It occurs to me that there is a much simpler, cheaper, quicker answer to the whole conundrum regarding regulation in Australia.
CAsA attempt to write a sensible, comprehensive, workable rule set that complies with the "Safety" imperative, but still allow an industry to survive and grow has failed miserably, cost the Australian people hundreds of millions of dollars and in the process decimated a once thriving GA industry. Ultimately it will compromise our airline industry as well, we already see that in the export of our heavy maintenance to foreign climes.
The legacy of their failure will go on costing the Australian people into the future in the ticket price everyone who buys an airline ticket pays. The loss to the economy is already apparent and it will grow worse, anything to do with aviation is captured within the CAsA straightjacket. As businesses close providers contract into monopolies, charges go up and the whole process becomes a self licking stamp to oblivion. The innovators and entrepreneurs amongst us already take their ideas offshore.
I absolutely reject CAsA's insistence that US style regulations cannot be implemented in Australia. They did it in New Zealand, a democracy not unlike our own. with dramatic results. All it takes is the will.
Its so disappointing to read in the Australian just how close Dick Smith came to fixing the fundamental flaw in the ACT.
Without that, reform is improbable.
New Zealand gave us a prime example of what can happen for a few million dollars and a couple of years, their success should be CAsA's shame.