Dear Ex-Minister,
Am I missing something here?
"As a former Minister, I was constantly trying to get the CASA bureaucracy to understand the real-world impacts of their rules and regulations on small operators."
Trying to distance yourself from an organisation over which you had direct control, as Minister, has to be the most disingenuous piece of political nonsense I have ever read.
You had the power to tell CASA how to operate and over-rule any bureaucratic decision you thought was against the interest of the people of Australia, who elected you.
If you were unable to get your own executive arm of government to administer the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations in a way that recognised "the real-world impacts" of their actions, this is a reflection on you, not them.
I was once told, by a senior manager in CASA, that his job was to ensure that nothing happened that would adversely affect the chances of his Minister being re-elected.
At that time, you were that Minister.