I am sure everyone remembers how I managed to get Barnaby Joyce, the Minister for Transport, and Anthony Albanese, the Shadow Minister for Transport, to agree with an important change to the Civil Aviation Act.
The wording that “
CASA must regard the safety of air navigation as the most important consideration” was going to be changed to the following:
(1) In exercising its powers and performing its functions, CASA must* seek to achieve the highest level of safety in air navigation that is consistent with:
(a) maintaining an efficient and sustainable Australian aviation industry, including a viable general aviation and training sector
(b) the need for more people to benefit from civil aviation
One of the reasons it didn’t go ahead was that the AFAP came out against it. This is what they said to me in a letter:
“Unfortunately we are not in a position to support your amendments to the act, which we believe could empower the regulator to relegate safety.”
I really feel for AFAP members. There seems to be something wrong with the hierarchy in the union. There are hundreds of AFAP members out of work, and even when the Coronavirus issue has settled, it is likely that many will remain out of work.
Who could possibly be against the statements about “
maintaining an efficient and sustainable Australian aviation industry” and “
the need for more people to benefit from civil aviation”? Surely it is what the regulator should be doing.
I believe in this particular case, the new Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack took notice of the AFAP, and that is one of the reasons why the change has not come in.
What a disaster.