Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a pilot and a glider pilot, and someone who is interested in aviation, I do want to speak to this document on the review of aviation safety regulation. As there is limited time available, I will get an opportunity to contribute at a later time. It is encouraging to see in the review that work will be undertaken to ensure that areas of aviation that I have a strong interest in will be consulted. It is very good to see that Mr Phillip Reiss, President of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia, will take a particular role in this. General aviation play a vital role and, by and large, they have been overlooked by successive governments in the past. That is not to detract from the broader ambit of the Australian government's aviation safety regulation review and the strong case for the review made by all the previous speakers.

I will only take a moment of the Senate's time to reflect upon some of the more important areas that need to be addressed and the need to get it right. Through this review, we get an opportunity for eminent Australians to ensure that we can get safety in our airways at the regular public transport level, the general aviation level and what I would call the sports aviation level, so it can be an integrated whole and we have an outcome that provides a good result. I am always a little sceptical when it is 'just another' review. Governments use reviews as a way of not making decisions. I hope it is not going to be that. I hope that this review will be a real review of the operations and that real recommendations come out of the review, and that the government looks at those recommendations with a view to implementing them. Of course, I am not going to second-guess what those recommendations will be or call on the government to implement them. The government should take into account those recommendations to ensure that we get outcomes that will provide for better safety outcomes in aviation for all. With those short remarks, I will take this up at another time. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted.