Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026, Aviation Consumer Protection (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2026, Aviation Consumer Protection Levy Bill 2026, Aviation Consumer Protection Levy (Collection) Bill 2026

Ms WHITE (Lyons—Assistant Minister for Women, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health) (16:35): I rise to make a contribution on the Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026. As a member who has a flight path over my own electorate, Lyons, I've received representations from members of my community about concerns they have with noise, and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority has been the place where they've taken those concerns.

There's been consultation undertaken in Tasmania, as recently as in the last six months, regarding the current flight path going into and out of Hobart airport, which raised the issue in my community, and some proposals for alternative flight paths were consulted on with the community at the time. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority have recently provided feedback to the community about how they intend to deal with the consultation that was undertaken—that is, to make no changes to the flight path.

This has upset many members of my community who participated in good faith in the consultation, particularly in relation to noise and other concerns they had about the frequency of planes flying over them. I have only recently been made aware of these findings by CASA. The legislation that we're debating today is about making sure that there are appropriate places for people to raise their complaints and do that in a way that is independent to how they're currently dealt with through CASA.

My community will welcome this. They have participated in good faith in consultation that's been underway over a period of about seven years now and have felt, at times, that they've been listened to and, at other times, that they haven't been properly heard. I will be communicating back to my community, once this legislation is dealt with by this parliament, about the new ways they will be able to raise their concerns with the ombudsperson and have their legitimate worries about noise—as well as other issues relating to pollution that they feel are warranted and that, at this point in time, they feel haven't been properly dealt with—heard.

As an island state, Tasmania relies very heavily on airports and other ports, both for passenger traffic and for goods and some services coming into and going out of our state. I'm very supportive of the essential provision of air services into and out of Tasmania, so I want to make it very clear that when I raise these matters on behalf of my community I am not making derogatory remarks about the importance of our air services.

Indeed, they are essential, given our island nature. We are very fortunate to have a number of airports across the state that service remote communities as well as our major centres, and it's important that, when they are considering, in particular, the flight paths that are agreed upon, they consider community feedback and make sure that they are appropriately listening to concerns that people have.

This legislation is about strengthening the way that community voices can be heard and making sure that their representations can be appropriately be dealt with. I congratulate the minister for bringing this legislation forward.