Commonwealth of Australia Explanatory Memoranda

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AIR NAVIGATION AND CIVIL AVIATION AMENDMENT (AIRCRAFT CREW) BILL 2011

            Air Navigation and Civil Aviation Amendment (Aircraft Crew) Bill 2011

Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum for Amendments to be moved by Senator Xenophon
                              in committee of the whole
                                Senator Nick Xenophon


Background

These amendments are in response to issues raised during the Senate Rural Affairs and Transport
Legislation Committee inquiry into the Air Navigation and Civil Aviation Amendment (Aircraft Crew)
Bill 2011. These amendments are designed to ensure that the bill applies only to Australian airlines.
The amendments also address any issues of extra-territorial application of Australian law.

Amendment (1)
Amendment (1) removes the existing Schedule 1 of the bill, and instead substitutes a schedule
amending the Fair Work Act 2009, in response to comments made during the inquiry that the Fair
Work Act would be better able to address the concerns relating to the working conditions of overseas-
based crew working for Australian airlines. These concerns are outlined in the Explanatory
Memorandum for this bill.

The amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 will mean overseas-based crew working on domestic
flights for Australian airlines will come under the jurisdiction of the Act.

Items 1 to 3 insert new definitions into the Act to ensure that the amendments in the bill can be
applied appropriately to aircraft operating crew working on Australian domestic flights.

Item 4 repeals the now redundant definition of flight crew officer, which has been replaced by the new
definition of aircraft operating crew, outlined in item 1. This ensures that the Act will apply to all
relevant staff, not only flight crew.

Item 5 inserts a new section 13A into the Act, to expand the definition of national system employee to
include overseas-based crew working on domestic flights operated by Australian airlines.

Item 6 replaces subparagraph 14(1)(d)(i) of the Act to allow the new term aircraft operating crew to
be substituted.

Item 7 expands subsection 14(1) of the Act to include Australian domestic aviation employers using
overseas-based crew who are employed either directly or through an interposed entity.

Amendment (2)

Amendment (2) removes items 1 to 3 of the existing Schedule 2 in the bill, and substitutes a new item
(1) to address the serious concerns relating to fatigue management raised in both the current inquiry
and the previous inquiry undertaken by the Rural Affairs References Committee into pilot training
and airline safety.

Item 1 inserts a new section 28BJ into the Civil Aviation Act 1988, which states that it is a condition
of an AOC that the holder of the AOC is required to monitor and manage fatigue-related safety risks.
The section also states that the holder of an AOC must have a system for managing such risks in place
by: 30 June 2012 for cabin crew and other operating crew; 31 December 2012 for flight crew; and 30
June 2013 for operational support staff.

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