[Peetwo]

McDolittle defers GA inquiry and dissents Sterlo's inquiry - WTD...

Via the APH website today...

STANDING COMMITTEE ON RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT
LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

17 March 2022

On 2 December 2019, the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation
Committee self-referred, under Standing Order 25(2)(a), an inquiry into Australia's general
aviation industry, with particular reference to aviation in rural, regional and remote Australia.
The committee agreed to table an interim report on or before the final sitting day in
December 2020, and a final report date on or before the final sitting day of November 2021.

On 20 October 2021, the committee agreed to extend the reporting date for the final report to
17 March 2022.

The committee has agreed to extend the inquiry further to allow it to consider the evidence
received and to conclude its deliberations. It will therefore table an interim report on
30 March 2022, and a final report on 20 October 2022. The committee submits this letter to
satisfy its commitment to report back to the Senate.

Yours sincerely

Senator Susan McDonald

Chair

Next via the RRAT webpages:

Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee—Future of Australia’s aviation sector, in the context of COVID-19 and conditions post pandemic—Report, dated March 2022 , Hansard record of proceedings, documents presented to the committee, additional information and submissions.[Received 17 March 2022]

The recommendations:

List of Recommendations

Recommendation 1
4.100 The committee recommends that the Australian Government adopts Recommendations 16 and 17 from the Senate Select Committee on Job Security's Third interim report: labour hire and contracting:

Recommendation 16
The committee recognises the merit of an independent body with the power to make and enforce binding standards on aviation supply chain participants, including airports and their central role. Those standards include 'same job, same pay' for outsourced and labour hire workers performing functions directly connected to aviation operations, job security protections, and fair procurement standards. The committee recommends the Australian Government consults with industry participants, including unions, employers, and other stakeholders on the development of this body.

Recommendation 17
The committee recommends the Australian Government imposes obligations upon companies in receipt of future public bailouts, which prioritise job security and guarantee that companies cannot follow Qantas' lead, and exploit emergencies to engage in illegal workforce restructuring.

Recommendation 2
4.109 The committee recommends that the Australian Government urgently works with industry, unions professional associations, and aviation sector experts, to prepare a comprehensive white paper on the future of the aviation sector post-pandemic, including aviation workforce issues such as:

•  the ongoing impacts of job insecurity, wage decline and the erosion of safe work conditions on the aviation workforce, in the context of the pandemic and the sector's recovery;
  
• measures to lift wages, conditions and standards at airlines and airports around Australia, including aviation workers performing the same job are entitled to the same pay, and holding airlines and others at the top of aviation supply chains responsible for standards throughout the chain;
  
•  options for lifting workforce supply to support the projected growth in aviation activity; and
  
•  approaches to ensuring that workforce growth results in the creation of a sustainable, highly-skilled and secure workforce for the long-term.
  

Outcomes from the white paper process should inform a national plan for investing in aviation sector workforce retention, training and capacity building to ensure sustainability over the medium and long-term.

Recommendation 3

5.98 The committee recommends that the Australian Government consults and communicates closely with industry, professional associations and trade unions in the design and delivery of future aviation support measures.

Recommendation 4

5.104 The committee recommends that any future crisis support provided by the Australian Government to the aviation sector be conditional upon recipient entities retaining skills and capacity in the sector. Initiatives designed to retain capacity should specify that workers must be retained, that their pay and conditions should not be reduced, and should set out the amount that workers should be paid under the assistance.

Recommendation 5

5.108 To committee recommends that to assist with enforcing these conditions and expectations associated with future crisis support payments, and in recognition of aviation’s critical contribution to national security, supply chains and sovereignty, that the Australian Government considers acquiring an equity stake in support recipients as part of the support agreement.

Recommendation 6

5.114 The committee recommends that the Australian Government provides ongoing and targeted assistance to support the retention, training, certification and recertification of aviation workers throughout the recovery period.

Recommendation 7

• 5.115 The committee recommends that the Australian Government, in consultation with unions, professional associations, airlines, labour hire companies and training providers: identifies the long-term training needs for the aviation sector; examines where future pressures lie;
  
• develops a program of skills development targeted at the aviation sector; and
  
• develops initiatives to ensure the industry remains internationally competitive in retaining key staff and attracting new entrants to the workforce.
  

Recommendation 8

5.116 The committee recommends that the Australian Government urgently considers the skills needed across the sector, and the best means of retaining those skilled workers, including developing a scheme that provides financial support directly to pilots, engineers and other highly skilled, in-demand aviation professionals to assist in maintaining their accreditation and training requirements.

Recommendation 9

6.100 The committee recommends the Australian Government leverages its procurement processes and spending within the aviation sector to protect and lift standards, promote fair wages, conditions and job security, and ensure the effective operation of an aviation industry in the national interest.

And then a dissention from the Government ranks... :

Government members - dissenting report

The Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport committee inquiry into the future of Australia’s aviation sector, in the context of COVID-19 and conditions post pandemic, made an interim report on 18 March 2021.

The interim report was a rational examination of the crisis facing aviation globally and more specifically in Australia. The Federal Government had acted on some of the recommendations prior to the interim report being tabled.

The final reporting date was extended three times to allow for a more thorough examination of the industry-wide challenges facing Australian aviation from general aviation through to the airline sector, including pilots, engineers, cabin crew and ground crew.

There are challenges with a shortage of pilot and engineer training businesses, reduced general aviation access to many airports, regulation, interest from young people entering the industry, and business confidence generally, following two years of international and domestic border closures.

Recommendation 8 in the final report reflects the work of Coalition senators in aviation roundtables to specifically address training and the cost of certification. These Roundtables were carried out to address identified gaps in the broader aviation ecosystem.

It remains the case that the near- and medium-term demand for air travel is an unknown quantity.
It is disappointing that the final report tabled largely fails to address the Terms of Reference of the Inquiry.

In addition, the draft contains a notable number of unfounded assertions and inappropriate emotive terminology. It lacks detailed scrutiny of testimony.

It appears that the extensions of time have been made to extend the industrial relations dispute between the relevant unions with one airline in particular, that being Qantas.

Rather than using appropriate forums, such as the courts and Fair Work Commission, to prosecute these industrial relations disputes, the Senate has been used to promote the agenda of one group of submitters to the Inquiry, primarily Unions. This is not the purpose of the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport committee, and the opportunity to properly examine the genuine issues that would see aviation fly again has been wasted.

The Coalition members have been patient in providing quorum for these hearings and continue to hear evidence in good faith, but cannot support the recommendations of this report.

Senator Susan McDonald
Deputy Chair

Senator Greg Mirabella

Hmm...who'd of thought dissention in the RRAT ranks - 

MTF...P2