfew hours—in other words, during the evening, when residents are sleeping. This was justified under the act because an exemption allows that to occur in exceptional circumstances. The exceptional circumstances were large increases in freight volumes coming into Sydney airport associated with everyone being at home and ordering things online, so the freight levels did increase.

But post-COVID, the freight operators sought to continue those exemptions. They argued that the exceptional circumstances continued to exist because freight volumes remained high. Rather helpfully, we were able to shoot that argument down because the department of infrastructure very graciously publish their freight data in and out of Sydney airport on a monthly basis. That data demonstrated that the volumes of freight coming into and out of Sydney airport had clearly fallen post-COVID. They had fallen back to the normal levels of pre-COVID. That justified the exemptions going back to the original conditions and the curfew being put back in place.

To her credit, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government acted. She saw there was a need there and she made sure that those exemptions that were granted were removed and normal curfew conditions were restored. On behalf of the community I represent, I thank the minister for listening and for acting to ensure that the balance between the effective and efficient operation of the airport and the rights of residents was restored.

The minister also went further. The Sydney Airport Community Forum had representatives from the north, the inner west and the Sutherland area but no community representatives from the east—the area that I represent—despite the fact that the airport is actually in my electorate. I requested that there be a representative from the east and a representative from Randwick council, which also wasn't represented on the Sydney Airport Community Forum. Again, credit to the minister: the minister acted and two new appointments were made to the forum. The representative from the east is Alan Dukes, who is very experienced as a former air traffic controller, and the Randwick mayor has also been appointed to that body.

The government acted to ensure that we restored the balance between effective and efficient operation of the airport, maintaining competition, and the rights of residents in the community that I represent. This all occurred whilst the minister was dealing with the largest and most comprehensive reforms to the aviation sector in our nation in over a decade, through the white paper.

This bill responds to the recommendations in the white paper. The government is boosting consumer rights, increasing competition, protecting passengers with disability, supporting regional aviation and helping the sector to decarbonise. The bill will deliver many of the policies outlined in the aviation white paper. Most importantly, it will keep the airlines honest, putting downward pressure on airfares and ensuring passengers get a better deal.

All this will be achieved through a new, independent ombudsman, helping passengers get better outcomes when things go wrong; a charter of rights for customers, ensuring fair and appropriate treatment; aviation-specific accessibility standards to assist people with disabilities; new requirements and monitoring of airlines to crack down on anti-competitive behaviour and keep the airlines honest; an independent aircraft noise ombudsman—something that will please my community—with the power to conduct independent investigations into the handling of aircraft noise complaints and make recommendations direct to government; enhancing regional connectivity; growing a stronger and more diverse workforce; and reducing emissions in the aviation sector. These are all pretty important reforms to the operation of Sydney airport and aviation throughout Australia, but I do want to mention another important part of this reform, which is colloquially known as the slot management system at Sydney airport.

To encourage competition, the government will update the demand management system so that it better aligns with international standards. The government will significantly increase transparency around how slots are allocated to airlines. Airlines will be required to provide regular information on how they use the slots, such as the reasons for cancellations or major delays, and this monitoring information will be published regularly. To ensure that slots are not misused, the government will modernise the compliance regime to include penalties that address anti-competitive behaviours, along with updated and strengthened enforcement tools for government to watch airlines more closely and take effective legal action where necessary. The government is modernising the process of allocating aircraft slots at Sydney airport to improve competition and ensure that consumers get a better deal.

There are also changes to regional connectivity, with regional New South Wales services able to apply to use any slot during new peak-period hours, not just the slots that are already set aside for priority access by regional New South Wales services. That means better competition and more access for the regions.

The final thing I'd like to speak about is the recovery period. The bill introduces reforms that will increase the resilience of Sydney airport by introducing a recovery period. This will be a strictly controlled recovery period, and I want to thank the minister for understanding the importance of the curfew and the hourly cap in legislating this recovery period. It will ensure that after a severe weather event—I was there on Sunday night and experienced one where we had three- to four-hour delays—and other major disruptions, there will be a temporary allowance for up to 85 movements per hour for a maximum of two hours on the same day following the disruption. It's important to note that there will be no increase in the overall number of flights for that whole day. That's because the scheduling cap of 80 flights per hour will stay in place. Only flights that are already scheduled to happen on that day will be able to take off or land. The recovery period will not extend into curfew hours, and there will be mandatory publication of information about when and why the recovery period is used so that the community can be confident it is being used properly.

This is the government making sure that we are doing our best to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the operation of Sydney airport, to improve competitiveness, to improve rights for consumers and to ensure that consumers get a better deal from the airport. Most importantly, the minister has also listened and balanced those issues with the rights of residents in the local community that I represent to ensure that they continue to get access to those important hours, particularly at night, of peace and quiet at home with their family. I commend the bill to the House.

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

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was that this bill now be read a second time. To this, the honourable member for Ryan has moved as an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The immediate question is that the amendment be agreed to.

Question unresolved.

As it is necessary to resolve this question to enable further questions to be considered in relation to this bill, in accordance with standing order 195, the bill will be returned to the House for further consideration.