New powers to protect air safety
Mr WAKELIN (2.44 p.m.) - My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the minister update the House on the success of the government's aviation policy and is the minister aware of any alternative approaches being taken?
Mr ANDERSON - I thank the honourable member for his question. I can report to him that our aviation policy is delivering enormous benefits for air travellers in this country. Amazingly, it is now possible to fly between Brisbane and Sydney for $39. For some travellers, it has to be said that that is undoubtedly less than the taxi fare to the airport or less than the hardback book that they would read on the plane. The number of passengers flying on the major east coast air routes has increased by over 30 per cent, which in numerical terms is an extra 250,000 people per month who can afford to visit their friends and family interstate who could never have afforded it before.
In relation to aviation safety, something that is always very high in the consciousness of the traveling public in Australia, it has to be said that our air safety record is outstanding. A recent determination by an international observer was that Ansett is the second safest airline in the world and that Qantas is the third. The latest Australian Transport Safety Bureau figures reveal that the number of aviation accidents last year was 27 per cent lower than in 1991 - a particularly potent figure when you think of the increased number of flights and the distance of those flights over the period. The government has dramatically improved CASA's capacity to conduct surveillance of the aviation industry. The authority has now adopted quality management approaches which are standard in the world's best run safety institutions. Indeed, for the first time in many years CASA is now fully meeting its surveillance objectives. It no longer suffers from the institutional timidity that resulted in the Monarch and Seaview crashes under Labor. CASA is not a partner with the industry, nor is it an industry development agency; its only job is to protect aviation safety.
To be fair, most people in the aviation industry are serious about safety and CASA's job with respect to responsible operators is to make sure that they remain focused on safety and to help them become even safer through their promotion and education programs. But in the end CASA is a law enforcement agency, and under the government it is taking tough and decisive action, as we would expect it to, against operators who are not serious about safety. In fact, there has been a gap in CASA's enforcement powers which dates back to the old Department of Civil Aviation days. The penalties jump from counselling to very serious administrative action or prosecution. CASA does need new powers to deal with offences that are too serious to be dealt with through counselling on the one hand but not serious enough on the other hand to justify suspension or prosecution. As a result, the authority will be introducing an administrative fines system to address those offences. Starting next month, operators who commit minor infringements will receive administrative fines as a step up from counselling and operators who commit more serious offences will continue to be dealt with through administrative action or prosecution, with a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment or a fine of around $230,000 maximum. The government is also proposing to introduce a system of enforceable voluntary undertakings to help CASA deal decisively with minor offences or safety deficiencies. I recognise that those measures are not universally popular with the aviation industry, but I state again that our primary objective is to protect air safety in this country. There is an alternative. As I say, you should never listen to what the Labor Party says but look at what it does in government. The alternative approach is the approach it adopted when in government.
It ought to be recalled that CASA's predecessor, the Civil Aviation Authority, was in a state of what could only be described as continual reorganisation. In less than seven years there were four chairmen, four chief executives and six heads of safety regulation changes. The government's aviation policy has created two new airlines and has made air travel affordable for hundreds of thousands of families. Our reforms to CASA have improved air safety regulation and sustained Australia's extraordinary air safety record. There is always more work to do, but I have to say that the contrast with Labor is stark indeed.