00:00Well, I think we've certainly seen post-COVID it's taken a while for airlines and airports
00:08to really get back up to speed and the customer experience, as we know, hasn't been as good
00:14as it could be.
00:15This is now the last round of consultations before the Albanese government legislates
00:20a set of consumer protections for aviation.
00:24It's the first of its kind in this country that really does say here is the minimum set
00:29of standards you as a passenger can expect in the event of a delay or baggage loss or
00:34something that has occurred that has affected significantly your passenger experience and
00:40here is the rights that you have and this is how you can go about ensuring that you get
00:45a remedy, whether it is prompt rebooking on another flight, whether it's a refund, whether
00:49it's accommodation, food or transport assistance in the instance of where something has been,
00:55you know, a plane has been delayed and it's really impacted on you.
00:59It's underpinned by if you can't get a direct remedy with the airline.
01:03I know a lot of people email me directly saying, look, we've been trying to get hold of someone,
01:08we can't actually get a remedy here.
01:10That it's underpinned by an ombudsman that actually you can go to for complaints and then
01:15there's a regulator as well who makes sure that airlines and airports are held to account.
01:19So this is really, we're going out for consultation really to passengers to say, have your say on
01:25my department's website, infrastructure.gov.au, have your say to really say, you know, get
01:30this right before we start the legislative process through the parliament.
01:34One thing you didn't mention there was compensation in Europe.
01:38It's been the case for some time that airlines can be forced to pay compensation if planes are
01:43really, really delayed or cancelled.
01:45Qantas and Virgin reported pretty healthy profits a couple of months ago.
01:48So, is compensation an idea that you'll consider?
01:53Look, we had a look at it and I think this is really a balance.
01:56In the market that is pretty small, we had to weigh up how do we, in the moment when people
02:01are experiencing a delay, a frustration about the lost baggage, what's happened to them,
02:06how do we get remedies to people quickly versus what happens with schemes where the costs,
02:11potentially if they're large, can be passed on to the travelling public.
02:14Obviously, in Europe there is a compensation scheme that is of course defrayed across millions
02:19of passengers and hundreds of airlines.
02:21We've got a much smaller market.
02:22So, we think we've got the balance right here, making sure people get immediate remedies
02:27to rectify the situation that they're in rather than the European scheme.
02:32We haven't ruled out doing that, but really what this is about is lifting the standards
02:37overall to make sure passengers get a much better experience when they're travelling because
02:42really, at the end of the day, they are at the heart of what airlines and airports are
02:46doing and we want to make sure that passenger experience is as best as it can be.
02:50This seems like the bare minimum, though, of what you expect when you book a flight, that
02:55you'll be compensated if it's cancelled promptly.
02:57You might have some bipartisan support if you're headed down the path of compensation.
03:01The Coalition had a pay-on-delay bill in the last term of Parliament.
03:05Have you had any conversations with them about this at all?
03:08Well, we've certainly flagged very early on.
03:11This has been a long time in the making through our aviation white paper process that this
03:16is what we intended to do.
03:18We will obviously introduce legislation into the Parliament once this consultation process
03:23is concluded and I would hope for some bipartisan support on this.
03:27This really is about lifting the standards of passenger experience in Australia, but in
03:32a way that doesn't add substantially to airline ticket prices, which we also know are a
03:37pressure point for people in the Australian market.
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