Another crazy example of how badly stuffed up the Australian airspace and it's arbiter CASA has become!
- Apparently, at MCY, CASA OAR carried out one of their safety assessments based on the fact that either PT traffic movements or pax had passed the arbitrary limits decided by the Minister, Mr MacCormack, in the Australian Airspace Policy Statement (https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2018L01386), and decided MCY should be a controlled airport.
- CASA OAR then designates the aerodrome to be controlled, but ignores it's responsibility under the Airspace Regulations 2007 Paragraph 2d (https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2019C00278) to set the times the tower should be operating. It hands it over to Airservices, another agency managed by the Minister who no doubt offered to cover all the PT schedules. If, however, JQ says they do not want to have the tower on duty because (in the Australian system) they have to pay for it, the Federal Governemnt (CASA and Airservices) are happy to leave the JQ passengers in the lurch to save Alan Joyce a couple of dollars. It does this REGARDLESS of the safety assessment that was made in the first place!
- OAR also has the option to impose Class E airspace when the Tower is not on duty, as occurs in advanced aviation nations. (you've heard that phrase "world's best practice", no doubt). There is no technical reason why Brisbane Centre should not also have an anomometer read-out from MCY so the correct wind could have been passed
- Now that may not have mitigated this issue because it seems that the Commander was VFR, and could depart witha tail wind if the pilot thought it benficial, however there is also a regulation in Part 139, allowing a UNICOM to operate on the CTAF. This allows anybody with an AROC, including the airport owner or Jetstar, to provide a limited service on the frequency that may or may not have mitigated this incident.
I am appalled that ATSB should just accept that the Government mandated airspace model should be allowed to pass without comment. You should look after your Boss - if there had been a mid-air then it would have been Mr. MacCormack's fault. The buck stops on his desk......