Mr TRUSS (Leader of the Nationals) (12:41 PM) —The opposition will not be opposing these amendments to the Airports Amendment Bill 2010. Indeed, during the debate in the House of Representatives I said that these sorts of amendments would be necessary. Unfortunately, the government did not provide any kind of exposure draft so that there could be consultation with the industry before this legislation was brought into the House. The normal courtesy of consultation with key stakeholders in the drafting of the bill simply did not happen. Fortunately, on 30 September the bill was referred to the Senate Rural Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 16 November.

In the debate in the House of Representatives, I suggested to the government—and indeed moved—that the debate be adjourned until after that Senate committee report, because it was quite obvious from the submissions that had already been received that there were serious deficiencies in the legislation which needed to be corrected. Unfortunately, not enough of the Independents supported us in that motion and so we are now going through this process today where this legislation has to be brought on on this special day of sitting. It could have all been dealt with through the proper processes by waiting for the Senate inquiry which identified the problems which the government has now sought to correct.

There are some 33 amendments. The embarrassment of the government in having to bring this legislation back today has been entirely brought on by themselves because they would not consult with the industry in advance and then they did not wait for the Senate inquiry before insisting that the legislation go through the House of Representatives.

Next year there will be another new paradigm. The government and the Greens will have control of the Senate. That alliance will mean that there will not be the usual scrutiny of legislation undertaken in the Senate that has occurred in the past. Labor will be able to count on the Greens whenever they require them and, as a result, the situation which has occurred in the past, where the Senate has corrected and tidied up shoddy legislation, will not be able to be counted upon. Indeed, it will be this House which will have to do much more of the work in ensuring that the legislation that is passed does in fact meet the expectations of the government in bringing it forward, and deliver good policy for the Australian people. In the past, this House has often relied upon the Senate to fix up poor legislation such as this. That will not happen so much in the future. We will need to undertake committees of inquiry in this House to make sure that poor legislation is corrected before it leaves or at least adjourn the legislation for debate in this place until after it has been considered in the Senate.

I have always been uncomfortable about governments—and I acknowledge that it happened also under the previous government—bringing in legislation where there is public controversy, where there is a public inquiry process going on, but having it voted upon in the House of Representatives before the problems are fixed. I do not believe that treats members of this House with proper respect and it is not good governance.

In the future I hope the government will have learned from this experience. If they do not consult with industry, if they do not wait for the Senate inquiry, legislation will often be defective. In this instance, 33 amendments have now had to be brought back to the House of Representatives. The government has had to include the bill in this day of special sittings to get the legislation through. If they had used proper process this could all have been done last week, after the Senate inquiry and without asking the House of Representatives to vote for legislation which even the government, surely, must have known, on the basis of the submissions that had been received from industry, was defective.

The bill establishes a framework for the regulation of Commonwealth leased airports. It comprises amendments to the Airport Act 1996, which the previous government introduced to ensure that there was an appropriate planning process for airports. The act sets out the requirements for airport master plans and sets out development plans over a 20-year period. Master plans are intended to establish the direction of use of the airport, and the act ensures that there is consultation with local communities. I think this legislation will improve that consultation. The amendments are absolutely essential; otherwise the legislation would simply have been unworkable. The process that the government has used is flawed, but we have ended up with the best possible outcome.