Going for growth?

With that workload, it’s no surprise that aviation, as just one component of the transport sector, ranked low on the list of priorities.

Now responsibility for aviation policy rests with Labor’s Anthony Albanese, who was sworn in as the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government on December 3. That too sounds a broad portfolio to cover, so it’s unclear how aviation will rank as a priority for the new government, and Albanese will alsobe kept busy in his role as Leader of the House, in charge of government business in the House of Representatives.

He inherits a big to-do list. The aviation issues clamouring for attention are broad ranging, from the skills crisis for pilots and engineers; to Sydney Airport capacity constraints; CASA’s often fractious relationship with industry; ensuring air services to regional Australia; and further reform of the airspace system.

So will the new minister have too much on his plate to meaningfully deal with aviation’s challenges? Conversely, coupling transport with infrastructure could mean aviation will attract a great deal of attention, as the airlines big and small, airports and general aviation are key pieces of infrastructure critical to the efficient operation of the Australian economy.

“Coordinated and integrated planning is now at the very heart of infrastructure development,” Albanese said in a media statement after he was appointed to the role. “The creation of Infrastructure Australia will be an important step towards addressing the capacity constraints identified by the Reserve Bank. ” What focus the new department and the new Infrastructure Australia body give to aviation compared to roads, rail and port infrastructure remains to be seen, but there’s little doubt aviation is a critical part of Australia’s transport infrastructure, and so warrants attention.

Albanese, formerly the shadow minister for Water and Infrastructure, comes to the role inheriting Labor’s aviation policy, which was announced just days before the November 24 election by then shadow Transport Minister Martin Ferguson. This document has encouraged many in the industry who had been calling for a cohesive government aviation policy for many years.

“Aviation is a lifeblood industry for Australia – a critical service for our economy, our regions and linking us to the world,” Ferguson (now Minister for Resources and Energy and Tourism) said in Labor’s Statement on Aviation 2007.

“Australia has a proud aviation history, but we have no aviation plan for the future. ” Ferguson charged that the “Howard government has not prepared for the future”, highlighting that aviation activity will double by 2020 but there is a growing pilot shortage, that regulatory reform “has been slow and divisive”, that general aviation “has been neglected”, and that “airports still struggle to deliver the necessary infrastructure” to cope with growing passenger numbers.

“During the first 12 months in office, a Rudd Labor government will work with the aviation industry to develop a national plan – Australia’s Future Aviation Plan,” Ferguson’s statement promised.

The plan will map out a framework for the aviation industry over the next two decades. Ferguson said it will address future growth and capability gaps by “analysing future passenger, movement and freight growth”; implement anintegrated approach to redressing any capability gaps, one which will integrate all sectors of the aviation industry; see “Australia become a world leader in aviation training”; provide a more cohesive government approach in conjunction with other agencies and government levels including “leveraging opportunities from sharing civilian and defence aviation assets”; and to renew the general aviation sector, which Ferguson says has suffered in the face of airport privatisation.

Some of the detail in the policy includes: CASA – The policy said that “the Civil Aviation Safety Authority has not responded well to governance changes introduced by the Howard government,” despite Labor enabling “bi-partisan support for those changes”.

It says changes made in the wake of the Lockhart River crash have not gone far enough, so Labor will “appoint a small management board and provide it with full delegation to manage the safety regulator. It will be a competent, professional board with the respect of government, the community, business and the aviation industry,” and “will separate the policy and regulatory reform function from that of compliance and enforcement. ” Beyond appointing a board it will be interesting to see if Labor makes any other changes to CASA’s leadership structure.

AIRSPACE – Labor claimed that the Howard government had “allowed airspace management to become politicised and captured by personal agendas of powerful individuals,” a fairly undisguised reference to Dick Smith, and a statement likely to have been welcomed by many involved with the disastrous implementation of NAS (National Airspace System) changes. Ferguson undertook to “review the Australian Air Traffic Management Plan and remove aspects of the National Airspace System that are not appropriate for Australia. ” Labor also said it will remove all final airspace regulation functions from Airservices, presumably handing them to the recently formed Office of Airspace Regulation The document also said Labor will not privatise Airservices ARFF (aviation rescue and firefighting) or control tower services, nor will it privatise Airservices itself.

ENVIRONMENT – Labor plans to address environmental issues by taking a “sensible approach to reducing aviation’s impact on the environment and avoid solutions – such as those applied in Europe – that impose more costs on industry and the travelling public,” and to increase efficiency by working to reduce “the amount of delay and congestion in the aviation network. ” Airservices will be tasked to develop and report on “indicators that enable measurement and tracking of aviation emissions and the effect of improved air traffic management practices. ” GA – “General aviation is under threat,” the document reads, saying that the former government’s GA industry action agenda “has been deliberating for too long with no outputs. ” It promises “Labor will encourage the early release of findings and urgently implement recommendations that will deliver for general aviation. ” AIRPORTS – The statement says Labor will “ensure” that airports consult state and local governments over airport developments. Labor will also appoint an ‘Airport Development and Aviation Noise Ombudsman’ to receive airport noise complaints.

The document is comprehensive in its coverage but light in its detail. A lot of the measures are to be applauded, but there are gaps. Most notable of these is any policy regarding a second Sydney Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Anthony Albanese.

Airport. Labor says it won’t build an airport at Badgerys Creek, but if not there, where? And when? The issue of Sydney Airport could prove quite vexatious for the new minister. His inner Sydney electorate of Grayndler covers suburbs affected by aircraft noise, and he has been an active campaigner over the issue in the past, so will he be a proponent of a second Sydney airport and will he keep in place the 80 movements an hour cap at Sydney? What of the continued provision of regional airline services to smaller, more remote communities? And will the new Labor government adopt election pledges by the Coalition to spend $9 million on a ‘Regional Airline Pilot Scholarship Scheme’ to reimburse 25 per cent of pilot training costs for pilots who fly with a regional airline, plus the establishment of a new Australian Aviation Technical College which would have been built at Perth Airport? Labor’s policy does say the National Aviation Plan “will give primary focus to options to redress the current (aviation) skill gap”, but without suggesting what possible solutions could be.

Then there’s Labor’s position on the Qantas Sale Act, which limits foreign ownership levels of Qantas to 49 per cent. Presumably this will be retained as it was introduced by the last Labor federal government. A related issue is would Labor reconsider to give Singapore Airlines access to the Australia-US route.

And will Labor actively work to keep airline heavy maintenance in Australia? Plenty of questions remain.

Of the policy promises Labor has made, the proof will be in the delivery.

Labor is to be congratulated for developing and releasing an aviation industry policy, but in doing so it has created standards against which its performance in the portfolio will be judged. o Additional reporting by Andrew McLaughlin