Source: NGARKAT HIGHWAY, NGARKAT (Grass Fire)
EMMA REBELLATO [HOST]: Well, we’re now joined by the Federal Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Catherine King, in Sydney. Good morning, Minister.
CATHERINE KING [MINISTER]: Good morning, Emma. How are you?
EMMA REBELLATO: I’m very well, thank you. I’d like to start by one of the stories that we’ve been covering this morning, and that’s this liaison officer that Australia is sending over to Israel. Is this going to be the start of more personnel that we’re going to send over there?
CATHERINE KING: Well, the liaison officer is a liaison officer with the Australian Defence Force so that obviously is in line with our efforts to participate in the peace process that President Trump has negotiated. Obviously this is the request that’s been of us and that’s what we’ve put in place to date.
EMMA REBELLATO: Let’s talk about Rex Airlines, which is, of course, within your portfolio with news that US company Air T wants to buy it. Will there be any conditions put in place to protect workers or to protect the regional routes that are currently serviced by Rex?
CATHERINE KING: Yeah, well, I’ll step you through that. Obviously, the administrators of Rex have now signalled that Air T has entered into a deed of implementation and sale. It’ll now be up to the second creditors meeting to determine whether they accept that offer. So we’ve got a little way to go yet, so that’s important to understand. But as the Australian government has said all the way along, we think Rex is too important to our regions to fall over, so we have done a lot of work, both in extending the administration to get this outcome, but also ensuring that there are, as with any of the offers that we’ve had on the table, guarantees about regional routes to continue those regional services and obviously looking after the workers. Whilst this will be an overseas owner, it will be an Australian company that is subject to Australian employment law. I was very pleased, you know, I’m pleased to hear that they intend to keep all of the workers and to keep the management team in place as well. And I look forward to, if the creditors agree, that this is the right option for Rex to go forward. We as a government obviously think that it is, but that will be up to the creditors, making sure that all of the unions are involved with this airline because we want to keep not only the regional routes going, but we want to keep great jobs in aviation in our regions as well.
EMMA REBELLATO: The government’s pumped a lot of money into Rex to keep it flying since it went into voluntary administration more than a year ago. Is there any way the government can get some of that money back, or is that it now?
CATHERINE KING: Yeah, so there’s three things we’ve done and we haven’t actually given the money to Rex, it’s been to keep the administration going. So we’ve funded the administration and obviously the operations of the airline to be able to keep flying in and out during that administration period. We’ve then had a consumer guarantee, a customer guarantee. So we wanted to make sure people kept using the service. And I’m so grateful to the hundreds of regional Australians who’ve kept their faith in this airline and kept the business going because they know how important it is for their regions as well. We then, to make sure there wasn’t a forced sale, bought the major debt of one the major creditors. So that was about $50 million, all of that on the public record. So we’re also a creditor. We’d obviously hope to see some return for that over time. But, you know, that again is going to be a matter for the administration. Right at the heart of what this government has been wanting to do is to actually keep this airline in the skies because we know how important it is for our regions. Against some opposition, I’d have to say, from those on the opposite side of the chamber to me, saying it was “a bridge too far” to be doing what we were doing, I think we’ve been proved that it was right. The administrators needed time to actually get this sorted out and to get a buyer into the market to actually keep this airline flying.
EMMA REBELLATO: I want to ask you about the safety of learner drivers. We know the ABC did an investigation, uncovered harrowing tales of abuse at the hands of learner drivers, sorry, the hands of instructors. You’ve written to the states and territories about what they can do to make things safer. Have they come back to you yet with any suggestions and ideas?
CATHERINE KING: Yeah, I got asked this question yesterday and a couple of days ago as well. When I’ve got an update, I’ll be happy to provide that. But at this stage, I don’t have anything further to say to what I’ve said previously on this matter.
EMMA REBELLATO: Is there a deadline for when they need to get back to you? Because I know there’s a meeting later this year.
CATHERINE KING: There’s not a deadline. Normally when I write to my colleagues, we have a fairly collegiate arrangement, I write to my colleagues about a range of issues all the time and they will write to me and we’ll work together. We work very collaboratively. Driving instructors obviously are certified and regulated by state and territory governments which is why I’ve written to them which is the appropriate action for the Commonwealth to take. But be in no doubt, I don’t think anybody, you know, no one expects to have that level of sexual harassment or abuse, which is a crime, occurring in any place, whether you’re a young woman or male learning to drive or whether, you know, you’re working, you know, as a casual employed somewhere. This is not OK. It’s unacceptable anywhere. And this, unfortunately, is one of the latest stories that we hear of, you know, where young women are finding themselves subject to harassment and abuse. And, really, this is about how we as a country actually stop this occurring in every setting, not just in one.
EMMA REBELLATO: Minister, before you go, I just want to ask about the rewrite of Australia’s environment laws and the decision not to include a climate trigger. Why not?
CATHERINE KING: Well, firstly, that’s in line with the recommendations of Graeme Samuel, who undertook the significant review of this act. But what the act does contain for the very first time is a requirement on applicants to actually list their scope one and two emissions and a plan for how they’re intending to get them down. Now, that obviously interacts with the many mechanisms we have to get emissions down, including the safeguard mechanism, which is a significant tool to actually reduce emissions in this country and to reach our climate targets.
EMMA REBELLATO: Catherine King, thank you very much for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.
CATHERINE KING: Really good to be with you, Emma.