Rex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

Centre Alliance will be supporting the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill 2019. I have a pilot's licence. That's not to say I would recommend anyone fly with me—I don't have current hours up—but I do have one by virtue of the fact that they are perpetual. What that leads to is some background in relation to some of the things I'm going to say.

When I learnt to fly back in the eighties—I was a bit confused: as a submariner, I wanted to go under water, but I wanted to fly on the weekends—you could go to just about any airport in Australia and there would be a flight school. You'd go to that flight school and you'd do your pilot training. It was very, very professional. It was a bit expensive but, nonetheless, it allowed you to learn to fly. From that, most pilots, once they learnt to fly, would either get their private licence or they'd get their commercial licence and move on to commercial activities. It was those pilots that then went into the GA sector, the general aviation sector. Unfortunately, we've now reached the situation where—Senator Rice is talking about aircraft not flying to rural areas. They're not flying to rural areas, because there are no pilots anymore. There are no planes, because everyone has been priced out of the market, and I'll give you some statistics on that shortly. It's not because they're unsafe; it is simply because of the overburden of regulation that CASA imposes upon general aviation. I'm sure if you put all of the documentation that you require to be able to fly into the back of your Cessna, it simply wouldn't take off it would be so heavy.

To be very clear: the United States and other countries have much slimmer sets of regulations, but they also have much more traffic flying in their airspace and in much harsher conditions. Australia is blessed in many senses because it always has relatively good weather. We don't have to worry about significant storms or de-icing aircraft before we take off. We've got a relatively safe environment compared to other nations that have regard to the fostering of the industry. That has not been happening here, and it hasn't been happening here because of the legislation, which basically requires only the consideration of safety.

Senator Rice is correct in saying that safety is really important, but it is only one factor. If you want to have safe flying with no risk of accident, then don't let anyone fly. That's the extreme position. We've got to find the right balance, and right now the balance has not been struck correctly. GA—general aviation—is in a perilous state. The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics did a report in 2015 that showed GA declined 18 per cent between 2010 and 2015. We've had AOPA suggest that this means we've lost about $500 million of economic activity out of the Australian economy per annum, not to mention the very devastating effect that this has had on regional communities.

I was involved in the inquiry into regional airfares, which found that one of the contributing factors to high airfares is simply that airlines like Rex and QantasLink can't get pilots and that adds to the cost of people in regional communities flying, even when they've moved into the regular public transport sector, and that flying is the lifeblood of some of these regional communities. It's the way in which people get to education, it's the way in which people get to health, it's the way in which businesses connect and it's the way in which agriculture flourishes. If you make things so expensive, what we end up with is a doctor deciding to leave the town because it's too expensive to go back on a regular basis to visit family. They leave the town and then five other people decide to leave the town. It has a flow-on effect on regional communities. So whilst the economy had 103 quarters of continuous growth, at the same time general aviation experienced a 34 per cent decline in pilot numbers over 10 years. There has been a 35 per cent decline in Avgas sales over 10 years, an indication of how little people were flying. There was an 18 per cent decline in aircraft hours over five years, a 20 per cent decline in the serviceability of aircraft for a 12-month period, and a 15 per cent decline in maintenance and repair organisations over a 12-month period.

I have mentioned that the regions are a fantastic training ground for pilots to go into regular public transport, but we also have the organisations that do pilot training, charter work, testing, ferrying, surveying, photography and aerial work. Unfortunately, we're seeing pilots in these regional areas almost becoming extinct, and that is harmful to Australians and harmful to our regional communities. It's not about saying let's not be safe; it's about, in some sense, reconfiguring CASA so they don't bombard people with regulation after regulation after regulation.

We've got this industry in decline, and it hasn't improved since that 2015 report. Indeed, between April 2016 and June 2017, we saw 15 new certificates of air worthiness issued. But in the same period, we saw 29 certificates of airworthiness cancelled and a further 27 in a state of suspension, so we saw 57 cancelled or suspended certificates of airworthiness. That's four about month. It's an industry in crisis. I'm not going to be kind here; I'm going to tell it the way it is. The Senate Standing Committees on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport received briefings over and over again on the state of general aviation. CASA has basically been regulating general aviation out of existence.

