Lead Balloon, thanks for your confidence in me. I am tempted to do what you say – that is, advise people not to vote for any of the major parties unless they agree with some important points which are supported by most Australians.
The problem with aviation is that most people I talk to are only interested in airline travel and would probably prefer that GA didn’t exist at all. Of course they haven’t linked the fact that if GA fails, we probably won’t have the safety of Aussie pilots flying our airlines.
I hate sitting and watching the death throes of GA and I would do anything I could possibly do to stop this from happening, however I have a feeling that the quicker it happens, the quicker it will be fixed.
I find it incredibly difficult to believe that the Minister would simply repeat the discredited “safety is the most important consideration” wording. Presumably he has done this to support the bureaucrats within his office, within the Department and within CASA. Presumably it is all about not being accountable.
Of course it is a lie, and I am positive the Minister must know that because I explained to him the reason the Wagga tower isn’t manned is that it was a case where cost was the most important consideration.
Clare Prop, what a load of rubbish. I spent tens of thousands of dollars of my money assisting various organisations in various states to take on the airport owners in legal action. AOPA was also concerned about the problem but simply didn’t have the resources to take on the airport owners that have enormous amounts of financial reserves for legal action.
From what I could make out, the airport leaseholders had paid too much for the airports – clearly the responsibility of a previous Government – and were then trying to get some type of return rather than going broke. Most businesses are like that.
The original mistake was to sell off the secondary airports. I never supported that, I was never asked about it and I had no involvement. I would have been opposed to it.