The standard isn't the problem, Bill. The colour perception criterion in each of the legislated medical standards (in Part 67 of CASR) and the legislated means of demonstration of compliance with the criterion (also in Part 67 of CASR) have not changed in decades. All that's changed is the people and their personal opinions in CASA.
CASA seems adept at leaving AvMed to its own devices to implement the personal opinions of the staff, rather than explaining to them that they are public officials with duties to, among other things, administer the law in its terms, whether or not the staff personally agree with the policy already given effect to in the law. In short, there's inadequate governance around them.
The latest crusade against CVD was mounted on a pretext and has cost a couple of years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce an outcome that bears no semblance to what outsiders were told was going on. Rather, it bears an uncanny semblance to the outcome sought to be achieved by mercifully long-gone zealots like Navathe and Drane (whom, I understand, are erstwhile colleagues of none other than Hochberg). (Our Kiwi cousins must laugh - diplomatically - each time CASA takes one of these people off the Kiwis' hands.) They haven't been working on strengthening to OCVA. They've ditched it. We're back to the CAD as a weapon to cull candidates who don't meet the zealots' personal interpretation of chapter 6 of annex 1 to the ICAO convention. Apparently, no one in a position of authority has tapped them on the shoulder to point out that the people actually responsible for deciding on how Australia gives effect to chapter 6 of annex 1 - including the colour perception criterion - have already done that in the form of a thing called "the law". That's what Part 67 is.
Apparently, Ms Spence was unaware of what was going on. Hence my point about governance.
One of the reasons for CASA AvMed's abysmal 'service delivery' metrics is the amount of time (and money) it wastes - to pick up on an earlier metaphor - dying on stupid hills like CVD. If they'd just concentrate on doing their jobs - administering the legislated medical standards in accordance with the legislation - rather than mounting crusades to save the world through implementation of their own personal opinions, the metrics might be less abysmal:
Class 1 medical certificate (target 20 days) – 56% (down from 61%)
Class 2 medical certificate (target 20 days) – 47% (down from 53%)
Class 3 medical certificate (target 20 days) – 43% (down from 59%)