Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Joyce has indicated that the coalition will not be supporting this, and of course I support that position. I acknowledge that we are talking about international travel, but I say to the mover of the amendment that this is the first step. Perhaps it would lead to this occurring domestically. Could you then think what this might do to an airport like Horn Island in the Torres Strait? Perhaps Horn Island might even be considered an international airport; everyone is aware that a lot of PNG nationals come down through the Torres Strait from PNG, get on a plane in Cairns and travel elsewhere in Australia. Should it be introduced domestically, it is a cost that will be imposed on a small airport like Horn Island, run by the Torres Shire Council, which is struggling to even cope with the cost of installing the screening facility.

I emphasise to the minister that in my speech I did acknowledge that the government had funded, according to my figures, $1.338 million from various sources, but the total cost is $2.48 million. So there is a shortfall of $1.14-odd million that the Torres council has to try and find. It has already increased the passenger movement charge from $27.50 by another $30 per head. It just means that the costs of living in this remote part of Australia are going to be exacerbated. I acknowledged what your government and other governments have provided to the Torres Strait, but in relation to this particular facility there is this shortfall that the council, quite frankly, has no idea how it is going to fund.

In joining my colleague Senator Joyce in opposing this amendment, I repeat: if this were made mandatory around airports in Australia, how would an airport like Horn Island cope if every second passenger opted to have a frisk search instead of walking through the screening apparatus? It is just an additional burden. If Senator Rhiannon were ever successful in getting this implemented, I would hope that she would add as a rider to any implementation of a new system or arrangement that the additional costs involved in doing this be borne by the taxpayers as a whole rather than, in the case of Horn Island, by a very small group of people who are simply unable to afford even the screening facility that they are required implement now.