Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition welcomes the support and the endorsement from Senator Roberts and from other senators in regard to this particular private senator's bill, the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Continuing ACCC Monitoring of Domestic Airline Competition) Bill 2023. For all of the colour and movement in Senator Bilyk's contribution, I think it's very important that we stay on the facts and reiterate why it is important that this matter be addressed. You could be mistaken for thinking that Senator Bilyk was speaking from the coalition talking points when it comes to the importance of the aviation sector in our economy, the importance of the aviation sector to families and how they stay connected both domestically and internationally, and the importance of holding Australia's airlines accountable for deteriorating levels of service at a time when prices have been going up and up and up.

The core of this bill is actually to do nothing new but to extend an ACCC monitoring regime that has proved very successful—so successful that you can't find anyone in this country, except the Qantas group, who objects to extending the airline monitoring regime. Senator Bilyk said that the coalition instituted the ACCC monitoring regime—which is correct—and did nothing with the reports. Well, if Senator Bilyk had taken the time to read the reports she would know that it was only in the final report, issued in June this year, that a pathway to legislative and regulatory action was suggested by the ACCC.

We're at this point. The coalition is arguing that that regime should be extended and that, in addition to that, those points that were raised in the final report should be acted on: improvements to consumer protections, improvements to the Sydney airport slot management regime and an extension to the monitoring regime that was effectively asked for by the ACCC itself. At the very core of the issue—on one level it is so mundane but on another level so significant; just listen to this, please, Senator McKim, Senator Pocock—the government extracted a commitment, an arrangement, from the Australian Greens and Senator Pocock. I don't know the exact nature of that. I don't know the breadth of that arrangement. But I do know that you agreed not to support this bill, because the government said it would introduce its own extension to the same monitoring regime. Senator Pocock is nodding. And the government put it in writing on 18 October—23 days ago.

So, please explain to me why the Treasurer, Dr Chalmers—supported by the competition minister, Dr Leigh—had not put pen to paper. The fact that they had not put pen to paper for 23 days should leave the Australian Greens and Senator Pocock wondering, guessing, concerned—because I've got some questions. Perhaps Senator McKim and perhaps Senator Pocock might be able to answer this in their own contributions: will the monitoring regime that the government committed to in a media release commence only from the first day that the last regime ended? Or will it begin at a future point? And does that mean that Australian consumers and the aviation sector generally will be left with a monitoring black hole?

It's not my nature and it's not Senator McKenzie's nature—I think many would agree—to use the private senator's bill opportunity that this Senate presents to bring flippant and unnecessary ideas to the floor of the Senate chamber; it is not. We have had lots of noise about aviation issues in our country over a good six months, necessary because Australian consumers are paying a high price for delay and getting very poor levels of service. And let's go back to the ACCC monitoring report, the very final one, and remind ourselves of what it said. You don't actually have to read very far; you only have to start at page 2. The report says:

After showing signs of improvements earlier in the year, the latest rates of flight cancellations and delays have gotten worse and remain poor compared to long-term industry averages. The industry cancelled 3.9% of flights in April 2023, compared with the industry long-term average of 2.1%. Jetstar continued to perform significantly worse than the rest of the industry. It cancelled 8.1% of flights in April, more than double the rate of the other airlines.

The industry reported that only 71.8% of flights arrived on-time in April, well below the industry long-term average of 81.5%.

It goes on to say:

The duopoly market structure of the domestic airline industry has made it one of the most highly concentrated industries in Australia, other than natural monopolies. The lack of effective competition over the last decade has resulted in underwhelming outcomes for consumers in terms of airfares, reliability of services and customer service.

Senator Bilyk remarked in her contribution, in a way of almost resignation, that Australia suffered from the consequences of being constrained by population over a large geographic area, that we couldn't do better than two airlines in our country. That's not true. It's the regulatory environment that is stifling aviation operators like Rex and Bonza in establishing their place in the aviation sector. They are not going to be the size of Qantas or Virgin, but it's the current regulatory arrangements that are denying them the opportunity to grow—and, when they do grow, the predatory behaviour of Qantas in particular makes it very difficult for them. Again, these were identified in the airline monitoring regime.

The question is this: on what date, Senator Pocock, Senator McKim and backbench Labor senators, do you expect Dr Chalmers to issue the instruction to the ACCC? I kid you not: it is a letter. It is two pages.