Correct, it should not have been approved. However, the CASA CEO, who knows naught about aviation but plenty about politics, is only doing what her political masters have instructed her to do. As we all know, a CASA CEO/DAS and the Board are in place not to make proactive and disciplined aviation decisions based upon safety and risk, they are in place to protect the Minister of the day and do as he says. And in this case, the PM did not want the size and scope of the protests to be reported honesty and accurately for all to see, hence the hastily enforced restricted airspace.
Settle down.
1. The only person that is benefited by restricting news of the protest is the Victoriam Premier, not the PM. Its well out of the PM's domain.Its a state issue.
2. The decision was almost certainly not made by the CASA CEO. I strongly doubt the board and / or minister had any knowledge of the decision until it blew up in the courts. It was an operating decision.
3. There is established protocol for these requests and I would give CASA the benefit of assuming it was probably the correct decision based on the information provided by VicPol.
4. The real question is what information was supplied by VicPol in its request and did VicPol adhere to the conditions set out by CASA.
5. Aispace restictions are commonplace. The differences here are the rapidity with which it all happened and that VicPol placed conditions on entry to class G airspace.