Victoria's minister for aviation shares policy initiatives with airport conference delegates

Speaking at this week’s Airport Operations 2011 conference in Melbourne, Victoria’s Minister for Aviation outlined some encouraging vision for the industry.

Victoria is the only jurisdiction in the country with a dedicated aviation portfolio; and Minister Gordon Rich-Phillips says that that’s because “the Victorian Government is passionate (about) and committed to the aviation and aerospace sectors”.

Rich-Phillips, who incidentally is a licensed fixed-wing pilot, pointed to the high-profile history of aviation in the State; but it was some near-term policy initiatives that caught the ear:

My major role as Minister for Aviation is to support the development of aviation infrastructure…

We see airports as having a critical role in the development of the Victorian economy, in the development of our tourism sector. We see airports as the gateway to our state, the gateway to our country, the gateway to our cities; and it’s important that with our airport infrastructure we create the right first impression…

The Victorian government is very committed to working with airport operators to ensure that we provide the best experience for our passengers; and with our airports, both international and domestic and the regional airports we have in the state, deliver the type of first experience that we want for people visiting our cities throughout the state.

We’ve made a number of commitments in our election platform last November, which we are delivering through our first phase of this year. One of the key commitments the Victorian government made was to fund a $20 million Regional Aviation Fund. The purpose of this fund is to support the development of aeronautical infrastructure at Victoria’s regional airports...

So much of our regional aviation infrastructure in this state, indeed in Australia, is very old. Some of it dates from the Second World War and has had minimal upgrades since the Second World War.

So the Victorian government has put in place the Regional Aviation Fund with a view to helping airport operators, typically municipalities, and often smaller municipalities, to upgrade their airport infrastructure with a focus on aeronautical infrastructure.

We want to improve the capability of our regional airports, whether it’s in runway upgrades, taxiway upgrades, lighting, nav aids, instrument approach upgrades – we want to increase the utility of those airports, and that’s what the Regional Aviation Fund has been put in place to do.

The government has also committed to undertaking – and we have now reached the end of a feasibility study for - a Geelong Regional Airport.

As many of you would know, the regional airport service in Geelong, Grovedale, is scheduled to close very soon, which will leave Geelong without a GA airport.

We believe a city the size of Geelong should have a regional airport in the way that other cities in this state do, and we have undertaken a feasibility study, which I’ll shortly be releasing, to look at options for the replacement of Grovedale in Geelong.

In relation to airport infrastructure at our major airports, we’re also undertaking work with Melbourne Airport (for) a feasibility study for a Melbourne Airport rail link.

And you may have seen press commentary about the government’s commitment around an Avalon Airport rail link, which we believe is particularly important and that work is underway… and we have committed to commencing construction work on an Avalon Airport rail link by the end of this first term, which is 2014.

But we’re also undertaking feasibility work around a Melbourne Airport rail link. We don’t see them as alternative projects, we see them as both important projects which we’d like to advance.

The reality is, of course, Avalon is largely – in terms of the rail link – a greenfields project and therefore it is logistically much simpler and much cheaper for the government to undertake the construction, compared to the complexity around building a Melbourne Airport rail link.

But we are committed to working towards both projects because we see them as critical to upgrading of our major airport infrastructure in this state.

We’re also putting in place a number of policy positions with respect to planning around airports… We’re working with airports, with the Department of Planning and Community Development and with the Planning Minister around issues such as protecting our airport environments.

We already have in Victoria legislation in place to protect Melbourne Airport’s 24-hour curfew-free status, which we are very committed to doing…

We’re also looking at opportunities to ensure that our regional airports are not impacted by encroaching development as well.

We recognise that so much of our airport infrastructure is very old, has been in place for a long time.

The sad reality is in Victoria we have only built one new airport in the last 20 years, that being Hotham.

It is not easy to build new airports anywhere in Australia, so it’s important that we protect the airports we have; and that’s why we’re very committed to ensuring that we provide some protection around our existing airports to ensure that they do not come under pressure from encroaching urban development.

One of the other issues that has been a vexed issue … is the issue of non-aviation development on airports, and this is something that the Victorian government also has a policy position in relation to. We went to the election last year indicating that we were not opposed to the development of non-aviation activities on airports. We take a pragmatic view as to the role of that activity.

It is our view that there is a role for non-aeronautical development if it underpins the aviation operations on our airports. We do not want to see our airports as shopping centres with runways attached. We see our airports, all our airports, as important aviation infrastructure, but we see a role for non-aeronautical development as underpinning those aviation activities.

And we know that so many of our regional airports, small regional airports in particular, they don’t have the cash flow from aeronautical activities to generate, to cover their operating expenses.

So we see a role for non-aeronautical activity to support those airport operations, but it must not be at the expense of the aeronautical operations.

We will support, as I said, in a pragmatic way support non-aviation development where it underpins airport operations, but not where it undermines airport operations.

It’s a very clear message I want to send, that the government is committed to maintaining their existing airport infrastructure and working with operators to ensure the viability of that infrastructure, (but) that we don’t want to see non-aeronautical development undermining that aviation infrastructure...

The Victorian government is very willing to work with airport operators in this state to ensure the viability of your airports into the future.

That’s why I want to put in place the programs and policies we have and I look forward to working with you in coming years to ensure that we do have a viable aviation sector, an airport sector in this state at all levels, not only our largest airports but also down through the regional airports.

We view it as a great opportunity; we think that the use of the technology boost will provide some new opportunities to airport operations and I look forward to the ongoing success of the sector in Australia.

We were impressed... Now for the action.