EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Issued by authority of the delegate of the Secretary of the Department of Transport and Regional Services

Subject  Aviation Transport Security Act 2004

The Aviation Transport Security Act 2004 Act (the Act) establishes a regulatory framework to safeguard against unlawful interference with aviation.  To achieve this purpose, the Act establishes minimum security requirements for civil aviation in Australia by imposing obligations on persons engaged in civil aviation related activities. 

Paragraph 104(4)(a) of the Act requires an airport operator to report aviation security incidents that relate to the airport of the airport operator to the Secretary.

Paragraph 105(4)(a) of the Act requires an aircraft operator to report aviation security incidents that relate to an aircraft of the aircraft operator to the Secretary.

Subsection 106(2) of the Act requires a person with incident reporting responsibilities to report aviation security incidents to the Secretary.  Each of the following is a person with incident reporting responsibilities:

(a)                an aviation security inspector;

(b)               an airport security guard;

(c)                a screening officer; and

(d)               an aviation industry participant, other than an airport operator, aircraft operator or employee of another aviation industry participant.

Subsection 107(1) provides that the Secretary may publish a notice in the Gazette setting out what information must be included in a report and how reports must be made. 

The attached gazette notice has been prepared to:

(a)                require the person reporting the aviation security incident to provide certain minimum information; and

(b)               require the report to be made to the DOTARS Operations Centre in writing or orally and followed up in writing within 24 hours.

Information contained in reports will allow the Department to capture and efficiently monitor any act of unlawful interference with aviation perpetrated in Australia.  The reports will also allow for the provision of core information for required Australian Government reporting on such incidents to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Impact and effect of instrument

Under subsection 107(3) of the Act, if a person reports an aviation security incident, but does not comply with the requirements in the attached gazette notice, the report is taken, for the purposes of Part 6 of the Act, not to have been made.

A failure to report an aviation security incident in accordance with Divisions 3 and 4 of Part 6 of the Act may be an offence (sections 100, 101 and 102).

Nature of consultation undertaken

In addition to the extensive consultation undertaken with industry as part of the development of the regulatory framework, the adequacy of the information sought concerning incident reporting has been assessed by the Department’s Office of Transport Security State Directors and Aviation Security Inspectors respectively.  These officers and their industry counterparts have provided DOTARS with this type of incident reporting almost daily for over five years.

The Legislative Instrument commences on 10 March 2005. 

Authority: Section 107 of the Aviation Transport Security Act 2004