Parliamentary record : Part I debates (02 October 1990)
Debates for 5th Assembly 1987 - 1990; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 5th Assembly 1987 - 1990
1990-10-02
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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https://hdl.handle.net/10070/220324
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/699493
DEBATES - Tuesday 2 October 1990 to say in recent days, one could be excused for saying that the chief crisis in air space management relates to the air space between the minister's ears. I refer, for example, to his comments on. the news on Friday and to his comments repeated on Claire Martin's show on ABC radio this morning. He was complaining. What upsets me is that he totally distorts the meaning of the see-and-be-seen proposal. As a private pilot himself, he should appreciate it. This morning, he referred to the radar services available up and down the east coast of the country, where there are high volumes of traffic, and then he stated: In the Territory and through Queensland, Western Australia, all over the pl ace, there wi 11 be a re 1 i ance on pi lots bei ng able to see each other but, if you look at a strip like Jabiru, you get on the average about 100 ai rcraft in and out of there a day, not to ment i on those that are flyi ng over the top and, when you try to spot aircraft from the air yourself, it is really quite a difficult requirement. What he failed to mention was that you are also in radio contact with those people. You have a map on your knees and you are able to communicate about altitude and all sorts of separation requirements that the minister is being quite dishonest about. I do not mind him doing that, provided he is prepared to provi de an avenue for debate on those issues in thi s Assemb ly. He has not done that, but it is about time that he did. I say that because, basically, he is frightening the Territory travelling public unreasonably. Quite unreasonably, .he is causing concern to people flying in aircraft day after day by suggesting that these changes wi 11 place people in immi nent danger. I believe that there are criticisms to be made of the proposed changes and that there are various .. Mr Finch: Give us one. Mr BELL: I Will give you one, if you will bear with me, and I am ta 1 ki ng about Yu 1 ara. That came up before. To inform honourab 1 e members, because the Mi nister for Transport and Works has not been able to do so, 7 categories of airspace are proposed under this new arrangement, and there is considerable debate about the types of airspace that apply in the Territory. The minister was wrong today. On the radio today, he said that it is on ly Darwi nand Ti nda 1 that wi 11 have controlled airspace, but what about Alice Springs as well? Mr Finch: stage 2. September 1991. The first stage, January. September, Mr BELL: No control tower at Alice Springs? No manned control tower at Alice Springs? Mr Manzie: Nothing. Mr BELL: I know that there are different points of view about that, because I have seen information to the effect that Darwin and Alice Springs are to be retained as primary control zones. Be that as it may, that is an issue that, basically, the minister has not taken up and he should have done so. He has failed to inform people that, whenever he flies an aeroplane, he uses a radio and he uses a map. He 10 720