Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I was very keen to take part, for a short time, in this debate because over recent months I have been visited by a number of people who have been involved in our aviation industry. They all were keen to have a say in the future of aviation in this country. As Senator Sterle has pointed out, we welcome the review that was announced today by the minister. This gives, by the process that they are putting in place, an opportunity for the voices to be heard.

Senator Macdonald, I was with you for most of your statement except that little bit where you said our government had not grasped the nettle. The reason people came to see me was that they had responded to the plan that the previous government—our government with Minister Albanese—had put in place. For the first time there was a national aviation plan that looked at the range of aviation issues in our community. I think what had happened for many years was that people had seen aviation issues linked to large passenger aircraft, to the significant growth in numbers that we have seen over the last few years. Senator Sterle pointed out some of the statistics, but only a few of them. We saw in a number of the annual reports that have been tabled in the last couple of months the extraordinary growth in the number of passenger air flights in larger commercial airliners over the last 10 years. The numbers are confronting.

But they are not just linked to the major capital cities. The issues that were raised by people talking with me in many of the same places as Senator Macdonald—in Brisbane, in Townsville, in Mount Isa—were about the fact that there is a new form of air industry in our country. Particularly when we went to the Torres Strait recently, I had the opportunity to talk with a number of people who were involved in the helicopter industry, which is based in North Queensland and services a range of needs. The people who work in this industry are largely small business people who built up their businesses because of their passion for aviation and because they identified niche needs that lead across the northern part of our country. They did a lot of work in terms of tourism, in taking people to various places, but they also worked extensively with service providers, who rely almost exclusively on this form of transport to do the kind of work where we, in other parts of the country, have other options.

In the parts of the Torres Strait where I was privileged to visit, there are no options. If you are going to do your job, if you are going to visit the communities, if you are going to service the airways, if you are going to look after the telephones, if you are going to provide the health services and if you are actually going to service the vehicles on the islands, the only method of transport that fits within a time frame is the helicopter service. The big issues that were raised by those people when I was talking and travelling with them, and also afterwards, were resources availability and training. Training is part of the National Aviation Plan that former Minister Albanese put in place. I am keen to see, to be part of, the review that is going to happen into effective, appropriate and timely training for people who want to take their role in the industry.

The discussions I had talked about training now being available through high school. Now we have options. Through their senior schooling in Queensland, and I am sure in other states, young people who have an urge to work in this industry can take on board preliminary training as pilots, as people who work on the security of aircraft, maintenance and planning in the area. All of this can be offered in the high school curriculum, so while building a career and making choices about where they wish to work they can take that up within a concentrated plan that allows all the elements to work together.

I am very keen that in this new process of review the important issues of preliminary training, introductory training and ongoing training for people to upgrade skills and move between elements of the industry will be considered so that we will have appropriate, well-resourced and also well-skilled trainers in this field. There is a worry—and we see it—that perhaps sometimes the training available is not always to the levels of skills that we would desire and which people want.

The other element that people were very keen to talk to me about was the cost. If people are wanting to work in the industry, they have to pay considerable amounts of money to do their training and upgrade their skills. At this stage, there is no kind of resource support available for people in that area. I would like to put on record concerns about that so that into the future we will be able to have this knowledge and skill base that would be accessible to anyone who wishes to work in the industry.

I visited the Sunshine Coast area, and that is an area of burgeoning growth in the airline industry. It has been the beneficiary of the fly-in fly-out services. People do not have to go only to capital city areas, they can use the Sunshine Coast and other airports and air facilities around the country to provide this valuable service. This allows people to maintain their home base in areas such as the beautiful Sunshine Coast but have special services provided. This has actually increased the volume of traffic and the financial stability of the Sunshine Coast airport. They are able to use that service and maintain their home base and keep their work in the various mining facilities around the country. Some of the flights that are going are not just within Queensland but connect further to Western Australia and South Australia so that people are able to do that.

It is also important to know that there are great individual initiatives that are taking place in our airlines. I particularly want to mention the work that is being done in the Toowoomba region by a private company there. It has actually put the effort in and is building a high-quality airport facility just outside Toowoomba. This is going to be able to provide services for domestic travel, which is very important. It will also provide services for the very important industrial travel as the Darling Downs opens up to a range of mining initiatives as well as its important agricultural base. By providing this airport facility just outside Toowoomba, we are able to see that this is a diversification of options. No longer does this kind of facility have to be located only in capital cities.

In terms of all the aspects that senators Sterle and Macdonald talked about, the need for absolute safety is always at the forefront of any discussion in this area. As well, there is the need to offer real options to the industry for the people who have an interest, who actually have the chance to see that this is something that is important for our economy. I know Senator Sterle talked about the enormous economic benefit to the aviation industry in our community. I wish to put on record my acknowledgement of the work that was done by former Minister Albanese and the people who worked with him. It does not matter which policy area that we find in this place, we need to balance the need for effective regulation with the need for innovation and development.

Of course, when we talk about aviation, the first issue that comes to mind is safety. We see that, and Australia has a proud record. In fact our proud record shows that our regulation bodies have been effective, that we have had a high level of training, we have had a high level of maintenance and we have a skills base in our country of which we can all be proud. We need to have appropriate regulation. This is not an area where you actually have to cut back on regulations. You need to have effective and appropriate regulations.

I know the purpose of the review is to look over the whole area and that is welcome, but in terms of the overall commitment we must acknowledge that we are starting from a very high base. The work that has been done over many years needs to be acknowledged and engaged in any review that is put into place.

We welcome the review. We know that there will be regular reports back to this place so there will be the opportunity to talk about it and, of course, for the committee structure, Senator Sterle, to be engaged at every stage. I think that is an important aspect, we welcome it and we congratulate the new minister.