Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I recognise that Senator Back wants to make a brief contribution to this debate on Senator Xenophon’s disallowance motion. As he makes his way to the chamber and before he makes that contribution I have to say, in a rare show of solidarity with Senator Milne, that I agree with much of what she has said. There seems to be a great advocate for common sense in this case, because governments have to learn that they cannot micromanage every industry. If any government should heed that lesson it should be the Rudd government. Where they have sought to impose their authority, their will or their wisdom—or lack thereof—on particular industries we have seen disaster after disaster. You can recover from financial incompetence, you can recover from mismanagement of particular industries, but you cannot recover from a catastrophe on an airline. Everyone is interested in protecting the safety and efficiency of pilots, air traffic and air transport in Australia. There is no doubt about that. I believe this chamber and in fact this entire parliament would subscribe to that view. But in doing so we cannot for a moment pretend that the government knows best in these areas. We already place a great deal of faith and trust in our pilots and in our airline maintenance systems and some of that is through regulation but, frankly, the bulk of it is through common sense.

As Senator Milne pointed out, if the intention of these regulations is to protect a potential terrorist from training as a pilot and hijacking a plane, it beggars belief that they will do it to a plane other than the one that they are already in command of. We should listen to the Australian and International Pilots Association which clearly has a vested interest as, frankly, we all have in maintaining safety. But we should also recognise that airlines have a corporate responsibility to uphold their own standards. To shift criminal liability onto a particular pilot when they may just be adhering to traditional customs or to business-as-usual behaviour which historically has provided no real threat to airline safety is, I believe, a step in the wrong direction.

I think I have made my point. Since I have a note that Senator Back is unable to join us, I will cede the time to the government and to Senator Evans for his contribution, but I stand at one with the coalition in supporting Senator Xenophon’s disallowance motion.