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 RYAN (Lalor—Chief Government Whip) (16:39): I strongly support the Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026, a bill about something simple and important: fairness for Australian travellers. When Australians buy a plane ticket, they're not buying a maybe, they're not buying a gamble, they're not buying the right to be left waiting at a gate, stranded in an airport, chasing a refund or wondering whether promised assistance will arrive.
They're buying a service, and they deserve to be treated with respect when that service is disrupted. That is the simple principle at the heart of this bill. When things go wrong, passengers should not be left powerless, confused or out of pocket.
They should receive clear information, reasonable assistance, fair treatment and access to proper complaint pathways. Aviation is not just about planes and airports; it's about connection. It's about opportunity.
It's about social cohesion. It keeps families connected, workers employed, businesses moving and people present for weddings, funerals, medical appointments and long-planned trips. Above all, this bill says that, when Australians buy a ticket, they should not be buying uncertainty; they should be buying confidence.
Now, we all understand that things can go wrong in aviation. Weather events happen. They did this week in Melbourne with some fog.
Safety must always come first, and operational issues can arise. No responsible government can promise that every flight will leave on time every time. What a responsible government can do, however, is make sure that, when things do go wrong, passengers are treated fairly, receive clear information, understand their rights and options and have access to an independent complaints process.
The current system has not been good enough. We've heard Australians. Industry was given the opportunity to develop an effective complaint mechanism, but the 2024 Aviation white paper concluded that the industry-led Airline Customer Advocate had not delivered an effective or trusted complaint resolution mechanism.
Too often, passengers are directed to online forms, long call queues, confusing terms and conditions or travel credits they did not ask for. Too often, people are left to work out their rights when they are most stressed and least able to deal with the problem. That is not fair for families travelling with children, older Australians, people with disability, workers who rely on flights or passengers who have saved carefully for a trip and cannot afford unexpected costs.
A fair system should not require passengers to be persistent, to be lucky or to be legally trained just to receive basic assistance. This bill puts a simple standard into law: treat passengers fairly, communicate clearly and be accountable when things go wrong. This bill establishes a comprehensive aviation consumer protection framework to improve the aviation travel experience for consumers, including travelling with airlines and accessing airport services.
The first key part of the bill is the Aviation Consumer Protections Charter, which will set minimum standards covering matters such as information and assistance, delays, cancellation, disruption, refunds, baggage accessibility services, complaint handling and dispute resolution. These standards will not just be words on paper. The charter will be enforceable, and regulated entities that fail to comply may face civil penalties.
Rights only matter when they can be enforced. The bill also protects the integrity of the complaints process by prohibiting victimisation connected with making a complaint. Passengers should be able to raise concerns without fear of being punished, threatened or disadvantaged for speaking up.
The bill establishes the Aviation Consumer Ombudsperson to resolve individual consumer complaints and the Aviation Consumer Protection Authority to monitor compliance with the charter and enforce obligations under the framework. The bill also establishes the Aircraft Noise Ombudsperson to provide independent review of aircraft noise complaint handling by Airservices Australia and the Department of Defence.
Together, these reforms create a practical and balanced framework. This bill does not replace Australian consumer law. It creates an aviation-specific framework that sits alongside existing consumer protections and responds to the particular realities of air travel.
That is the right approach. When a flight is cancelled, baggage is lost, a passenger with disability is not assisted or a family is stranded overnight, the cost is immediate and personal. In my electorate of Lalor, this reform will make a practical difference because air travel is part of life for so many households.
Families in Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit, Truganina, Wyndham Vale, Manor Lakes and Manwaring use Melbourne and Avalon Airport to travel interstate and overseas. Lalor is a diverse mix of old and young, metropolis and farmland, rivers and bays, and established and growing and multicultural communities. Many families have loved ones interstate and overseas and travel to visit parents, grandparents, children and extended family.
Many people also fly into Victoria to visit family and friends in Lalor. They come to stay with children and grandchildren; attend weddings, funerals and religious celebrations; support loved ones during illness; help care for family; and be part of important moments in our community. People also travel to Lalor for work, conferences, accommodation, tourism and local events, including meetings, functions and visits to places such as the Werribee Park precinct.
When flights are delayed or cancelled, that can affect not only the passenger but also local businesses, venues and families waiting for them. For those families, visitors and travellers, flight disruptions are not hypothetical issues. A delayed or cancelled flight can mean missing a connecting flight.
It could be a connecting flight overseas. You could miss a family funeral, miss a wedding, miss a shift at work, miss a medical appointment or arrive too late for the moment you came for. In a community like the one I represent, aviation is not just about leaving home; it is also about people being able to come home, come back and come together.
For households already managing budgets, these costs matter. People in Lalor and the visitors and loved ones who come should not need a law degree to understand what they are entitled to when a flight is cancelled. They should not have to spend weeks chasing a refund or fight to be treated with basic respect.
Looking at a practical example, a family from Tarneit might book flights to Queensland during the school holidays. If that flight is cancelled, they should not be left guessing whether they are entitled to meals, when they'll be rebooked or whether they should go home, book accommodation or stand in another queue. A worker from Hoppers Crossing might book a flight for a work commitment interstate.
