EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Aviation Legislation Amendment (Liability and Insurance) Act 2012
Proclamation
Item 2 of the table in subsection 2(1) of the Aviation Legislation Amendment (Liability and Insurance) Act 2012 (the Act) provides that Schedule 1 to the Act will commence on a day to be fixed by Proclamation. If the provisions have not commenced by Proclamation within the 6 month period beginning on the day on which the Act receives the Royal Assent, they will commence automatically on the first day after the end of that 6 month period. The Act received the Royal Assent on 11 December 2012.
The purpose of the Proclamation is to fix 31 March 2013 as the day on which Schedule 1 to the Act commences. The commencement date has been recommended after consultation with industry.
Schedule 1 contains the operative provisions of the Act and makes the necessary amendments to the Civil Aviation (Carriers’ Liability) Act 1959 (CACL Act) and the Damage By Aircraft Act 1999 (DBA Act). The CACL Act deals with carriers’ liability for passenger injury and death and ensures carriers take out insurance for these liabilities. The DBA Act deals with carriers’ liability for third party (surface) damage to people and property.
The amendments to the CACL Act include the following:
- an increase to the domestic passenger liability cap, which is the maximum amount of compensation that carriers are required to provide for the injury or death of passengers during domestic travel, from $500,000 to $725,000 per passenger;
- an increase to the mandatory insurance for domestic passenger liability, which carriers are required to hold, from $500,000 to $750,000 per passenger; and
- removal of references to ‘personal injury’ and replaced with ‘bodily injury’ to ensure consistency with the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, done at Montreal on 28 May 1999 (the 1999 Montreal Convention), which means carriers are no longer liable for ‘pure’ mental injuries.
The amendments to the DBA Act include the following:
- the introduction of ‘contributory negligence’ so that compensation payments paid by carriers for third party damage may be reduced where the victim was partially responsible for the damage;
- carriers/defendants are now allowed to seek a contribution from other parties who may have contributed to the third party damage suffered by the person bringing the claim under the Act; and
- preclusion of claimants from claiming compensation for mental injuries where the person has not suffered additional personal or property damage.
The Proclamation is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.