Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about a matter that was raised today by Senator O’Brien when he moved to refer a matter to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee. On 17 May last year, 15 people died in the Lockhart River air disaster. It was the largest civil aviation air disaster in about 40 years. The fatalities included Brett Hotchkins, Tim Downs, Mardie Bowie, Fred Bowie, Helena Woosup, Gordan Kris, Frank Billy, Captain Paul Norris, Rob Brady, Kenneth Hurst, Arden Sonter and others.

One of the casualties was Constable Sally Urquhart. This having happened in my state, I find this issue of some pertinence. Constable Sally Urquhart’s father, Shane, contacted me yesterday with regard to assistance with the progression of this matter through the Senate. Due to the lateness of this issue, I felt it was important to tell Mr Urquhart that I needed to do a bit of research into the issue before I could make a substantial statement on it in the Senate.

I approached the Labor Party and I also spoke to Senator O’Brien today about delaying this issue so that we could have more time to look into it and hopefully narrow down the scope of it to deal with the Lockhart River disaster, if that was what was truly interesting him. On further investigation, I find that it possibly could be deemed that the intent of the Labor Party was more to have a wide-ranging inquiry into CASA than to have a directed inquiry into the Lockhart River disaster. I do not think it is a good thing for the Senate to be seen or perceived as using that as a mechanism for attacking CASA, something we have been over again and again in the Senate.

Furthermore, there are already currently two inquiries dealing with the Lockhart River disaster. There is the Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation which is currently under way and there is also a coronial inquiry. There being two such inquiries under way, I think it would be better if we waited until the processes of these inquiries came to a conclusion so that we had some further information to work on. I do not see at this stage why we should have senators without the information that is obviously in front of these inquiries and the resources that are currently split between these inquiries, as well as the witnesses and the evidence that is stacked before these inquiries also being bottlenecked with another inquiry here. Nonetheless, after these inquiries come to their conclusion, I am only too happy on behalf of Mr Urquhart and the other families associated with the Lockhart River accident to look at what it is possible for the Senate to achieve in this regard.

Currently there is no evidence of a failure of the aviation safety regime, despite claims by some, and there is no clear public interest justification at this stage for an inquiry. However, this may change after the aforementioned inquiries. It is very important that these people be given the dignity and respect due to the interest that this issue has in their lives, given the loss of their family members. I wanted to have on the record that today I did not vote for the inquiry, nor did I vote against it. Like everything else, the jury is out until we get further information. At the time of obtaining that information, I will be able to make a more valued and more reasonable judgment and truly try to help the families of those crash victims.