Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll try and keep my comments less personal than what we just heard. I did note there wasn't much discussion about the actual bill in front of us in that contribution, so I will actually speak about the bill in front of us, the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Continuing ACCC Monitoring of Domestic Airline Competition) Bill 2023.

A thriving aviation sector is vital not only to our economy but in supporting our way of life as Australians. It connects family, friends and communities with each other and the world and links businesses to markets. Aviation underpins our national and international supply chains and enables tourism, mining, construction, manufacturing and higher education—industries that are all of vital importance to our economy.

We do, however, face unique challenges with the aviation industry in Australia. While we are blessed to have such a vast land, our relatively small population has historically made it difficult for the industry to sustain more than two major players. It's partly for this reason that the aviation sector is one of the most concentrated in the Australian economy, with the two major carriers accounting for 95 per cent of the domestic market.

On top of this, recent structural changes to the sector have led to a cosy arrangement between the two major carriers, in which Qantas Group and Virgin have more or less agreed to no longer compete head to head with each other and instead focus on carving out niche markets. While this might be great for the major airlines, this reduction in competitive tension can only lead to higher prices and poorer services for consumers.

We've already seen a sharp rise in complaints about the airlines from consumers increasingly frustrated by flight cancellations and delays in recent times, which remain well above the long-term trends. Added to this is the unscrupulous behaviour of Qantas, which, among other questionable practices, thought it was appropriate to sell seats on flights that they never intended to schedule. When you couple this with a broken system that has made getting a refund for cancelled flights or honouring flights near impossible, it's not hard to see that there are some serious problems with competition between our domestic carriers.

All Australians want and deserve a more competitive aviation sector. We all want and deserve an aviation sector that offers strong protections for consumers but also does much better when it comes to looking after the interests of the 90,000 workers employed in the industry. We all want and deserve a more competitive airline industry that delivers more choice for Australians facing cost-of-living pressures.

The Albanese government is committed to delivering a fairer and more competitive aviation sector—one that works in the interests of Australians. Last month the Treasurer, the Hon. Jim Chalmers, alongside the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, the Hon. Catherine King, announced that the Albanese government will direct the ACCC to monitor domestic air passenger services to help ensure Australians see the benefits of a more competitive airline sector.