Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, what interesting comments on taking note! If we look at the response from Minister Birmingham, representing the Prime Minister, clearly we have the situation in Australia where there is no aviation plan. Not at any stage, nor in question time, has the Deputy Prime Minister or the Prime Minister answered with a plan to make sure that we keep people connected with jobs in the aviation industry. This is a critical industry for our economic future and a critical industry right now.

We have heard comments from many sides of this parliament and this Senate about the necessity of ensuring that we keep the tourism industry well serviced. That includes the universities, and I include business generally, and I include the mining industry. Servicing the bloodlines and the veins of those industries is the aviation industry. We have to make sure that we have a plan to keep people connected with those critical jobs that require experience and capacity.

The government says, 'Well, that's okay. Just trust us. We've done such a good job so far.' But go to the million casual workers who were excluded from JobKeeper and go to the 30,000 university professionals who have been lost—the brains of our future and the capacity to build strength. They train engineers in aviation and skill people in the very important industries that make this country tick. We clearly have a government which makes so much about making an announcement but is so little about substance. It hasn't thought about who is going to staff the planes, who is going to clean the planes, who is going to pack the planes, who is going to maintain the planes, who is going to direct those planes and who is going to book the planes. Quite clearly, from comments made by industry, unions and commentators, this industry is in dire straits, yet this government puts its head in the sand.

James Goodwin of the Australian Airports Association said, at an aviation hearing last week:

… it's clear that the government needs to formulate a plan for Australia's aviation industry over the next six to 12 months and beyond, both domestically and internationally. Our sector has doubled down at every turn and executed everything asked of them, but this is coming at significant and unsustainable costs.

He went on to say:

I would use this opportunity to make is that this is in an important time for the government to reconsider extending its support for the aviation sector. This is a whole-of-government situation. Airports and aviation affect the entire community and the entire economy. There are so many flow-on benefits from having a viable aviation network. …But I would certainly call for JobKeeper to be extended, certainly for another six months, for people within the aviation sector.

That is from industry, the people who know. Common sense tells you that when you have an industry that doesn't keep connected, experienced and knowledgeable workers, there is a consequence. There's a consequence for all Australians, and of course a consequence for those many thousands of workers in the aviation industry. In this aviation industry, the hundreds of hours that have already been lost come at a great cost of experience and knowledge. And that cost has come as a result of direct decisions by this government in its failure to turn around and act.

But let's not say that they haven't acted everywhere. They've certainly picked their favourites. They've turned around and made decisions for companies like Rex. They've certainly given special treatment to that company, who received $54 million—untied grants to a foreign airline. If you were to make the same contributions, untied, to Virgin—or Qantas, but Virgin in this case—it would be over a billion dollars. But did they? No. This industry is critical to the survival of our economy and the prosperity of our country. It's important that we turn around and have the right answers. And I'm sorry to say that for all those aviation workers to become fishermen and farmers is just not sensible.

Question agreed to.