Originally Posted by
Lead Balloon
Anyway, back to the election and the implications for GA.
CASA will be very relaxed and comfortable. If the pre-election Labor shadow Minister for Transport becomes the Minister for Transport, she’ll be easily managed. She’s labouring under the misconception that “there’s no margin for error in aviation safety”. Yes: She did say that. It would be laughable if the implications of someone that ignorant being responsible for the aviation safety portfolio were not so serious.
Imagine what ‘margins for error’ will be created if pilot medical fitness isn’t micro managed by Avmed, if commercial aircraft aren’t cleansed of pilots with CVD, if instructors aren’t controlled by an AOC framework, if the maintenance of simple machines designed in the middle of the last century isn’t micromanaged under complex legislation or any other activity that CASA considers “unacceptable” isn’t crushed. CASA is, after all, the authority on this stuff.
Meanwhile, it looks like two very effective sniffers-out of CASA (and other government) bull**** have managed to cruel both their chances of getting a Senate seat: Rex Patrick and Nick Xenophon. Sadly, instead of Rex Patrick ‘returning the favour’ and relinquishing his spot on the ballot to and supporting Nick Xenophon, Rex joined the mob throwing mud at Nick. Very unbecoming behaviour. Just goes to show: Once you get the taste for power, it’s very difficult to give it up. Rex Patrick will probably be a little shell-shocked at the moment. (Pauline Hanson may be in for some of the same.) But Nick did make his decision, to run, very late in the piece.
As to climate issues, if Labor gets a majority in its own right in the HoR, the Greens and ‘Teals’ and other cross-benchers will be whistling Dixie so far as Albanese is concerned. Labor has been ‘walking both sides of the street’ on e.g. coal mining and exporting for a long time. However, we can expect far greater effort from Labor in pretending to take ‘women’s issues’ seriously. The legislative ‘main game’ will be in the Senate. And even though the cross bench in the Senate will be very large, the Coalition and Labor vote with each other in the Senate, quite frequently.
If Labor doesn’t secure a majority in its own right in the HoR or there are some inconvenient defections or coronaries, the HoR will be very entertaining. And - after all - the first duty of government is to entertain.
The acid test will be whether the new Labor government creates a federal ICAC with real teeth before the end of this year. It could be done in the first week of the sitting of the new Parliament, and I suspect an independent will put up a private member’s Bill very quickly. There is now a groundswell of support for it, and no substantial opposition to it, in both Houses. But being in opposition brings with it the luxury of strong opinions. Although the Coalition seems to have been better than Labor at rorting the system, Labor is not without sin.
Bottom line for GA: BAU.
And it was better under the other mob? Good to see your giving the incoming the benefit of the doubt, not biased at all are you Leady.