Transcript - Sunrise

SALLY BOWREY: Power will be given back to Australian travellers with a raft of new rights for cancelled and delayed flights. The initiative is designed to keep airlines honest and hold the industry accountable in some of the biggest travel reforms in a decade. 

JAMES TOBIN: For more, we’re joined by Transport Minister, Catherine King. Good morning Catherine. Now, as someone who does quite a lot of travel, normally on the road with weather, catches a lot of flights, I am all ears on this one. What's it going to mean for passengers?

CATHERINE KING:  Well, what it will mean for passengers is that you get what you pay for, so either you're able to enforce your rights to be able to get a refund or actually get the flight that you've actually asked for. And so, we've put out a draft charter of rights today. They're out for consultation until the 28th of February. And really it is about enforcing the rights that you've booked a flight and that you should get what you actually pay for. So, there's a range of rights in the draft charter that will ensure that airlines, and airports as well, actually lift their game when it comes to delivering the services that so many of us use to get around the country to work, to actually visit family, get to medical appointments, all of those things. So really, that's what we're doing today. It forms part of the ombudsman scheme that we've developed as part of the Aviation White Paper work we did this year. That scheme will be legislated next year, and the Charter of Rights really does spell out what you should be entitled to. It's backed up by the Australian Consumer Law, what you're entitled to if your flight doesn't go ahead. So, if your flight is delayed by three hours or more at the fault of the airline, you should expect to be able to at no cost to yourself, get your flight rebooked either with that airline or another airline. If, because of time sensitivity, you can't take another flight, they should be giving you a refund for that. Or if you're stuck in not in your port where you live, you should be able to get accommodation and meals and again at no cost to yourself.

SALLY BOWREY: And I think anyone, when you pay for something, you expect to actually get the product. And we do, have some pretty dismal stats in terms of, you know, flight delays, 30% of flights are delayed. So, I think the report is showing that it can take also up to almost 100 days for customers when they complain this is way too long. So, it is promising to push airlines to really reduce that. How will the new rules actually hold them to account to make sure that issues are resolved quickly?

CATHERINE KING: Well, the first thing is that the Charter of Rights basically spells out very clearly what travelling public's rights actually are. And so, we want to make sure that's got out widely so people are aware of exactly what their rights are to enforce them in the first instance, to try and resolve the dispute with the airline, or if it's a dispute with the airport, and then it's backed up by an ombudsman scheme that is legislated. So, in the same way you've got a telecommunications ombudsman scheme, people, if they can't get a remedy, then can go to the ombudsman and basically then have that referred up and they'll do the work with you to try and make sure that your rights are enforced. It doesn't preclude you still going to the Australian Human Rights Commissioner if you've got an issue in terms of disability access or things like that, but it's basically underpinned by that. At the moment, if you book a flight, it's really complicated and it's often not until you try and get on the phone, try and get your refund that you actually then find out, well, what you booked. You know, they're saying you can't have a refund, you can have a flight credit. It's not something you can use. And so this is really spelling out what the expectations are on the airline and then backed up by the ombudsman.

SALLY BOWREY: Yeah. And I think there is a great deal of room for improvement. Catherine, just before you go, can I just quickly ask obviously in a separate issue in New South Wales, we've got trains being delayed and cancelled. It's causing a lot of stress for people trying to get around at Christmas and also businesses. Is this fair and how do you see this issue being resolved quickly?

CATHERINE KING: Well, I can't imagine a circumstance where the iconic New Year's Eve fireworks on Sydney Harbour are coming under pressure. And I think, you know, I'd say really clearly to the union, you know, understand you've got a dispute with the New South Wales government, but you need to sort this out because you're doing yourself quite a bit of damage. This is not a great time of year to be doing this. People are trying to get their last-minute Christmas shopping done. Understand you've got a dispute. You need to resolve it quickly, because those fireworks, I mean, you know, everyone watches them. The world.

SALLY BOWREY: Unfortunately, it seems we have just lost the transport minister, Catherine King. They're just talking about the train strike in New South Wales. Let's move on now.