Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, upon notice, on 29 November 2012:

(1) With reference to the Office of Transport Security: (a) will the Enhanced Cargo Examination Program continue following the cancellation of Government funding; and (b) from where will the program now receive funding.

(2) With reference to the 2012 report of the Steering Committee overseeing the Joint Study on aviation capacity for the Sydney Region: (a) will the department adopt Recommendation 6 of the report; if so, how will the review be undertaken and what is the timeframe; (b) are there any operational or technical reasons why Recommendation 7 could be rejected in favour of moving regional services outside of the slot management system at Sydney Airport; and (c) will the department adopt Recommendation 8; if so, how will the this review be undertaken and what is the timeframe.

(3) With reference to the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC): (a) what are the comparative maintenance costs attributed to passenger and freight operations on the interstate rail network; and (b) why does the current ARTC access pricing regime fail to reflect this difference.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) (a) Yes.

(b) Industry participants will have to plan for and purchase equipment where appropriate to meet enhanced air cargo examination requirements as they are introduced.

(2) Please refer to the response to written Question on Notice No. 60, provided to the Committee as part of the Budget Estimates in May 2012, which addresses these questions.

(3) (a) Maintenance costs on the mixed-use interstate network are generally not related to whether the traffic is freight or passenger. Average axle loads and speeds do not vary substantially between interstate freight and passenger traffic on the interstate network. ARTC is therefore not able to allocate costs with any level of accuracy to the various freight and passenger uses across the different regions of the interstate network.

(b) See answer to part (a). Maintenance costs are an element but there are a range of additional factors that impact pricing and ultimately the ACCC is able to arbitrate on ARTC pricing decisions if agreement with customers is not able to be achieved.