Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise with a heavy heart, because three weeks ago I raised with CASA the very serious situation of no passenger air services to Darnley and Marweeba ag islands as a result of CASA regulation. Despite there being no incidents reported on the airstrips on those islands, CASA closed the strips to commercial flights and withdrew the ability for these community members to affordably travel by air between islands.

Instead, residents were forced into dinghies—dinghies!—on notoriously dangerous waters inhabited by crocodiles and sharks. On 19 April the Torres Strait Islander Regional Council met with CASA and asked them to allow an exemption for the airline to land of these strips—island strips that this company had been landing on for the past 20 years without incident. As usual, CASA gave a bureaucratic response that did not identify what the problem actually was that it was solving. Nor did they offer a solution for the remote community to continue accessing commercial air travel, leaving people to traverse these treacherous waters in boats. No pathway was undertaken for the airline to receive an approval. Instead, they are undertaking landing trials with weights, which CASA may or may not consider.

Underscoring the confusion of CASA's conduct is the fact that the same planes being banned from commercial operations on the islands could still use the strips in a private capacity. Just take a moment to comprehend that. Commercial rules are understandably stricter than private rules, but you can see how industry participants and passengers get frustrated: the same planes and the same airstrips, but different rules.

Three weeks ago, I asked the representing minister, Assistant Minister Anthony Chisholm: do you think that, for the two islands that have no passenger service going into them, this is a good outcome? His response was that the islands could apply for some funding for the airstrips to be upgraded. I asked the CEO of CASA to make sure the minister was briefed on the issue of there being no passenger service for these two islands. I wonder if that has happened, because the very worst news has been advised. Yesterday, after a four-day search for Wendy Richardson, the search was called off. I knew Wendy. The last time we met, we discussed her father, Sir Robert Norman, the acclaimed pioneer of regional aviation in the cape. Sir Robert saw the importance of providing an aerial service in the north for isolated communities at a time when aviation was overseen by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Wendy's loss is the exclamation point on years of conduct by CASA which has my phone running hot with complaints every single week. I grew up in a time when aviation was easily accessible and was a reliable way to conquer the tyranny of distance we experience in this country, especially in northern Australia. I remember local shows and events having not just automobiles in the car park but dozens of light planes. It seemed that everyone in North Queensland flew or knew someone who flew. Now flying is reserved for people who have a lot of money or who have the patience and fortitude to navigate the mountains of regulation imposed on them by CASA—regulations which many participants point out make no improvements to safety but discourage flying and cruelly punish minor indiscretions and which the big players can afford to implement but which force smaller carriers to pay to retrain staff, replace equipment that is functioning perfectly and change work operations they've used for years without incident.

No-one is blaming CASA for Wendy Richardson's death, but I want assurances that air travel will be restored to these islands immediately. In the meantime, flight companies should be provided with exemptions that will allow them to continue operations until more permanent fixtures are in place. I say that because no-one—and I mean no-one—in Australia should be forced to cross open sea in a dinghy because our air safety regulations force them out of the sky and into an open boat.