Law Council of Australia

Business Law Section

Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026

Submission Date: 30 April 2026

The Competition and Consumer Committee of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia (the Committee) makes this submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport in relation to the Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026 (the Bill), the Aviation Consumer Protection (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2026, the Aviation Consumer Protection Levy Bill 2026, and the Aviation Consumer Protection Levy (Collection) Bill 2026 (collectively, the legislative package).

The Committee supports the Australian Government’s objective of ensuring a safe, competitive, and sustainable aviation sector that delivers fair outcomes for consumers. However, the Committee has identified a number of areas where the legislative package could be strengthened to better achieve these aims, as summarised below.

  1. Delegation of Substantive Content: The Bill delegates all substantive consumer protections to the Aviation Consumer Protections Charter and Standards, limiting parliamentary oversight of the framework’s core content. This includes passenger entitlements, standards of treatment, accessibility requirements, and complaint handling obligations. The Committee recommends that core consumer protections be prescribed in primary legislation.
     
  2. Aviation Consumer Protections Charter (the Charter): As the centrepiece of the proposed framework, the Charter is absent from the legislative package, preventing Parliament from assessing the adequacy of the protections the framework is intended to deliver. The Committee recommends that a draft Charter with minimum mandatory content be made available for consultation.
     
  3. Scope of Protections: The framework contains a number of gaps that risk leaving consumers without the protections it is designed to provide, including broad exemption powers, the exclusion of services not directly paid for by consumers, limited coverage of third-party intermediaries, and the exclusion of charter operations. The Committee recommends that the scope be reviewed to address these gaps.
     
  4. Consumer Redress Mechanisms: The proposed framework creates no new private causes of action, and the Aviation Consumer Ombudsperson’s (the ACO) determinations are binding on scheme members but not on complainants, with no express provision for monetary compensation. The Committee recommends that the adequacy of individual redress mechanisms be reconsidered.
     
  5. Regulatory Complexity: The framework introduces multiple institutional actors with overlapping responsibilities, alongside existing regulators with concurrent jurisdiction, which risks creating confusion for both consumers and regulated entities. The Committee recommends that consolidated, plain-language guidance on consumer entitlements and complaint pathways be published once the Charter and Standards are in force.
     
  6. Civil Penalty Framework: The Bill imposes significant civil penalties for breach of Charter requirements and Standards whose content has not yet been determined. The Committee recommends that the Charter and Standards be finalised and subject to public consultation before the civil penalty provisions come into force.
     
  7. Accessibility and Children’s Rights: The Bill identifies accessibility and children’s rights as statutory objects but provides no guarantee that the Charter or Standards will address them. The Committee recommends that accessibility standards and protections for children, including unaccompanied minors, be mandatory requirements under the Charter.

The Committee’s specific observations and recommendations in support of each of these points are set out in the submission below.

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Last Updated on 13/05/2026

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