The trouble with CASA
Time for a private member’s Bill to have CASA disbanded and its functions carried out in a Department of Government with a Minister in charge. This is the proven Westminster system which has responsibility for governance firmly with our elected representatives, the foundation of democracy
Until MPs face the facts that the current system, the independent Commonwealth corporate (an entity that can be sued) is a failed experimental form of governance, General Aviation will continue to languish.
Senator McDonald initiated the current drawn out two and a half years (!) ‘inquiry’ into GA, we should ask the Senators would you give over the Department of Defence to an unelected corporation like CASA?
The General Aviation (GA) sector cannot grow and strengthen in the National interest until our representatives in Parliament force change.
The ASRR inquiry (Forsyth) of 2014 produced some 35 government accepted recommendations, the Senate should demand action on those, the current RRAT Senate inquiry is a rehash, 74 submissions only, nearly all from the same cohort that contributed to the 269 ASRR Forsyth submissions.
Eight years after Forsyth all we have is a worsening situation with CASA’s relentless complexities and piling on of unnecessary and expensive procedures. These problems cannot be solved properly within the present structure which is not fit for purpose.
With respect, and acknowledging the efforts of individuals like Senator McDonald, sadly the previous government did not make the necessary decisions that only Parliament can deliver.
Those of us that have lived the great boom of GA, when one was hard pressed to find a parking spot at Moorabbin, and the skies were constantly plied with GA aircraft, know only too well the destruction that’s occurred in GA. For those that don’t have that experience we have the BITRE statistics that clearly show the decline of GA, and if plotted against population growth would look much worse.
We’ve lost hundreds of flying schools and charter operators even as Senator McDonald’s RRAT hearings have stretched out over more than two years.
Some exemplary reforms are desperately needed now, take the rules out of the criminal code, should be misdemeanours, remove the ASIC, reform medical certification, independent instructors outside Part 141/142, reform the aircraft maintenance regime and the alienation of irreplaceable airport land in favour of property developers must be halted.
All of this goes not only to our prosperity but also to our security and strength as a Nation where the mobility of aviation (and airports are crucial infrastructure) is an obvious necessity in a land mass with low population such as ours.
Ring, write contact your MP regularly and press for reform with USA rules for GA.