Let me talk about a new regulation that CASA has recently introduced. I did move a disallowance motion, and it's back on the Notice Paper tomorrow, in relation to community service flights, just to give you a perspective of what is happening inside CASA. If you don't know what a community service flight is, let me tell you. There are pilots who are willing to give their time and their experience, who are licenced, who are safe to fly, who I can jump into the aircraft with and fly off to Kangaroo Island on the weekend if I want to or whatever. They are normally declared safe to fly through an organisation that is responsible for making sure everyone meets all of the general safety requirements. They will give their time to fly sick people from remote locations to major centres.

Let me give you an example: if you live in Ceduna and you need chemotherapy, you can take the seven-hour drive from Ceduna to Adelaide, do the chemotherapy and then drive back. That's pretty demanding. In fact, it just makes that treatment almost impossible. Under one of these community service flights—Angel Flight in particular—they will send a pilot out who will pick you up, fly you to Adelaide and then return you after your chemotherapy. What happens in that instance is that the people are not charged; there is no commercial gain made by these pilots. All they get is a bit of assistance in terms of fuel—a bit of a kick along. It gives them an opportunity to enjoy the pleasure that they are safely licensed to fly and they are allowed to assist people.

There have been two unfortunate fatal crashes relating to Angel Flight, one in 2011 in Victoria and one in 2014 at Mount Gambier. People jumped onto one of these flights and ended up in a fatal air accident, and that is truly, truly upsetting. CASA looked at this and, in fact, the ATSB is still looking at the second accident right now. Hopefully, we'll see some reports on that shortly. But CASA then came along and introduced some new regulations about minimum hours and some maintenance related stuff to do with aircraft. Initially, when they introduced it they said, 'Helicopters can't be involved in these community service flights.' We asked why: 'What was the safety basis for that decision?' Very quickly, the instrument was put back to the parliament and amended, allowing helicopters to fly. That was within the space of a day or two of advocacy.

But if you go back and look at these new regulations, they're not focused on these accidents and safety. In fact, I've questioned CASA; I've talked to CASA and put questions on notice to the ATSB. I might foreshadow that when they get to estimates they can expect me to send some torpedoes their way. Their answer was quite contemptuous, in my view. But we'll have that discussion at estimates. None of the changes that have been made, had they been there back in 2011 or 2014, would have made one bit of difference in relation to these accidents. Not one thing in these new regulations, had they been implemented back when these terrible accidents took place, would in any way have changed the circumstances.

So CASA had gone off and looked at these two flights and decided they must do something. What they did, again, was introduce a burden on the industry that will see some of these flights no longer occur. Once again, it doesn't appear to be about safety. So, hopefully, when we get to 15 sitting days after tomorrow I'll be asking the Senate chamber to disallow that particular instrument. I'd encourage people about that, and I'll wander the halls of the building and make sure everyone understands how ridiculous it is. But this is what we face with CASA. As the industry has been declining, CASA has been building up its ranks; it's an empire that has grown quite significantly.

So I get where you're coming from, Senator Rice, in terms of safety. It is really important, but the words in this bill don't put economics ahead of safety. Safety is still the primary concern of CASA; it just says that they must have regard to making sure that we have a vibrant industry. That's the usual balance you have when you've got conflicting requirements: safety is paramount. Safety is paramount, so there is no problem here—

Senator Rice interjecting—

Well, I've read the bill, and I sat in front of many, many pilots in the RRAT committee in the last parliament, and the industry is dying. You will get your ultimate aim, Senator Rice—there will be no planes flying in GA.

Senator Rice interjecting—

You'll have ultimate safety in those circumstances! It's not like the airlines will dictate to CASA that they're not commercial if a certain regulation doesn't get pulled. That's not what's going to happen here. I want, as I think most people here want, an efficient and sustainable Australian aviation industry sector where safety is paramount and important and where CASA gives consideration to industry as it makes rules. That means it doesn't make rules like it did with Angel Flight—rules that are meaningless, add cost and don't do one thing for safety.

CASA, as I said, has focused on safety to the point of running aircraft out of the skies—to the point where one day we'll have no GA aircraft. All of our pilots will then have to come from overseas. In fact, we've got a situation now where we've got a great environment for people to learn how to fly because of the safe, open skies that we have with very little traffic when compared to somewhere like the United States or Asia—great opportunities—but it appears the only people who can now afford to set up schools are Qantas, Rex and some overseas entities. We have to change that, and it's in that context that I commend this bill to the Senate.