CASA
Here it all goes again. Approximately 20 years ago, CASA were tasked to review Australian aviation legislation. The existing Civil Aviation Act 9C requires them to do that. To date, the legislative shambles continues and we do not have a coherent set of regulations that are clear so that Australian aviation can operate without error. This situation represents a series of latent failures within the hysterical application by CASA of the Reason model for aviation systems safety (adding compliance on the end of the title), so that failure is guaranteed because everyone is struggling to find the correct legislation that applies to their operation. This is made worse by the incredible number of CASA Legislative Instruments, Non-Legislative Instruments, Authorisations, Designations, Exemptions, Instructions, Permissions and Permits, Specifications and Policy Statements. Even that is not the complete list!
Delegations under the Act and Regulations are then given to an incredible number of CASA inspectors who can then act as they please because "CASA must be satisfied" as indicated in the Civil Aviation Act Subdivision D Issue of AOCs. CASA is struggling to get qualified people because no-one wants to join an organisation that has the reputation it currently has within the industry. If this was not true then a GA Summit would not be required. CASA Human Resources now recruits "safety experts" who have university degrees in human factors but no flying, airworthiness or airport management backgrounds and are so busy giving the industry a hard time with Part 141 and Part 142 approvals that the approval process becomes very subjective, resulting in non-standardisation of the rules and inspectors who constantly state "in my opinion..." This means that they can do what they like and get away with it. CASA offices around the country are not standardised in the application of their duties hence the large list of administrative mechanisms as detailed above now working against the Australian aviation (especially general aviation) industry. There is no evidence that shows CASA Canberra actually knows what is going on in their Area Offices.
The Royal Aero Clubs of Queensland and South Australia have fully closed and the aero clubs at Townsville, Darwin and numerous other places have now closed their doors permanently. The Senate Estimates Committee (for Transport) have failed in making CASA do what it is supposed to do. The number of U-Tube presentations showing their incompetence is amazing. Other Federal agencies send their Commissioners or equivalent to the Senate Estimates Meetings sometimes accompanied by another representative from their agency and usually perform well. CASA arrives with up to 15 people and when asked by the Senators why there are so many people present they are told that they are required because of the need to ensure the questions can be answered. Responses to the Senators questions are then answered with, "I will take that on notice Senator, I do not have that information to hand," or " I will refer that to my Executive Manager (portfolio). Yet none of them have any of the answers to the questions asked and embark in public service jargon to cover their lack of knowledge. Incredibly, the Senate Estimates committee lets them get away with this very low performance meeting after meeting. This debacle has been going on for quite a while now. With a CEO on an unjustifiable salary in the vicinity of $600,000 dollars per annum and his subordinates also on massive salaries, the question of whether the Australian aviation industry is getting value for the massive funds expended on CASA and its other aviation agencies is very clear. The country is not getting any value. The internet shows CASA Area Managers declaring themselves "aviation experts," some on the basis that they were in non-flying roles in the air forces of other countries, but have absolutely no experience in Australia.
Small wonder the country has a very serious aviation problem with rural economic hubs closing rapidly with repercussions in all sorts of industries, loss of jobs, loss of commercial hubbing and communication and aeroplanes sadly parked everywhere. A lot of Australian airports are now almost at closure point. Australia needs to get rid of CASA and Airservices Australia completely and start again with a brand new staff recruited from people who are competent and have been in the Australian aviation sector for a significant period of time. Clearly CASA also needs to rid itself of its Human Resources and Office of Legal Counsel people (or whatever their latest title is) and outsource it to agencies that can do the job properly.
A good start would be to start again with a new Department under a Federal Government Minister and merging the aviation elements of the Department of Infrastructure and Transport, ATSB, CASA, Airservices Australia and the aviation sector of AMSA. The number of Federal Government agencies supposedly controlling aviation in Australia is superbly inefficient. It is made worse by interference from State Government transport departments also with dedicated aviation regulators.
Good luck with the meeting at Wagga. Maybe this time there is hope. However, this problem is well beyond the agenda proposed, but a start has to be made somewhere. Australian aviation is in a massive mess and it will take very dramatic steps by the House of Representatives and Senate to stop the current serious decline and especially the uncertainty caused by CASA's mishandling of aviation legislation.