Senate drone inquiry raises questions over safety at public hearing in Queensland
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From delivering a pizza to dropping a parcel right at your doorstep, the potential uses for drones are endless.
In rural Australia, unmanned aircraft are already becoming an essential tool for farmers, and now a Senate inquiry is reviewing their use and safety implications.
The Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee held its only public hearing in Dalby, in southern Queensland this week.
Meg Kummerow sells out-of-the-box drone kits to farmers and was one of a number of stakeholders who demonstrated the latest in drone technology to the five senators ahead of the public hearing.
"I just wanted to get across how farmers are using the technology on farm; things like drones deployed to get crop imagery as well as for the livestock industry, whether that's mustering, watering point checking, just to show them how farmers are using this technology," she said.
Queensland senator Barry O'Sullivan instigated the inquiry and brought his fellow senators to Dalby to see how the technology was being used and what the future may hold.
"It won't be long before we look up in the sky and have a mass of activity," he said.
"I mean, even a provincial city in Australia where there could be thousands of unmanned aircraft and devices going about their business of delivering pizzas or your order from the chemist shop or a packet of cigarettes, a six pack of beer and so on," he said.
Mr O'Sullivan was worried that regulation would have trouble keeping up with the rapid development of the technology.
"I felt that if we didn't keep pace with this, what would happen is we'd have some catastrophic event and then the reaction would be almost prohibitive on the use of these devices," he said.
"I see an enormous future for them in agricultural applications and if I could put my view as simply as I can, I think that while ever it's on the parameters of your property, subject only to the impact it might have on issues of workplace health and safety and issues to do with general aviation, beyond that I don't think there should be any regulation," he said.
What could go wrong?
Safety remained a major concern for those in the drone industry.
Aviation safety specialist David Wiman spent 35 years as an air traffic controller and now works to educate operators about the potential threats that drones pose.
"What could go wrong? The worst possible thing that could go wrong is an actual collision between the drone and an aircraft," he said.
Mr Wiman said better education was critical to prevent a future disaster.
"The majority of drones the guys will go out and buy from their local shop are quite light, under 2kg," he said.
"There are very few rules and regulations that pertain to those drones but 2kg, if you were to ingest that into a jet engine, has disastrous consequences," he said.
Last year, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) changed the rules governing the use of commercial drones to make it easier for farmers to use them on private properties.
Rules lightened up for farmers
Meg Kummerow said the new rules had opened up access for farmers, allowing them to operate drones up to 25kg on their own properties, but she was also concerned about safety.
"For me, airspace safety is really critical when we're also dealing with airspace that our low level ag operators are also working in," she said.
"Once they put that drone up, they don't want a lithium battery to go through a turbine engine and harm their local aerial operator."
Mr O'Sullivan said the Senate Committee would consider "living, breathing" legislation that could deal with constantly changing technology.
"For people on the land with cropping … they're talking about devices that you'll be able to pre-set and go to bed.
"So when that happens, we'll obviously have to consider that not only is it operating out of sight, but it's operating remotely, robotically," he said.
The Senate Committee is due to report its findings in December.
Topics: agribusiness, air-transport, agricultural-policy, dalby-4405
