Mr TUCKEY (Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) (4:42 PM) —I move:

The primary purpose of the Transport Safety Investigation Bill 2002, with the government amendments included, is to maintain and improve transport safety in the aviation, marine and rail modes by providing the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, ATSB, with power relating to the reporting of transport safety matters; conduct of `no blame' safety investigations; making of safety action statements, including safety recommendation to address the identified safety efficiencies; protection and dissemination of information and publishing of investigation results. The TSI Bill has received bipartisan support.

The Transport Safety Investigation (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2002, with the government amendments included, provides for the repeal of existing legislative authority for aviation and marine investigation; transitional arrangements for the investigation completed in progress when existing legislation is repealed and the main bill commences; a regime in the Civil Aviation Act 1988 to protect the confidentiality of cockpit voice recordings, CVRs, where they are not protected under the TSI Bill; the inclusion of a cooperation requirement for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, AMSA, the Civil Aviation Authority, CASA, and Airservices Australia; and certain classes of safety information protected under the main bill to be made exempt from the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

The government is moving amendments to the Transport Safety Investigation Bill 2002 and the Transport Safety Investigation (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2002. The amendments are made in response to matters raised by the Senate Standing Committee on the Scrutiny of Bills and the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee. The balance of those amendments has already been mentioned, so I will not bore the House by reading those again. I refer to my earlier comments on the previous bill and refer the matter to the House.

Question agreed to.