address to parliament - STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS - Aviation Industry

I heartily agree with some of what the member for Solomon has just said. Regional areas are captives of high air prices because many regional people—whether they're travelling by air for tourism, for business or perhaps most importantly for medical reasons—have no other way of getting from their home communities to a capital city. Unfortunately, for some regional people, it is a case of: 'When in pain, catch a plane.' This particular motion brought to the parliament by the member for Wide Bay is a good one. What I fear, though—and the member for Solomon just belled the cat—is a review in the form of an aviation white paper. Australia is being strangled by reviews.

Mr Gosling: We've got to fix it.

Mr McCORMACK: We have to fix it. I'll take him on that interjection. No government has ever done more for aviation than the coalition government did when it was in power from 2013 to 2022. Indeed, when there were calls by those opposite to buy Qantas in 2014 when it was going not that well and the skies were not that blue, we resisted that urge. We resisted that clamour of populism by those opposite. Then, of course, COVID hit and planes were grounded. Virgin was going very badly. Its books were terrible. But I pay tribute to Paul Scurrah, Jayne Hrdlicka, who took over from him as CEO, and others in Virgin for holding the line, and I commend the government for holding its nerve because running airlines is not the remit of government, as Jayne Hrdlicka would know and as her predecessor would know as well.

We do have an issue with the prices of tickets. We do have an issue with cancellations of flights. I know this firsthand. I missed a wedding recently because of the cancellation of a flight at very short notice, and my wife and I were unable to make the connecting flights to enable us to attend that very important event. We're lucky that during COVID we were able to fly. The airlines need credit too for that fact because we know that planes in the air mean jobs on the ground. They were able to keep many people engaged, but, of course, it came at a huge expense to government and to taxpayers through the Domestic Aviation Network Support program, the Regional Airline Network Support program and the Tourism Aviation Network Support program. DANS, RANS and TANS meant that people could still fly to Cairns. It meant that people could still get on a plane and fly to a regional area for whatever reason. Perhaps even more importantly, it meant that people in regional areas could also fly anywhere they wished.

This government must end the delays over the recommendations of the Harris review into demand management at Sydney Airport. This government is now in government, and it's a shame that the minister for transport is not in here talking on this very important motion, because she should be. Indeed, she does have questions to answer. She has questions to answer over the staffing in flight control towers. She has answers to give on the Harris review and on why this government, the Labor government, has scrapped the monitoring of domestic airlines by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission at a time when Australian consumers are paying way too dearly for airfares and are subject to increased flight cancellations and delays. What's the minister doing about it? I'd say diddly-squat. She's not doing anything. You very rarely see or hear her talking about aviation on television or radio or in newspapers, and she should. She's the minister, and with being a minister comes responsibility.

When I was the transport minister, we kept Virgin, Qantas, QantasLink and Rex in the skies, even coming out of COVID. We kept those companies afloat at a time when, worldwide, so many aviation companies—dozens, in fact—went bankrupt. They didn't under our watch. This government needs to do more and it needs to do it quickly.