Originally Posted by
Lookleft
Given the results of all the other Senate enquiries I'm surprised LB that you thought that on this occasion that the result would be different. Don't take this as criticism of your position on the issue I am just genuinely surprised that you thought that the Senate was going to vote in a way that would overturn the CASA Instrument.
A valid point, LL. I guess my naive hope was that the same political resistance to the first knee jerk would be brought to bear against the second.
Senator MacDonald (new) is to be respected for voting on the evidence and principle.
It’s a pity that perhaps even Senator Patrick has succumbed to intuition rather than objective evidence. The strongest point against the imposition of more maintenance requirements is not that there is no evidence to suggest there was any maintenance-related causal issue in relation to the accidents (but it’s a strong point nonetheless). Nor is the strongest point the cost of the maintenance (but it’s a strong point nonetheless).
The strongest point is that the imposition of mandatory time-based maintenance based on arse plucks made decades ago increases the risk of Community Service Flights. There are now millions of hours of data gathered from piston engine monitors to show what meddling with a functioning piston engine can do. Same with other aircraft systems. Fortunately for the people unnecessarily exposed to the extra risk, the probabilities move from remote to not quite so remote.
So increased risk for extra cost, with no causal connection with the accidents. That just about sums up the ATSB/CASA team effort these days.