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Thursday, 24th June 2010

Significant, New Funding For Aviation Safety


Federal Parliament today approved legislation which delivers an unprecedented 30 per cent increase over four years to the annual budget of the nation’s independent aviation safety watchdog, strengthening its oversight of the industry.


The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) will use its extra $89.9 million to:



  • Employ 97 additional safety specialists, safety analysts and airworthiness inspectors and other staff, allowing the organisation to expand its surveillance activities and fulfil its increasingly complex regulatory responsibilities.

  • Provide expanded and ongoing training to its staff.

  • Make permanent random alcohol and drug testing as well as a number of other programs which until now had been funded on a temporary or ad hoc basis.

  • Make sure the Office of Airspace Regulation continues to have the resources to properly regulate and administer Australia’s airspace, an area covering almost 11 per cent of the earth’s surface.


While Australia has an enviable safety record, this Labor Government won’t be taking future success as a given. The 100 million passengers that fly through our skies every year expect and deserve nothing less than our continued vigilance.


Our large additional investment in CASA’s highly professional workforce builds on the reforms we’ve made to the organisation’s governance arrangements with the appointment of a small board of experts to oversee its strategic direction.


This extra investment in safer skies will be funded via a small increase in the aviation fuel excise (from $0.02854 to $0.03556 per litre). The Government considers this to be a reasonable and responsible step considering the industry’s continued growth depends on the public’s ongoing confidence in its safety standards.


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Electorate Office

334a Marrickville Rd
Marrickville NSW 2204

Phone: 02 9564 3588

Parliament House Office

Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Phone: 02 6277 7700

Phone: (02) 9564 3588
Fax: (02) 9564 1734
Email: A.Albanese.MP@aph.gov.au

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which our offices stand and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge the sorrow of the Stolen Generations and the impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We also recognise the resilience, strength and pride of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Authorised by Anthony Albanese. 334a Marrickville Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204.

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