Considering the tens of thousands of strict liability "offences" dream't up by CAsA,
$108,000 seems a paltry amount, especially when weighed against
local councils take for parking infringements and State government
receives from traffic offences.
Maybe there's just not enough aviators left to fine.
I always imagined that moving aviation regulations into the criminal code was a
revenue focused "Thought bubble" by some bureaucrat. Strict liability was to circumvent
a normal legal process, "administrative" fines were to discourage aggrieved defendants
from AAT proceedings.
Who decides in CAsA who to fine and who to prosecute?
Considering they took a miscreant to federal court for the heinous crime of not producing his logbooks in a timely manner, which they lost, because the judge couldn't figure out how that had anything to do with safety, despite CAsA's QC's eloquent submission that it would rain aluminium if the judge didn't find for them. The defendant represented himself, couldn't afford a lawyer.
One wonders why CAsA expended thousands of dollars in legal fees rather than just fining him? I guess that depends who you have pissed off in CAsA.
I ponder how Australia could ever consider giving an independent government corporation the power to write their own legislation, investigate criminal breach of that legislation, circumvent due process, decide the penalty and apply the sanctions, all with absolutely no accountability or legal scrutiny from anyone.
Everything is fine in Australia, there is a fine for everything.
Last edited by thorn bird; 12th Apr 2019 at 00:50.