Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The statement by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) in its final monitoring report into airline competition in Australia that "a further direction to the ACCC would provide continued transparency and scrutiny of the industry at a time when new and expanding airlines are still trying to establish themselves", demonstrates the need for the Albanese Government to take immediate action to protect consumers and promote competition by reinstating the ACCC airline monitoring regime.

It's my pleasure to speak to this motion proposed by my friend and colleague Senator Dean Smith, my fellow senator for Western Australia. It's not surprising that Senator Smith proposed this motion, not just because it's in his portfolio area of responsibility but also because my home state of Western Australia is so heavily dependent on the airline industry. Western Australia is—we thank goodness for this, on a regular basis—a long way from anywhere. It's certainly a long way from Canberra, and we remember that every time we fly across the Nullarbor, but it's also a long way from anywhere we travel internationally.

Airlines are essential for Western Australians to achieve their personal goals and their business responsibilities, through internal Western Australian travel, travel throughout Australia and travel internationally. The airline industry plays such an important part in Western Australia taking its rightful place as an economic driver of this country. Competition within that industry, and ensuring that competition is maintained and improved, is vitally important for my home state of Western Australia.

Senator Smith rightly raises the ACCC report into the airline industry, looking at what has happened, particularly post pandemic, in terms of moving back to a point where competition is putting downward pressure on prices, which we all want to see for the flying public. I know Senator Smith will go into this in a lot more detail, but the evidence in that report shows that, whilst recovery is underway, the airline industry is yet to return to the position it was in, in terms of competitive frameworks, pre-pandemic. I'll read you the start of the report. It says:

More than a year since the end of the final COVID-19 state border restrictions, the domestic airline industry has not yet managed to recover to pre-pandemic levels of passengers and capacity.

I ask those out there listening to this debate to think about that. The report clearly states that the airline industry has not yet fully recovered.

The international market has also, obviously, been in the media quite a bit over the last week, particularly with regard to the government's decision to knock back additional flights from Qatar Airways. What did the ACCC have to say about the international market? It said:

While the industry has increased international capacity over the past few months, capacity remains below pre-pandemic levels due in part to delays in aircraft and spare parts shortages. Qantas has also reported that demand for international travel remains strong, leading to a mismatch between demand and supply. This imbalance is putting upward pressure on international airfares.

Anyone who's considered visiting relatives or taking a business flight to one of our major trading partners would know this to be the case. In fact, it's something like 51 per cent above 2019 levels. That is a 51 per cent increase between 2019 and a few months ago. That is an extraordinary increase over a short period of time and reflects a market that requires the examination of government.

This is a market that has a single dominant player in Australia—and I don't want to get into the politics of that, but it does have a single dominant player in Australia—a number of smaller players who are trying to add competition to the market and then an international regime where, again, there are limited opportunities for people to shop around. So we have a competitive framework that is not ideal. As Senator Smith's motion clearly states, the ACCC's role in monitoring the airline industry is an important one and one that should continue. It is passingly strange, in a week when we've seen the government knock back more flights from Qatar, that they are refusing to reinstitute this.