Barnaby Joyce affair ‘sank aviation reform’, says Dick Smith
• The Australian
• 12:00AM March 14, 2018
• Andrew Burrell
Businessman Dick Smith won approval last month from Barnaby Joyce and Anthony Albanese for a rewrite of the Civil Aviation Act aimed at slashing crippling costs, but the prospect of a bipartisan deal crashed days later with Mr Joyce’s resignation from cabinet.
Mr Smith began working quietly in January to convince Mr Joyce, then the Coalition’s new transport minister, to amend a key part of the act that requires the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to “regard safety as the most ¬important consideration” in regulating the industry. Under the planned changes, CASA would instead be required to seek the “highest level of safety in air navigation” alongside the need for “an efficient and sustainable Australian aviation industry”.
Mr Smith, a former CASA chairman, said yesterday the rewrite would stop bureaucrats using the act to impose extra layers of needless red tape, which had made the general aviation industry unviable and led to fewer people travelling by air.
Mr Joyce met Mr Smith on January 20 at the Promenade Cafe at Canberra’s Hyatt Hotel — two weeks before revelations of Mr Joyce’s relationship with a political staffer, Vikki Campion, became front-page news. After winning the minister’s broad support, Mr Smith began lobbying Labor’s transport spokesman Anthony Albanese.
The Australian has obtained a copy of an email sent by Mr Albanese’s chief of staff, Jeff Singleton, on February 9 in which he supports the proposed amendments to the act and suggests several minor changes.
By that time, Mr Joyce had become engulfed in the scandal over his affair with Ms Campion. He resigned from cabinet on February 23 amid revelations that a sexual-harassment claim had been made against him.
Mr Smith said yesterday he had been told by a political source that Mr Albanese and Mr Joyce had discussed the planned changes and agreed on them.
Mr Albanese declined to comment yesterday and Mr Joyce’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr Smith said he considered Mr Joyce’s co-operation a breakthrough because the Coalition’s previous transport minister, Darren Chester, had been a “disaster” and had been unresponsive to changing the act.
“Barnaby told me he was the minister for transport, not just aviation, and he did not want to send more cars on the road and end up with more people dead,” Mr Smith said.
Mr Smith said he would try to convince new Transport Minister Michael McCormack to agree to the amendments.
“If he doesn’t, the whole future of aviation is doomed,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Mr McCormack said the minister could not comment on the content of any private discussions between Mr Joyce and Mr Smith.
The spokeswoman noted that CASA already had a requirement that its regulatory approach must consider the economic and cost impacts on individuals, businesses and the community.