If that flight is cancelled for reasons within the airline's control, that worker should not be forced to accept a travel credit if what they need is their money back. A refund should be a real refund. An older resident from Werribee might need mobility assistance at the airport.
They should not be left uncertain about how to access that assistance, forced to tell their story over and over again or left at a gate without the help they were promised. Accessibility is not an optional extra; it is part of a fair, modern and respectful aviation system. A person from Wyndham Vale might arrive at their destination and find that their baggage has not arrived.
It might contain work clothes, medication, cultural clothing or a child's essential items needed for a wedding or funeral. Passengers should know what support is available and how to escalate the matter. One of the strengths of this bill is that it recognises the whole passenger journey: booking assistance, rescheduling, cancellations, check-in, baggage handling, boarding, seating, onboard service, accessibility assistance, disembarking and lost property.
Passengers do not see a neat separation between the airline, the airport, the contractor and the service provider. They bought a service, and they expect that service to be delivered properly. Accountability cannot disappear into the cracks between the airline, the airport and the contractors.
One of the most important features of this bill is the Independent Aviation Consumer Ombudsman. The previous Airline Customer Advocate was criticised for limited powers, incomplete coverage and perceived lack of independence. A complaints process should not feel like another part of the problem; it should be part of the solution.
The ombudsperson will be able to investigate complaints, request information, facilitate conciliation and, where needed, make a determination. Complainants will not be charged a fee simply to have their complaint heard. The Aviation Consumer Protection Authority will focus on systemic monitoring, compliance and enforcement because, as I say so often in this place, we measure the things we care about, and my community cares about this when they travel.
Individual complaints can help reveal broader patterns, including poor communication, poor treatment of passengers with a disability, failures around refunds or repeated baggage problems. The evidence shows why these reforms are needed. More than half of the flying public experienced a flight disruption in a 12-month period.
Only around a third were satisfied with how their disruption was handled, 82 per cent said they did not receive support and 81 per cent said they were not informed of their rights. Only 39 per cent of people who made a complaint were satisfied with the outcome, only 17 per cent were satisfied with the complaint process overall and 79 per cent of Australians reported knowing little or nothing about their consumer rights when travelling by air.
For the year ending 31 December 2025, domestic on-time performance averaged 76.9 per cent for arrivals and 77.7 per cent for departures, while the cancellation rate was 2.5 per cent. This bill responds to evidence, not to theory. The government's priority here is to lift the standard of the passenger air travel experience in Australia.
The issue of financial compensation has been considered, but there is a need to balance fast remedies for affected customers with avoiding options that add costs that flow through to the ticket price. At this stage, consistent with the Aviation white paper, airlines will not be required to provide monetary compensation for flight cancellations, significant delays or disruptions.
However, passengers are not left with nothing. The proposed scheme seeks to ensure airlines cover reasonable consequential costs, including meals, transport and overnight accommodation, where the service has not been provided for. For a local family stranded overnight, that matters.
A meal voucher matters. Transport matters. Accommodation matters.
Clear communication and a prompt refund matter, because household budgets are already under pressure. The government intends, under subordinate legislation, to exempt airports receiving fewer than one million passengers per year. This means the framework would apply to Australia's 14 largest airports and Western Sydney airport, capturing 93 per cent of passenger movements.
This is targeted, practical reform. I welcomed the establishment of the Aircraft Noise Ombudsperson, which will review the handling of aircraft noise complaints by Airservices Australia and the Department of Defence. Moving this function away from Airservices Australia also helps address concerns about perceived conflicts of interest.
This bill builds on the work of the Albanese Labor government. It builds on the work we've already done in aviation, including the white paper, new laws to boost competition at Sydney Airport, the draft passenger charter of rights and reinstated ACCC monitoring of the airlines. Now we are delivering Australian-first aviation consumer protections.
These protections will clarify airline obligations and the minimum level of assistance required when a scheduled flight is disrupted. When Australians buy a plane ticket, they are not buying a maybe. They're not buying a gamble.
They're not buying the right to be left waiting at the gate or stranded at an airport, chasing a refund or wondering when the promised assistance will arrive. They're buying a service, and they deserve to be treated with respect when that service is disrupted. That is what this bill delivers.
It says passengers should not be left powerless. It says families should not be left stranded without answers. It says people with disabilities should not be left wondering whether assistance will arrive.
It says complaints should not disappear into a corporate inbox with no clear outcomes. Aviation is about movement, but this bill is about trust. It is about making sure the systems that move Australians across the country and around the world also treat Australians with fairness, dignity and respect.
Aviation connects families, communities and economies, but connection has to come with accountability. Service must come with standards, and when those standards are not met, passengers must have rights, remedies and a real pathway to be heard. Above all, this bill says that when Australians buy a ticket, they should not be buying uncertainty.
They should be buying confidence. This bill is about confidence, fairness and accountability in an aviation sector Australians rely on every day. I want to give a shout-out to all the people in my community who use our air services, which is many a day at both Avalon and Melbourne airports.
Of course, many of my locals work at those airports as well. This bill is about making sure that when Australians are travelling, they can feel confident in the services they have and they can feel confident that, when things go wrong, they won't be left stranded at that airport gate.